Diana Kumar, MSPH

Diana Kumar, MSPH, is the program operations manager at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute. Her background in global public health has given her the opportunity to work across a wide range of public health issues. Diana previously supported research to understand sexual and reproductive health needs for youth migrants in the Middle East and North Africa at the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA). She also spearheaded the monitoring and evaluation efforts for over 20 countries’ civil registration and vital statistics systems for public health decision-making through her work at Vital Strategies’ Data for Health initiative. This work also included the opportunity to support the advancement of gender-congruent identity documents for transgender individuals in Peru, the lack of which contributes to many social and health disadvantages and harms. Through these experiences, she brings a depth of knowledge in cross-cultural collaboration and learning, program management, monitoring and evaluation, and mixed-methods research to the SNF Global Center team.

Before coming to the Child Mind Institute, Diana was a program manager for Vital Strategies’ Overdose Prevention initiative, supporting the expansion of harm reduction resources and strategies across Wisconsin. The overall goal of the initiative was to reduce disparities in the harmful effects of substance use that are disproportionately experienced by Black and Indigenous communities in the state. In her current role, Diana works with Global Center leadership to monitor progress of priority projects and milestones across the Global Center. She also collaborates closely with Global Center stakeholders to identify risks, opportunities, and resourcing for the overall portfolio of projects.

Diana hopes to continue to apply an equity-centered approach to her work at the Global Center to reduce mental health disparities experienced by youth and adolescents around the world by making quality information and care more accessible for all.

• MSPH, Department of International Health, Health Systems, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• BA, Spanish / Medicine, Health, and Society (Global Health), Vanderbilt University