Dr. Galea, Associate Professor & ACCESS Lab Director

Jerome Galea, PhD, MSW, LCSW

Dr. Galea is an Associate Professor, Associate Director, and a Global Mental Health Implementation Scientist at the School of Social Work at the University of South Florida. He is a practicing Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and the former Agency Mental Health Coordinator at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). With over 30 years of global health experience, Dr. Galea is skilled at navigating complex systems, collaborating with diverse stakeholders, providing education through various media, and designing and delivering evidence-based mental health interventions. As a seasoned public speaker, Dr. Galea has presented at numerous meetings, conferences, and symposia in both English and Spanish and has published widely in academic and lay media on issues related to Global Mental Health. A significant, formative portion of Dr. Galea’s experience stems from his time living and working in Lima, Peru, from 2001 to 2016. During that time, Dr. Galea held multiple leadership roles, including Director of the UCLA Program in Global Health’s Latin America program and Deputy Director of the Peru office of the international NGO Partners In Health (Socios En Salud), where he co-founded a community-based mental health program and collaborated closely with the Peruvian National Institute of Mental Health to implement country-wide service reforms. Dr. Galea continues multiple collaborations in Global Mental Health in Peru, including with San Marcos University, the University San Juan Bautista, and NGOs Socios En Salud and Epicentro (which he co-founded in 2008). Additionally, he continues collaborations with the United Nations and the World Health Organization and serves as Guest Editor in Chief for a forthcoming special issue on self-harm and suicide in the journal Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health.