Theresa Betancourt

Theresa S. Betancourt is the inaugural Salem Professor in Global Practice at the Boston College School of Social Work and Director of the Research Program on Children and Adversity (RPCA). Her research focuses on understanding the modifiable processes that contribute to risk and resilience in the mental health and development of children and adolescents facing adversity in a variety of cultures and settings.  

She has led initiatives to adapt and test evidence-based behavioral and parenting interventions for children and families facing adversity. In recent years, her work has expanded to implementation science, scaling proven interventions in low-resource settings both in the U.S. and around the world. This includes the integration of Sugira Muryango, a family home-visiting program designed to promote early childhood development and prevent violence in Rwanda as linked to social protection. She has also led the development of group-based mental health interventions for adolescents and young adults in post-conflict Sierra Leone, integrating them into educational and entrepreneurship programs.  

Theresa is also the Principal Investigator of a 22-year intergenerational study of war-affected youth and their children in post-conflict Sierra Leone. Her book, Shadows into Light: A Generation of Former Child Soldiers Comes of Age (Harvard University Press), explores the long-term psychological and developmental effects of family separation, war, and violence, while highlighting powerful stories of resilience.  

In the U.S., she has led community-based participatory research to co-develop and evaluate family-based prevention programs for refugee communities. These initiatives —delivered by trained home visitors with lived refugee experience—have been implemented among Somali Bantu, Bhutanese and Afghan families resettling in the U.S.  

Theresa has served on the advisory board for UNICEF’s 2021 State of the World’s Children report, On My Mind: Promoting, Protecting, and Caring for Children’s Mental Health. She is a member of the Lancet Commission for the Prevention of Gender Based Violence and Maltreatment of Young People and has served as an expert to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Her work has been featured in a variety of prominent media, including BC Chronicle, Boston Globe, CNN, NPR, SIRIUS FM, WHYY Radio, New Yorker, National Geographic, NPR, CNN.com, BOLD, BBC.com and in an interview with Larry King on the program, “PoliticKing.”