I am a Social Science Research Specialist at University of Illinois at Chicago, Global Mental Health Program. We have worked on finding best practices for the rehabilitation and reintegration of women and children returning from formerly Islamic State-controlled territories.

I am also a Clinical Research Specialist at the Boston Children’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School, Trauma and Community Resilience Center (TCRC). Projects here center around multidisciplinary, mental health- and trauma-informed methods of preventing and countering violent extremism.

Previously, I worked at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH), Center for Population and Development Studies. I worked on the projects Resilience in Survivors of Katrina (RISK),  Health and Aging in Africa: a Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH-Community (HAALSI), and other population health studies.

I’ve worked with:

How does growing up in and leaving a cult add to me as a researcher?

Even though my passion for researching mental health stemmed from my background growing up in the Unification Church (or the “Moonies” as they’re better known), I was hesitant to share my full story with each cover letter or personal statement I wrote in the beginning years of my career.

However, in the past few years I’ve come out publicly about growing up in a notorious cult and begun calling out the many abuses this system perpetuated. A number of events (see Activism section), prompted me to search for more fulfillment in my research. I’m grateful to have found the current team I’m with, and since starting my current work, my firsthand insights into extremism and trauma that I’ve gained from my lived experience have proven valuable.

Through my ongoing journey of healing my own trauma and taking care of my own mental health, I’ve gotten a unique insider’s perspective at both the mental health distress that results from a childhood of extreme adversity and what it means to heal from that environment of violent ideology. My background has further contributed to my understanding of coercive control, manipulation, exploitation, abuse, and extremist ideologies. I hope to bring knowledge from the cultic studies field into that of violent extremism. I also wish to bring these issues into the realm of Global Mental Health, as I believe combating oppressive and exploitative systems is a Global Mental Health & Public Health responsibility.

We should talk about it.

I get that it’s scary. The conversations and topics that come from learning about extremism are often uncomfortable, and bring to light hidden traumas that are rarely in public dialogue. Discussing ideologies behind extremism bring in race, religion, politics, and many other topics that are hard to discuss without bringing on divisiveness. In our increasingly polarized society, it’s important that we have these hard conversations about hot-button issues through open and civil dialogue, because bringing empathy and a trauma-informed lens to the conversation is at the heart of ensuring that everyone can learn, grow, and flourish.