Training the Next Generation of Global Health Researchers

Through early-career mentorship and research skills training, McSilver Institute leaders are helping to shape the future of global health. 

The 2026 Summer Intensive for the ACHIEVE Global Health Training Program and Researcher Resilience Training (RRT), led by McSilver Faculty Director Dr. Fred Ssewamala, with support from Senior Research Scientists Dr. Ozge Sensoy Bahar and Dr. Samuel Kizito, brought together early-career scholars from around the world. Funded by the NIH, the two programs strengthen participants’ skills so they can conduct projects in global, resource-poor settings. This year, ACHIEVE welcomed nine new trainees and graduated 11, while nine new members joined the RRT program. 

A key milestone of the intensive took ACHIEVE trainees to Bethesda, Maryland for their mandatory Launching Future Leaders in Global Health Research Training Program (LAUNCH) orientation. Dr. Kizito led a quantitative methods workshop, grounding the new LAUNCH fellows in rigorous study design, data analysis, and interpretation skills before they arrived at their research sites. 

Culminating their four weeks of work with reflections and presentations, the ACHIEVE and RRT scholars are now applying what they learned across projects and research sites, tackling pressing challenges in child and adolescent behavioral health, chronic disease care and prevention, nutrition, and more.  

Applications for the 2027–2028 ACHIEVE cohort are now open through September 30, 2026.

Advanced AI Models are Changing What We Know About Childhood Trauma and Youth Suicide Risk

The connection between childhood trauma and youth suicide risk is well known, but how these traumas can accumulate and lead to crisis remained a persistent question. At the Youth Suicide Research Consortium’s Sixth Annual Conference in July, McSilver AI Hub data scientist Adrian Harris presented the Hub’s cutting-edge work leveraging advanced AI models and causal inference — a technique to analyze complex data — to uncover how specific adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can elevate suicide risk.

The new study by Harris, Dr. Kara Emery, and Dr. Arielle Sheftall published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry builds a more nuanced picture of the impact of different underlying factors, including how race and gender play a role in rates of ACEs and their relationship with suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The research gives practitioners and policymakers new insights into how childhood traumas can accumulate across demographic groups to help them target early intervention strategies.

McSilver Executive Director Rose Pierre-Louis Among State’s Most Notable Social Service Leaders

McSilver’s team is known for a steadfast commitment to uncovering solutions to the root causes of poverty and driving systems change. That commitment is in the spotlight this month. City & State New York has named our Executive Director Rose Pierre-Louis to its 2026 "Above & Beyond" list, honoring her lengthy career working to effect social change across New York and  her current leadership at McSilver. 

Tutlam, N. T., Kizito, S., Nabunya, P., Brathwaite, R., Sensoy Bahar, O., Namuwonge, F., Nattabi, J., & Ssewamala, F. M. (2026). Examining caregivers’ mental health impact on emotional and behavioral difficulties of AIDS orphaned adolescents: A hierarchical regression analysis. Global Social Welfare (In Press).

Nabayinda, J., McKay, M. M., Sensoy Bahar, O., Kizito, S., & Ssewamala, F. M. (2026). When Disasters Hit Twice: Climate Change as a Multiplier of Gender Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa. Global Social Welfare. (In Press)

Kihumuro, R. B., Ochen, E., Atimango, L., Kizito, S., Haberer, J., Maling, S., Lydston, M., Sundararajan, R., & Bebell, L. (2026). Mapping the use of interactive voice response (IVR) in healthcare in Africa: A scoping review protocol. BMJ Open. (In Press)