Last Sunday, thirteen riders from our WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Mental Health team braved the downpour to bike in the Five Boro Bike Tour in support of global mental health. The Five Boro Bike Tour is a recreational ride that takes about 32,000 riders through the streets of Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. […]

A few years ago, I was standing in Central Park admiring the fall leaves. It was one of those lyrical moments of oneness with nature. Until our dog, whose leash I was holding, decided that she would do her own communing with nature by chasing yet another squirrel. She went right, my right knee went […]

Last week, we were joined in our Priorities in Global Mental Health class by members of Fountain House. Located in midtown Manhattan, Fountain House is dedicated to the “recovery of men and women with mental illness by providing opportunities for members to live, work, and learn, while contributing their talents through a community of mutual support.” I have […]

As the sun goes down this evening, millions of Jews around the world will celebrate the first night of Passover. The Passover Seder tells the story of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. We are to tell the story as if we too were once slaves. It is a quintessential story of freedom. The […]

This is the title of Jonathan Safran Foer’s New York Times Bestseller about a young Jewish writer on a journey to Ukraine to find his grandfather’s hometown and the woman who saved his life during World War II. The story is filled with colorful characters who beg your forgiveness and earn your affection. It is […]

In 1980-81, I studied international affairs in Bologna, Italy at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). I had studied French since sixth grade, and thus, wanted to go to the Sorbonne in Paris. But I was a scholarship student at Hopkins, and the only option that I could afford was Hopkins SAIS […]

The news has been filled with grief and confusion emanating from the recent suicides of a father of a child who was killed in the Sandy Hook shootings and two Parkland students. These individuals were survivors of the school massacres that occurred on 14 December 2012 and 18 February 2018, respectively. Until now. Photo credit […]

This week, I had the joy of sharing spring break with my daughter and niece in Paris. It was a food lover’s dream. Beginning with a baguette and fresh berries each morning and making our way through the day with crepes, cheese, and fine dining of regional and seasonal specialties, we loved being in Paris, […]

Ketamine’s ignominious start was as a psychedelic party drug with the street name of Special K. Its future is as a promising intervention for treatment-resistant depression. Just this month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved esketamine, a form of ketamine, for the treatment of depression. It is the first truly new antidepressant medication […]

Today is International Women’s Day. We have much to celebrate around the world. Rates of education for girls are up. Maternal mortality is down. And women are speaking out. Just a few weeks ago at the Academy Awards, as the young female filmmakers of the documentary, Period. End of Sentence, said in their acceptance speech, […]