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Our Team

Srividya Iyer, PhD (she/her)
Team leader
srividya.iyer@mcgill.ca

Srividya holds the Canada Research Chair in Youth, Mental Health and Learning Health Systems (Tier 1). She is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and an Associate Member in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She is a licensed psychologist and a Researcher at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. Her work focuses on youth mental health and early intervention, including for serious mental health problems such as psychosis. She seeks to ensure that more young people worldwide have timely access to appropriate, youth-friendly mental healthcare and enjoy well-being and social participation. Srividya works closely with young people, families, and health, community and government partners to influence practice and policy in Canada and globally. She leads ACCESS Open Minds, a pan-Canadian network of youth, families, service providers and policymakers across 16 sites serving urban, rural, Indigenous, post-secondary and homeless youths across Canada.
 

Srividya is also a research leader in Aire ouverte, Quebec’s integrated youth services initiative. Working with Dr. Chris Mushquash and many Indigenous young people, leaders and communities across Canada, she co-leads a pan-Canadian Indigenous integrated youth services network that draws on ACCESS Open Minds’ Indigenous Council. Srividya significantly contributes to various mental health capacity building and research projects globally, including in India (where she was born), Nigeria and Bangladesh. As a psychologist, Srividya has assessment and treatment experience in India, the United States, and Canada.  
 

In 2023, Srividya won the prestigious Royal-Mach-Gaensslen Prize for Mental Health Research, a national prize awarded each year to one outstanding rising star researcher in the field of mental health. Earlier, she was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists and named on the inaugural list of Canadian Women leaders in Global Health. Srividya has received numerous other awards, including McGill’s Principal Prize for Outstanding Emerging Researchers and the Maude Abbott Prize for outstanding female faculty. In 2021, she was elected Vice President of the International Association for Youth Mental Health and nominated Champion (Research) by the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health.
 

Srividya enjoys mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, research associates, research-track residents and other trainees. Click here to know more training and mentoring with Srividya and the Youth Mental Health Collective.
 

When she is not in work meetings, Srividya is listening to Bollywood music, cooking, reading or on long video calls with family and friends outside Canada.

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Staff

Aarati Taksal

(she/her) | PhD

Research Coordinator

John Bedirian

(he/him) | BSc (in progress)

Research Assistant

Natalya Cherriath

(she/her) | BA (in progress)

Research Assistant

Sally Mustafa

(she/her) | PhD

Research Associate

Daniel Rabouin

(he/him) | MSc

Research Assistant

Kathleen MacDonald

(she/her) | PhD

Research Associate

Navdeep Kaur

(she/her) | BDS, MSc, PhD

Research Project Manager

Sophie Blackmore

(she/her) | MSc

Research Assistant

Gesthika Kaltsidis

(she/her) | MA, MSc

Research Assistant

Kevin MacDonald

(he/him) | MA

Research Coordinator

Negin Zamani

(she/her) | MSc

Research Assistant

Gina Marandola

(she/her) | BA

Research Coordinator

Marilena Liguori

(she/her) | PhD

Research Assistant

Nicole Pawliuk

(she/her) | MA

Research Assistant

Trainees

Ben Yeoh

(he/his) | BSc

MSc Candidate

Giuseppe D'Andrea

(he/his) | MD

Research Fellow

Sahar Fazeli

(she/her) | PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher

Camila Velez

(she/her) | MA

PhD Candidate

John Bedirian

(he/his)

MSc Candidate

Salomé Xavier

(she/her) | MD

PhD Candidate

Carolyn Melro

(she/her) | PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Nora Morrison

(she/her) | BSc

MSc Candidate

Tovah Cowan

(she/her) | PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Elisa Guichenal

(she/her) | BSc

MSc Candidate

Ruben Valle

(he/his) | MD, MSc

PhD Candidate

Zirui Li

(she/her) | BA

MSc Candidate

Previous Trainees

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