Leadership Fellows
The Society for the Study of Psychiatry, Culture & Global Mental Health (SSPC) Leadership Fellowship creates a structured pathway for trainees and early-career professionals to become more deeply involved in the life and leadership of the Society. During the coming year, fellows will contribute to an SSPC committee, receive mentorship from established leaders, and collaborate on a cohort project designed to increase SSPC’s visibility and impact.
The SSPC is delighted to introduce its 2026–2027 Leadership Fellowship cohort. We were genuinely impressed by the strength and diversity of this year’s applications. Please join us in welcoming our five new fellows.
Meet the 2026-27 Leadership Fellows
Affiliation: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) / University of California, Berkeley
SSPC Committee: Advocacy Committee
Kareem South, MPH
Kareem South is a mental health researcher, community facilitator, filmmaker, nonprofit founder, and global mental health advocate based in Toronto, Canada. He currently works as a Research Coordinator at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), supporting research and community-based initiatives focused on African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) communities and developing culturally responsive approaches to care. Kareem holds a Master of Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences from Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. His interests sit at the intersection of cultural psychiatry, global mental health, faith/spirituality, African and diasporic approaches to healing, and the study of human development and flourishing. Through research, community engagement, and nonprofit leadership, he is interested in advancing mental health systems and models of care that meaningfully reflect culture, context, identity, and lived experience.
Dr. Mollie Marr is a fourth-year Administrative Chief Resident in the Physician Scientist Training Program of the Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean Psychiatry Residency Program. She graduated from the Medical Scientist Training Program at Oregon Health & Science University with a PhD in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience.
She currently serves as Secretary of the World Psychiatric Association’s Early Career Psychiatrists Section, Vice Chair of the American Medical Association’s LGBTQ+ Section Governing Council, and Co-Chair of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry’s Committee on Medical Students and Residents. Her research focuses on the neurobiological and developmental consequences of childhood trauma, trauma-informed care, and mental health among LGBTQ+ and other underserved populations. She hopes to build a career bridging neuroscience, child psychiatry, and systems-level advocacy to address the effects of trauma across the lifespan.
Affiliation: MGH/McLean Adult Residency Program
SSPC Committee: Education Committee
Mollie Marr, MD, PhD (she/her)
Richard Zhang, MD, MA (he/him)
Affiliation: Boston Medical Center
SSPC Committee: Annual Meeting Program Committee
Richard Zhang is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Boston Medical Center and child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist at South Cove Community Health Center. He completed his psychiatry residency at UConn and child psychiatry fellowship at Yale. His interests include cultural psychiatry throughout the lifespan, medical humanities, writing for the public, and advocacy. Through SSPC, Richard hopes to support interdisciplinary de-siloing and help clinical specialties collaborate with the humanities and social sciences. He envisions a cultural psychiatry more deeply, usefully informed by social theory, ethnic studies, and the history of emotions.
Tatum Burdo, MD, MPH (she/her)
Affiliation: University at Buffalo Psychiatry Residency Program
SSPC Committee: Membership Committee
Tatum Burdo is currently a PGY-3 psychiatry resident in a combined child/adult residency training program at the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, NY. She completed their medical degree at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, and their Master of Public Health degree at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. Her interests include newcomer and refugee mental health, early psychosis, and medical education.
Affiliation: University of Maryland/Sheppard Pratt Psychiatry Residency Program
SSPC Committee: Trainee Committee
Shian Omar, MD (she/her)
Shian is a third-year resident physician at the University of Maryland/Sheppard Pratt psychiatry residency program. She completed her undergraduate and medical degrees at Georgetown University in Washington DC. Previous leadership experiences have been recognized with the Hoyas Advancing Social Justice Award in college, and both the Kurdish American Women in Medicine Leadership award and Health Justice Scholar track in medical school. In residency, she is engaged in cultural psychiatry work and participating in a community psychoanalysis program through the Washington-Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis.