The Kennedy Satcher Center for Mental Health Equity (KSCMHE) at the Morehouse School of Medicine was jointly envisioned by the 16th U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. David Satcher, and former U.S. Representative Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI). Building on their longstanding relationship and shared commitment to promoting mental health parity and health equity for people living with mental health and substance use disorders, the Center was made possible through a generous endowment from The Kennedy Forum, and matched by MSM’s endowment from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

KSCHME’s vision is to ensure that everyone has equitable access to mental health care and the opportunities to achieve optimal health outcomes. Work focuses on addressing the experiences of marginalized people within the U.S. health and behavioral health care systems, and ensuring that data collection and programming are inclusive, affirming, and participatory.

Learn more at www.kennedysatcher.org.

Madhuri Jha, LCSW, MPH | Director

Madhuri is a clinical social work and public health professional with experience providing leadership, training, consultation, and direct clinical practice to programs focused on integrated behavioral health services, health systems strengthening, trauma and resiliency, mental health epidemiology, and community capacity building. She joins Morehouse School of Medicine after over a decade of service in New York City and Washington, DC. She most recently was the Director of a New York City mobile psychiatry unit, in addition to being a professor of mental health policy at New York University and a clinician in private practice. She has worked locally, nationally, and internationally as a manager to donor-funded health programs reaching vulnerable and high-risk communities. Her work history spans a diverse breadth of on-the-ground experience in a myriad of inpatient, outpatient, school-based, community-based, and mobile psychiatric treatment settings. Ms. Jha is a practicing psychotherapist with specific expertise in trauma and stressor-related disorders, psychosis, acute symptom management, cognitive behavioral therapy, and risk assessment and de-escalation.