Presenter: Kim Baranowski, PhD
Dr. Kim Baranowski is a psychologist and researcher who works in the fields of trauma, human rights, and global health. She completed her PhD in Counseling Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University.

She fosters strategic partnerships, NGO and civil society engagement, and diverse stakeholder involvement. She facilitates training and professional development, creates organizational programming, and leads policy advocacy efforts focused on national and international mental health and humanitarian issues. Dr. Baranowski also conducts qualitative and participatory action research that centers lived experience expertise. 

Dr. Baranowski is dedicated to collaborating with allied professionals across disciplines to increase access to inclusive, culturally-responsive, and trauma-informed supports for individuals and communities. She is the Director of Community Engagement at the Trauma Continuum at Hill Center, McLean Hospital. She also serves as the Associate Director of the Mount Sinai Human Rights Program which offers comprehensive pro bono and holistic services to asylum seekers to the United States who have experienced persecution in their countries of origin. Dr. Baranowski is an American Psychological Association Representative to the United Nations and the recipient of the APA Citizen Psychologist Presidential Citation for her sustained commitment to leadership in advocacy and human rights. She has also received the American Board of Professional Psychology Joel C. Frost Citizen Psychologist for Social Justice Award.

Presenter: Sandra Simpson, M.Ed

Sandra Simpson is an award-winning educator and advocate. She completed her Masters Degree in Education at the University of Massachusetts. Throughout her career, Ms. Simpson has contributed the creation of new knowledge through contributing to peer-reviewed scientific publications and academic textbooks.

For over 20 years, Ms. Simpson leveraged her passion for increasing equal educational opportunities for all through securing teaching resources, writing grants, and bringing speakers into Boston’s classrooms. As a result of her commitment and impact, she has been recognized for both advancing public service and integrating technology into the teaching of history. In 2006, she was named The Boston City Teacher of the Year. Following her tenure in the public schools, Ms. Simpson dedicated herself to supporting the educational goals of diverse immigrant adults in achieving their high school diplomas and forging pathways to enrollment in community college.

Sandra Simpson is a longstanding member of the McLean Hospital’s Trauma Continuum at Hill Center’s Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP). With LEAP, she offers expertise that informs clinical and research programs, destigmatizes dissociative identity disorder (DID) through sharing of personal experience, and fosters inclusion. Over the past few years, she has co-developed participatory action research projects that center community voice. Recently, she has facilitated a photovoice initiative focused on the challenges and strengths experienced by the DID community. She continues to harness her deep commitment to promoting social justice and advancing the Trauma Continuum’s mission of delivering person-centered, innovative and trauma-informed treatment, research, education, and advocacy.