Annika Sweetland is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences in Psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and Director of Research and Evaluation at the Columbia Psychiatry Mental Wellness Equity Center. She is also Co-Training Director of the Global Mental Health T32 Fellowship in Implementation Science Research and Co-Chair of the TB and Mental Health Working Group at The International Union Against TB and Lung Disease. Her global mental health research mainly focuses on increasing access to mental health care in low-resource settings by training lay health professionals to deliver evidence-based mental health interventions in primary care. Dr. Sweetland’s methodological expertise include implementation and dissemination science, harnessing technology for hybrid e-learning, cross-cultural measurement of psychiatric disorders, transcultural adaptation of evidence-based interventions, mobile technology to enhance data-driven health planning and service delivery, and sustainable development. Substantively, she is a global expert on the intersection of TB and depression.
Dr. Sweetland has been awarded numerous grants to lead and co-lead implementation science studies aiming to train primary care providers and lay health workers to deliver evidenced-based interventions in various global settings, including South Africa, Brazil, Mozambique, and New York City. She is currently leading a study to assess the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and implementation of Interpersonal Counseling (IPC) on TB and depression outcomes in South Africa. As Director of Research and Evaluation at the CU/NYSPI Mental Wellness Equity Center, Dr. Sweetland leads similar initiatives focused on training lay providers to deliver IPC, among several other interventions.