Dr Sreekanth Thekkumkara – Vice President

Dr Sreekanth Thekkumkara is an early-career global mental health researcher, educator, and mental health and addiction service social worker based at the Division of Health Sciences of the Faculty of Health, University of Dundee, United Kingdom. His work sits at the intersection of mental health, substance use, social inequalities, and health systems, strongly focusing on developing and implementing scalable, low-cost psychosocial interventions for underserved populations across low- and middle-income countries.

He obtained his MPhil and PhD in Psychiatric Social Work from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), India, where he led the development and feasibility testing of a peer support intervention for prisoners with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. His research programme integrates implementation science, behavioural change frameworks, psychosocial theories, and social network analysis to address complex mental health challenges in resource-constrained settings.

Sreekanth is engaged in multi-country research collaborations spanning Europe, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. He currently leads global mental health research initiatives and contributes to large-scale grant applications focused on decolonised mental health and substance abuse care by strengthening mental health systems and integrating care within broader public health platforms. Alongside his research, he teaches and supervises across undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels, and contributes to academic leadership and policy engagement in the mental health and substance use area. He is also an expert member of the Smoking and vaping: HABIT Expert Group on Nicotine Product Evidence of the Scottish government. He also serves as a peer reviewer for several international journals and participates in global efforts to advance equitable, evidence-informed mental health care.