Rachel W. Maina, MSc, PhD

Rachel W. Maina, MSc, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute. Dr. Maina leads the development of a culturally informed digital cognitive tool for South African children aged 6–19, which will provide teaching professionals with a tool for triaging students for further assessment and making informed decisions about which students need additional support.

While a student at Tilburg University, she successfully adapted the diverse psychometric properties of an open access iPad-based neurocognitive battery that measures DSM-V cognitive domains. Tilburg University facilitated the training needed for the cognitive tool to be adapted and tested for children in Kenya. This is a first in a Sub-Saharan context, considering most of the available neurocognitive test batteries are paper-based and assess only a few cognitive domains. At the Brain and Mind Institute at Aga Khan University, she managed complex research initiatives, including AI/machine learning algorithms for mental health prediction and a spatial analysis study examining environmental factors’ impact on child health outcomes across Ghana and Kenya. Dr. Maina is a co-investigator at the AFRICA-FINGERS project, where she contributes to the translation, cultural adaptation, and validation of neurocognitive batteries for capturing normative data in Kenyan adults while also testing multimodal dementia prevention interventions.

• Research Associate, Lecturer, and Consultant, Brain and Mind Institute, Aga Khan University, Kenya
• Training Facilitator, Kenya Red Cross, Kenya
• Research Supervisor and Clinical Psychologist, Global Health Program – Kenya, Washington State University
• Clinical Psychologist, Center for Excellence in HIV Management (CoEHM) project rolled out in Kenyatta National Hospital Comprehensive Care Center, University of Nairobi, Kenya

• PhD, Methodology and Statistics, Tilburg University, Netherlands
• MSc, Clinical Psychology, University of Nairobi, Kenya
• BA, Psychology and Sociology, University of Nairobi, Kenya