Mental Health Advisory Panel
Dr. Darel Benaim is a psychologist and psychoanalyst with a private practice in New York. She is a member of the ISEF (Israel Scholarship Education Foundation) Board and co-chairs their Programs Committee.
Dr. Marni Chanoff is particularly interested in understanding the relationship between biology and psychological processes in order to help her clients attend to their illness and lead satisfying and productive lives. She graduated from the University of Miami School of Medicine and completed her residency at Harvard’s MGH/McLean Psychiatry Training Program. She then joined the clinical faculty at McLean Hospital as Psychiatrist-In-Charge in the Schizophrenia and Bipolar Program, where she worked until joining Prakash Ellenhorn, a private Program for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) team in 2011, and where she currently serves as Chief Medical Officer.
She has completed fellowships at The MGH Center for Psychoanalytic Studies and Harvard University Health Services. She is on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and has a private practice in psychopharmacology and psychotherapy. Dr. Chanoff has also practiced and taught Integrative Psychiatry with mind-body approaches over the last several years and was certified as an Ayurvedic Health Counselor by the Kripalu School of Ayurveda in June 2016, which qualifies her to further integrate the practices of both Western and Eastern medicine in order to maximize the success of her clients’ recovery.
Amy Herskovitz, LCSW-R is Managing Director of Fortitude Fund, a new vehicle for Bill and Karen Ackman’s philanthropic giving. The Fund seeks to empower leaders and to fund innovations that, if successful at scale, can disrupt entrenched systems that perpetuate social injustice and poverty. As the founding director of The Pershing Square Foundation, Amy played a key role in channeling the Trustees’ vision, placing emphasis on Social Entrepreneurship. She led the structuring of the Foundation’s growing operations, identifying talented entrepreneurs, and building and leading the social enterprise portfolio first at The Pershing Square Foundation, then through the creation of the PSiLab.
Prior to joining The Pershing Square Foundation, Amy’s background with Mental Health specialized in rapid evaluation, out-of-school youth, adolescents and family, and creation of trauma treatment models in the Greater New York area. Amy is a member of the Harvard Medical School Global Health Advisory Council, The Zahn Innovation Center at City College of New York Advisory Board, and a founding member of Big Bang Philanthropy Group.
Dr. DeShaunta Johnson is a clinical psychologist practicing in New York and New Jersey. She is currently serving as StongMind’s Mental Health Advisor and serves as chair of the Mental Health Advisory Panel. Dr. Johnson received academic training at the CUNY Graduate Center and went on to complete clinical training at Yale University and Columbia University. In addition to her work with StrongMinds, Dr. Johnson is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, where she coordinates the Holocaust Videotestimony Project. She is also a trauma specialist working at Barnard College’s Furman Counseling Center. She maintains a private practice.
Dr. Roscoe Kasujja is currently the Head of the Department of Mental Health at Makerere University School of Psychology in Uganda and President of the Uganda Clinical Psychology Association. He is an academic investigator of the World Health Organization’s Ensuring Quality in Psychological Services (EQUIP) program among non-skilled mental health workers and is Chair of the Developing Nations Committee for the Association for Contextual Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Kasujja is interested in cultural influence in mental health as a whole as well as therapeutic factors amongst mental health providers; he serves as Board member of StrongMinds Uganda.
Diane Powell, LCSW, is Chairman and CEO of the Hypersomnia Foundation (HF), a patient advocacy group committed to improving the lives of people with disorders of hypersomnolence. She is also a founding member of Maverick Collective, a women’s philanthropy group, formed by Population Services International, Inc. Trained as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Diane has served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for foster children in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has designed various community focused projects. These included leading a task force on alcohol abuse among expatriate teens in Singapore, founding a bereavement support group for young widows and widowers in Florida, and working with the Episcopal Church to launch community initiatives among Mayan populations devastated by years of Civil War in Guatemala. Diane has lived in North America, Asia and Europe and holds degrees from the University of Maryland at College Park, and California State University at Long Beach.
Dr. Joan Sarnat holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and is certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology. She is a licensed psychologist in practice in Berkeley, California. She is a Personal and Supervising Analyst, and on the Faculty at The Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC), where she facilitates process groups in addition to teaching seminars. She has authored Supervision Essentials for Psychodynamic Psychotherapies (2016), and co-authored, with Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea, The Supervisory Relationship: A Contemporary Psychodynamic Approach (2001). Her supervisory work appears in a DVD, Relational Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Supervision (2016). Dr. Sarnat is chair of the board of directors of the Sarnat-Hoffman Family Foundation and is a Member at Large on the board of directors at PINC.
Dr. Marni Chanoff is particularly interested in understanding the relationship between biology and psychological processes in order to help her clients attend to their illness and lead satisfying and productive lives. She graduated from the University of Miami School of Medicine and completed her residency at Harvard’s MGH/McLean Psychiatry Training Program. She then joined the clinical faculty at McLean Hospital as Psychiatrist-In-Charge in the Schizophrenia and Bipolar Program, where she worked until joining Prakash Ellenhorn, a private Program for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) team in 2011, and where she currently serves as Chief Medical Officer.
She has completed fellowships at The MGH Center for Psychoanalytic Studies and Harvard University Health Services. She is on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and has a private practice in psychopharmacology and psychotherapy. Dr. Chanoff has also practiced and taught Integrative Psychiatry with mind-body approaches over the last several years and was certified as an Ayurvedic Health Counselor by the Kripalu School of Ayurveda in June 2016, which qualifies her to further integrate the practices of both Western and Eastern medicine in order to maximize the success of her clients’ recovery.
Amy Herskovitz, LCSW-R is Managing Director of Fortitude Fund, a new vehicle for Bill and Karen Ackman’s philanthropic giving. The Fund seeks to empower leaders and to fund innovations that, if successful at scale, can disrupt entrenched systems that perpetuate social injustice and poverty. As the founding director of The Pershing Square Foundation, Amy played a key role in channeling the Trustees’ vision, placing emphasis on Social Entrepreneurship. She led the structuring of the Foundation’s growing operations, identifying talented entrepreneurs, and building and leading the social enterprise portfolio first at The Pershing Square Foundation, then through the creation of the PSiLab.
Prior to joining The Pershing Square Foundation, Amy’s background with Mental Health specialized in rapid evaluation, out-of-school youth, adolescents and family, and creation of trauma treatment models in the Greater New York area. Amy is a member of the Harvard Medical School Global Health Advisory Council, The Zahn Innovation Center at City College of New York Advisory Board, and a founding member of Big Bang Philanthropy Group.
Dr. DeShaunta Johnson is a clinical psychologist practicing in New York and New Jersey. She is currently serving as StongMind’s Mental Health Advisor and serves as chair of the Mental Health Advisory Panel. Dr. Johnson received academic training at the CUNY Graduate Center and went on to complete clinical training at Yale University and Columbia University. In addition to her work with StrongMinds, Dr. Johnson is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, where she coordinates the Holocaust Videotestimony Project. She is also a trauma specialist working at Barnard College’s Furman Counseling Center. She maintains a private practice.
Dr. Roscoe Kasujja is currently the Head of the Department of Mental Health at Makerere University School of Psychology in Uganda and President of the Uganda Clinical Psychology Association. He is an academic investigator of the World Health Organization’s Ensuring Quality in Psychological Services (EQUIP) program among non-skilled mental health workers and is Chair of the Developing Nations Committee for the Association for Contextual Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Kasujja is interested in cultural influence in mental health as a whole as well as therapeutic factors amongst mental health providers; he serves as Board member of StrongMinds Uganda.
Diane Powell, LCSW, is Chairman and CEO of the Hypersomnia Foundation (HF), a patient advocacy group committed to improving the lives of people with disorders of hypersomnolence. She is also a founding member of Maverick Collective, a women’s philanthropy group, formed by Population Services International, Inc. Trained as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Diane has served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for foster children in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has designed various community focused projects. These included leading a task force on alcohol abuse among expatriate teens in Singapore, founding a bereavement support group for young widows and widowers in Florida, and working with the Episcopal Church to launch community initiatives among Mayan populations devastated by years of Civil War in Guatemala. Diane has lived in North America, Asia and Europe and holds degrees from the University of Maryland at College Park, and California State University at Long Beach.
Dr. Joan Sarnat holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and is certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology. She is a licensed psychologist in practice in Berkeley, California. She is a Personal and Supervising Analyst, and on the Faculty at The Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC), where she facilitates process groups in addition to teaching seminars. She has authored Supervision Essentials for Psychodynamic Psychotherapies (2016), and co-authored, with Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea, The Supervisory Relationship: A Contemporary Psychodynamic Approach (2001). Her supervisory work appears in a DVD, Relational Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Supervision (2016). Dr. Sarnat is chair of the board of directors of the Sarnat-Hoffman Family Foundation and is a Member at Large on the board of directors at PINC.