Anna Larsen is an epidemiologist focused on highlighting the impact of mental health difficulties throughout the life course and improving access to mental health resources in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) settings. She employs digital mental health interventions to support LMIC populations in overcoming barriers to care seeking, such as stigma and shortages in trained mental health providers. Anna’s current projects involve developing and evaluating digital mental health interventions for people experiencing serious mental illness in Ghana, Arabic-speaking refugee populations in Jordan, and perinatal women and their families in Kenya.

Prior to joining the BRiTE Center, Anna completed her doctoral program in epidemiology at the University of Washington and her master’s in public health degree in epidemiology at Columbia University. Her dissertation epidemiologically evaluated maternal depression and identified associated adverse infant outcomes among Kenya mother-infant pairs and was funded by a NICHD F31 predoctoral fellowship award. Her research evaluating linkages between maternal mental health and infant social-emotional development in Kenya was supported by a Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral National Research Service Award (F32) from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Anna was named the 2022 Outstanding PhD student in Epidemiology (UW), 2020 School of Public Health Endowed Fellow (UW), and the 2015 Bernard Challenor Spirit Awardee (Columbia University) for interdisciplinary collaboration in public health. Over the past >10 years, Anna has been committed to research supporting improved behavioral health, predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa, through positions at UW Global Center for Integrated Health of Women, Adolescents, and Children (Global WACh), Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Columbia University, and PATH.