Shamaila Khan, Ph.D.
Program Director

Dr. Khan (she/her) is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and a Clinical Associate Professor at the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine / Boston Medical Center. She is additionally the Training Director of the Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology (CMTP), the Director for the Center for Multicultural Mental Health (CMMH) and the Director for the (FSC) Family support Center (for Covid patients/families) at BUSM/BMC. Her clinical outlook is informed by Psychodynamic and Postcolonial theoretical frameworks. Her specialty training is in Trauma: Individual trauma, group/community-based trauma, disaster related trauma, immigration, and postcolonial trauma. As such, she was recently the Director of Behavioral Health and Resiliency Services at the Massachusetts Resiliency Center, serving the survivors of the Boston Marathon Bombings. She has provided disaster relief services nationally and internationally and conducts crisis intervention and psychological first aid trainings locally and globally. Her additional interests are in multicultural clinical practice and multivariate aspects of identity development, and she has presented on these topics at varying national and international conferences. She is the Diversity Champion for the Dept. of Psychiatry and was the Co-Chair for the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee at BMC, and serves on the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council of BUSM. She is an active member of several committees within the APA Division of Psychoanalysis (39). She additionally serves on the Disaster Behavioral Health Advisory Committee of the Massachusetts DMH. She is also the APA’s Committee of Accreditation’s as a Chair for APA Site Visits. She is a recipient of several awards, most recently including the “2024 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Award”, by the BU School of Medicine Awards committee, “Rising to the Occasion Award” for her work during the pandemic, the “Humanitarian Service Award” for her work with the Rohingyan Refugees in Bangladesh; the “Service Appreciation Award” for her work following the Boston Marathon Tragedy; and an “Outstanding service award” by the U. S. Attorney’s Office for services provided during the Tsarnaev trail. She is of Pakistani American descent and as a Muslim raised on three different continents, she is conversant in several languages.

John Brown, Ph.D.

Primary Supervisor / Core Faculty

Dr. John Brown is a licensed clinical psychologist and Massachusetts Designated Forensic Psychologist. He is the Program Director for the Tufts Medical Center Forensic Evaluation Team, which conducts evaluations for Massachusetts District and Superior Courts in inpatient and jail settings. He completed his undergraduate studies at Brown University, received his clinical psychology doctorate from the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill, and completed post-doctoral studies at MGH (clinical) and the University of Massachusetts Medical School (forensic). Dr. Brown was previously the Director of Psychology at the Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller MH Center, a Massachusetts DMH Forensic Evaluation Unit. He has extensive experience in the practice of psychology in inpatient and forensic settings. His current clinical and research interests include applied and comparative ethics, including the ethics of practitioner deception, as well as situations involving clinicians’ (“Tarasoff”) duty to warn and protect.

Cara Fuchs, Ph.D.

Primary Supervisor / Core Faculty

Dr. Fuchs (she/her) is a licensed Clinical Psychologist with over two decades of experience in healthcare. She received her BA from Tufts University, MPH in Epidemiology from Boston University, and PhD in Clinical Psychology from University of Massachusetts, Boston. She completed fellowships at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial VA Medical Center and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She has devoted much of her career to expanding access to behavioral health services for historically marginally and oppressed communities. Her focus has been on transforming the delivery of behavioral health care through integration into medical and nontraditional community-based settings. Throughout her career, she has strived to develop a diverse behavioral health workforce through mentorship, teaching, and advocacy. Previous leadership roles held by Dr. Fuchs have included Vice Chair, Chief of Psychology (2020-2025) and Director of Integrated Behavioral Health (2017-2025) in the Department of Psychiatry at Boston Medical Center, as well as co-Director of the Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology (CMTP; 2017-2019). She is currently a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. She is also the Founder of Belonging Health, a clinical practice and consulting company that aims to improve the mental health and well-being of healthcare providers, particularly those who hold marginalized identities. She is involved in education and research initiatives aimed at addressing health disparities and maintains a deep commitment to decolonizing healthcare. She identifies as a cisgender female, heterosexual, married, only child of an immigrant parent, and is of Cape Verdean and Eastern European descent

Olivia Moorehead-Slaughter, Ph.D.

Primary Supervisor / Core Faculty

Olivia Moorehead-Slaughter, PhD is a child clinical licensed Psychologist with over 35 years of experience working with children, adolescents, families and adults across a range of settings including outpatient mental health clinics, schools, child care centers, juvenile and probate courts, community health centers, and social service agencies. For 26 years, Dr. Moorehead-Slaughter was the Psychologist at The Park School (a pre-kindergarten through grade eight independent school) in Brookline, Massachusetts where she is known as “Dr. O.” Since 2004, she has been a faculty member of the Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology (CMTP), an APA accredited predoctoral internship program at Boston University Chobanian and Avedesian School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center. She is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University Chobanian and Avedesian School of Medicine. Dr. Moorehead-Slaughter is the former Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Licensure for Psychologists and the American Psychological Association (APA) Ethics Committee. Currently, she is a member of the Massachusetts Psychological Association (MPA) Ethics Committee (2025-2030). She is Past President of APA’s Division 35 (The Society for the Psychology of Women) and in 2014, received the Division 35 Bonnie R. Strickland and Jessica Henderson Daniel Distinguished Mentoring Award. In 2019, she was the recipient of APA’s Division 35 Foremothers Mentorship Career Excellence Award. She was a National Multicultural Conference and Summit (NMCS) Distinguished Elder Award recipient in 2024. Dr. Moorehead-Slaughter is the former Chair of the APA Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest (BAPPI) and a former member of the APA Board of Educational Affairs (BEA). She was elected to serve on APA’s Council of Representatives (COR) representing Division 35 from 2021-2024, and served as Chair of COR’s Women’s Caucus (2023). Dr. Moorehead-Slaughter was elected Recording Secretary of the APA Board of Directors and will serve from 2025-2027. She has a private consulting practice which includes working with faculty and administrators in independent schools throughout the country on issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as a range of topics related to the healthy growth and development of children, parenting, and self-care; professional mentorship; and clinical consultation, presentations, workshops, and retreats. Since 2004, Dr. Moorehead-Slaughter has served on the faculty of the Diversity Directions Independent School Seminar (held each summer at Brooks School in North Andover or virtually) and also consults to independent schools with Diversity Directions throughout the year. She is a former board member of the Association of Independent Schools in New England (AISNE) and serves on the board of Domestic Violence Ended (DoVE). She identifies as a cisgendered, African-American/Black female, feminist, heterosexual, cisgender, married, mother of 2 adult sons. Her pronouns are she/her/hers.

Nickki Pearce Dawes, Ph.D.

Primary Supervisor/ Core Faculty

Dr. Nickki Pearce Dawes is a clinical-community psychologist, with experience working in a range of settings such as schools, inpatient and outpatient mental health clinics/hospitals, and community-based organizations. She earned her PhD in clinical/community psychology from the University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign. She completed her internship at the Institute for Juvenile Research (IJR) at the University of Illinois – Chicago, before pursuing post-doctoral studies in prevention research at Arizona State University. Her research has focused on the context of community-based youth programs and the impact of participation and engagement on children and adolescents. She has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters related to her research. Dr Dawes has taught a variety of undergraduate and doctoral level courses. Her current clinical and research interests include understanding how the intersection of individual- and community-level factors shape mental health outcomes; culturally responsive care; perinatal mental health, and models of care to disrupt intergenerational trauma pathways. She identifies as a black woman of Afro-Caribbean (she was born and raised in Jamaica), cisgender, and heterosexual. She is a mother of two sons and is married.

Linda Piwowarczyk, M.D.

Primary Supervisor / Core Faculty

Dr. Lin Piwowarczyk is a psychiatrist, board certified in psychiatry and internal medicine who has been a co-founder and director of the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights (“BCRHHR”) at Boston Medical Center. She received her M.D. degree from the Academy of Medicine, Wroclaw, Poland, M.P.H. from Boston University, and completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Carney Hospital and Psychiatry residency at Boston City Hospital. She is an Emeritus Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Lin was awarded the Sarah Haley Memorial Award for Clinical Excellence by the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. She has provided health care for immigrant and refugee populations, including survivors of torture, for over thirty years. She first began working with refugees in 1993, as a Fellow in International Psychiatry at the Indochinese Psychiatry Clinic, Brighton, MA and also completed an internship at the Geneva headquarters of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She served on the Executive Committee of the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs 2002-2021 and is its immediate Past President. In May 2017, Dr. Piwowarczyk accepted the Human Rights Award on behalf of the NCTTP from the American Psychiatric Association. In 2022, she was awarded the Sarah B. Ignatius Award for Justice& Excellence in Law by the Political Asylum/Immigration Project. Her affiliation with CMTP began IN 2018 as a site supervisor for Interns assigned to BCRHHR. She is of eastern European descent, identifies as cisgender heterosexual female, raised in a Christian home

Dennis Tyrell, Ph.D.

Primary Supervisor / Core Faculty

Dr. Dennis Tyrell (he/him) is a licensed psychologist who has worked in a range of clinical settings including: inpatient forensic, residential (for registered sexual offenders), and outpatient mental health clinics, schools and college counseling centers. In these settings he has served as designated forensic psychologist, co-director of behavior medicine, behavioral health consultant, co-director of training and associate director. Additionally, Dr. Tyrell maintains a private practice treating teens through seniors, with a specialization in couples treatment. He is a graduate of The University of the Virgin Islands (BS Psychology), UMass Boston (MEd Counseling) and Boston College (PhD Counseling). Throughout his career, supervising the next generation of practitioners has been his greatest love. For Dr. Tyrell there is no greater reward than seeing trainees confidently embrace their clinical voice, shine brighter in their relationship styles and facilitate transformative healing in the lives of their clients. As a master clinician, he integrates social justice, multicultural and anti-racist values into CBT, Relational and Narrative approaches to treatment. He works to center a client’s primary and intersecting identities as the bases for which healing and growth will occur in the therapeutic space. He identifies as Black, cisgender male of Afro-Caribbean heritage (born and raised in St. Kitts-Nevis and St. Thomas, USVI). Dr. Tyrell grew up Christian and continues to practice his faith through the framework of Black Liberation Theology

Martha Vibbert, Ph.D.

Primary Supervisor / Core Faculty

Martha is a licensed clinical psychologist at Boston Medical Center with expertise in early childhood neurodevelopment, two-generation psychotherapy, program leadership, and design and delivery of early childhood care to address negative impacts of poverty, racism, chronic disease, and intergenerational trauma. She is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, and co-founder/USA Director of the international video project known as Universal Baby. Dr. Vibbert has stepped down from her longstanding role as Executive Director of the SPARK (Supporting Parents and Resilient Kids) Center, an outpatient, community-based arm of BMC’s Pediatric Department located in Mattapan, where she continues to teach and mentor graduate and post-graduate behavioral health clinicians. She has been a CMTP site supervisor since 1996 and joined CMTP’s core faculty in 2015. She is a community advisory faculty member of Boston University’s Institute for Early Childhood Well-Being. Martha received her EdM in counseling and consulting psychology from Harvard University and her PhD in clinical psychology from New York University. She is of mixed northern European descent, identifies as cisgender heterosexual female, and has lived most of her life in New England.

Tahirah Abdullah-Swain, Ph.D.
Seminar Leaders / Core Faculty

Dr. Tahirah Abdullah (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is also co-founder of Black Advocacy, Resistance, and Empowerment (BARE) for Mental Health & Wellness, through which she provides workshops to promote mental health and wellness within Black communities, while also providing consultation on implementing anti-racist practices for systemic change in mental health centers and other businesses and institutions. Dr. Abdullah received her B.A. in Psychology and Africana Studies from the University of Miami, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Kentucky. Dr. Abdullah serves as a research mentor for several undergraduate and doctoral students and teaches a variety of undergraduate and doctoral level courses. Her research focuses on the impact of racism and discrimination on mental health, resisting racism, mental health help-seeking, mental illness and mental health treatment stigma, and understanding Black Americans' therapy experiences. Dr. Abdullah aims to use the knowledge gained from her research to improve the quality and accessibility of mental health services and reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and mental health treatment. She is an African American, Muslim cisgender woman and was born and raised and in the U.S. South.

Dr. Karen Henley, M.D.

Seminar Leader / Core Faculty

Dr. Karen Henley, MD is a recently retired Clinical Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at Boston University. She became a psychiatrist after completing an internal medicine residency, an endocrinology fellowship and then pivoting to a psychiatry residency that included a psychotherapy fellowship. In 1991 she returned to Boston City Hospital to work in the Center for Infectious Disease at the height of the AIDS epidemic-the first clinics to integrate behavioral health within a medical setting. In 1994 she joined Boston Health Care for the Homeless when they adopted a behavioral health integration model for their outpatient clinic, working primarily with their HIV team. For over 30 years she has been a primary supervisor and mentor to PGY-3 and PGY-4 psychiatry residents for their weekly, year-long psychotherapy supervision. She has supervised internal medicine residents within their primary care clinics since the 1990’s, supporting and modeling effective engagement with challenging patients, persons with substance use, complex trauma, depression and anxiety as well as teaching medication management of PTSD, depression, anxiety and other psychiatric conditions. She has been co-chair of the Department of Psychiatry’s DEI Committee with Dr. Shamaila Khan for the past 4 years. Her father was a German refugee from Hitler and her mother grew up in a tenement building in the Bronx. She grew up much more privileged in the Northwest. She is of Ashkenazi heritage and identifies as a secular Jew. She identifies as a lesbian but if born later, most likely would have identified as queer. She is married and has two sons.

Jodie Kliman, Ph.D.

Seminar Leader / Core Faculty

Jodie Kliman, Ph.D. is a social-clinical psychologist and retired Professor in William James College’s Psy.D. Program in Clinical Psychology. She has published and presented widely on social justice, multiculturalism, intersectionality, and trauma in psychology, family therapy and family life. Her clinical practice, supervision, and consultation focus on personal, family, and collective trauma, from multicultural, feminist, systemic, and postmodern perspectives. She developed the Social Matrix Diagram (www.socialmatrixdiagram.org), a visual tool for training, consultation, and research that helps clinicians and organizational consultants to better understand the impact of their intersectional areas of privilege and marginalization in their professional relationships. This tool, whose uses she is researching with a multiracial, multicultural team, has been used in colleges and mental health settings throughout the US and internationally. She is currently writing a book about using the Social Matrix Diagram in clinical practice and training. She is the editor of a monograph, Working in War Zones, Near and Far: Oscillations of Despair and Hope, coauthored several therapeutic workbooks for children who have survived collective traumas related to natural disasters and wars, and has published widely on intersectionality, family life cycle, social class, and trauma. She was also an independent researcher for the Artsbridge Institute, a transformative program for Palestinian, Israeli-Jewish, and US adolescents. She received the 2023 Distinguished Contributions to Family Therapy Award for the American Family Therapy Academy. Dr. Kliman first taught family therapy at CMTP in the early 1980s and later team-taught the seminar in the 1990s and early 2000s. Dr. Kliman now leads a seminar called Reflective Practices and Multicultural Family Therapy. She is a white, cis-gender, straight, married and class-privileged older Jewish woman in a multiracial, multi-faith family.

Dr. Avy Skolnik, Ph.D.

Seminar Leader / Core Faculty

Dr. Avy Skolnik (he/him) is a licensed psychologist and the Director of Training for Health and Counseling Services at Hampshire College where he serves as the primary supervisor for psychology doctoral trainees and social work interns. Dr. Skolnik earned his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University and completed a postdoctoral clinical residency and research fellowship at the Bedford VA Medical Center, focused on addressing health inequities and stereotype threat experienced by LGBTQ veterans and veterans living with HIV. For over 20 years, Dr. Skolnik has provided training and consultation to clinicians and healthcare providers in professional associations, hospitals, outpatient, VA, military, hospital, community, and university settings on improving access to gender affirming healthcare, improving care for persons living with HIV, serving LGBTQ veterans, LGBTQ survivors of violence, and transgender refugees and asylees. Dr. Skolnik also serves as a volunteer evaluator for individuals seeking asylum, completing psychological reports and affidavits and providing expert witness testimony in court regarding questions pertaining to trauma, persecution, and other factors relevant for asylum and visa cases. Dr. Skolnik has authored several academic papers and book chapters related to healthcare equity that include publications in the Journal of the National Medical Association, Society of General Internal Medicine, American Journal of Public Health, Sage Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender, and elsewhere. Dr. Skolnik’s work has supported initiatives leading to the development of gender identity-inclusive anti-discrimination policies within multiple shelters and hospitals throughout the U.S. Clinically, Dr. Skolnik draws primarily from psychoanalytic, multicultural, feminist, and family systems frameworks. He is a white, Jewish transgender man of Ashkenazi (Eastern European) descent.

David Trimble, Ph.D.

Seminar Leader / Core Faculty

David is a licensed Psychologist and family therapist whose work focuses on the interplay of culture, social class, and gender in family life within a social justice framework. His interest in multiple system intervention includes the problems that develop between school, student, and family around learning disabilities. He is currently interested in publishing on the Intersections of Psychotherapy and Spirituality. He edited Engaging with Spirituality in Family Therapy - Meeting in Sacred Space (Springer, 2018) and is the author of a memoir in which he describes his integration of spirituality and psychotherapy, A Seeker’s Journey into Sacred Time and Space (Resource Publications, 2025). He teaches the Multicultural Family Systems Seminar. Dr. Trimble received his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Harvard University's Department of Psychology and Social Relations. He is a member of the American Family Therapy Academy. He has been affiliated with CMTP since its beginning in 1972. Dr. Trimble is of Scots/Irish-American and English-American descent and is Jewish

Amy Yule, Ph.D.

Seminar Leader / Core Faculty

Dr. Amy Yule (she/her) is board certified in adult, child, and addiction psychiatry. She is the Vice Chair of Addiction Psychiatry at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and an Associate Professor at the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine at Boston University. Dr. Yule’s research is focused on examining interventions to prevent substance use disorders in youth with psychiatric disorders and reduce harm associated with substance use. She is also focused on evaluating treatments for individuals with co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders including medication for youth with bipolar disorder, community-based treatment for youth with psychosis, and insurance-based time limited care management programs. Her clinical practice is within the CATALYST clinic which serves youth with substance use disorders and co-occurring psychiatric disorders as well as their family in a multidisciplinary primary care-based clinic at BMC. She founded and was the inaugural co-chair of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry’s Women in Addiction Psychiatry Special Interest Group from 2017 to 2024. She was the co-chair of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s Substance Use Committee from 2019 to 2025. Dr. Yule was born and raised in California and attended the University of California San Diego for her undergraduate degree in Biology and Latin American Studies. She attended medical school at the University of California Los Angeles, and moved to Boston to complete her postgraduate training. She is a white, cis-gender, heterosexual, married, and class-privileged woman with two school aged children.

Michele Thomson, B.S.

Program Coordinator

With over two decades of experience in medical field, Michele has built a distinguished career marked by dedication, leadership, and a passion for supporting exceptional patient care. She began her professional journey at Children’s Hospital Boston, where she served for 18 years as a Medical Secretary across several key departments, including Pathology, Endoscopy, the Emergency Room, and Orthopedics. Her extensive hands-on experience in these high-demand areas laid the foundation for her deep understanding of clinical operations and patient support. She went on to join the Boston Public Health Commission (CDC) as an Intake Coordinator, where she spent six years coordinating care and ensuring smooth access to essential public health services. Michele later transitioned to Codman Square Health Center as a Credentialing Specialist, further expanding her expertise in provider compliance and regulatory standards. Continuing her career growth, Michele took on leadership roles as Operation Manager at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, and a Practice Administrator at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Department of Radiation Oncology while continuing to work as an Inpatient Coordinator part-time at Shriners Hospital for Children’s Boston. Michele earned her Bachelor of Science in Management from Cambridge College.