International Keynote Speakers
Dr Crystal Clark (Canada)
Dr. Crystal Clark is internationally recognized for her expertise in reproductive psychiatry. She is the Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Women’s College Hospital, an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, and holds the Canada Research Chair in Reproductive Mental Health. Dr. Clark’s clinical specialty is mood and anxiety disorders across the reproductive life span (from menstruation to peri and post menopause). Her research has focused on understanding the impact of the physiological changes of pregnancy on the pharmacokinetics of psychotropics prescribed for bipolar disorder to establish guidelines for optimizing dose management and preventing the recurrence of illness during pregnancy and postpartum. Her research also aims to develop identification, prevention, and treatment strategies for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders among Black women who are disproportionately impacted by these disorders. Her research has been funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Clark is the former Associate Head of Research at Women’s College Hospital and a past president of the Marcé of North America. She serves on the board of directors for The International Marcé Society of Perinatal Mental Health and the American Society of Psychopharmacology. She has been a contributor to large initiatives in the US and Canada to improve perinatal mental health screening, awareness, diagnosis, and intervention.
Prof Prabha Chandra (India)
Prabha S Chandra, MD, FRCPsych, FRCPE, FAMS, FRCOG (ad eundem) is Senior Professor of Psychiatry and Past Dean at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, NIMHANS in Bangalore, INDIA. A clinician, teacher and researcher, she was the past President of the International Association of Women’s Mental Health, an EC member of the International Marcé society and Co-Chair of the USAID Global Community of Practice for maternal mental health. She is also the current Editor in Chief of the Archives of Women's Mental Health. Described as a champion for women’s mental health in India by the Lancet Psychiatry she has received the Marcé Medal and the Dr. Channi Kumar Oration award of the International Marcé Society. Her research has been supported by the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, UK. Indian Council of Medical Research, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, NIH and NIMH, USA. Her research has focused on the biology and phenomenology of postpartum psychosis, the impact of prenatal distress and partner violence on pregnancy and child developmental outcomes as well as the interface of perinatal distress and the immune system. She leads the Bangalore Child Health and Development Cohort Study a parallel cohort to the Wirral cohort in the UK, which is now in its 10th year and the only one in India with detailed biological, psychological, genetic, environmental and developmental data of pregnant and postpartum mothers and their children. She has also been advising the Government of India on integrating mental health into routine maternal care in the public health system. In addition with her dedicated multidisciplinary team she has started the first 12 bedded Mother Baby Unit in Asia and a specialized perinatal psychiatric outpatient service that uses a collaborative care model with obstetricians. The team also conducts an annual certificate course in perinatal psychiatry.
Prof Jane Fisher (Australia)
Jane Fisher, an academic Clinical and Health Psychologist is Finkel Professor of Global Health in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She leads the multidisciplinary Global and Women’s Health group of academics, research higher degree students and professional staff who undertake research in Australia and the low- and middle-income countries of the Indo-Pacific region. She has longstanding interests in the social determinants, including gender-based risks, to the mental health and wellbeing of women who are pregnant or have recently given birth and of how these can be addressed in public health approaches to mental health promotion. She has integrated strategies to address risks to women’s mental health in early parenting programs that have been trialled in Australia and Vietnam and shown that these gender-informed interventions are effective in prevention of mental health problems. Jane was appointed Officer in the Order of Australia in 2019 for her contributions to women, mental health and the community. In 2022 she was awarded the International Marcé Society’s John Cox Medal for having made an extraordinary contribution to expert knowledge in the field of perinatal mental health through research, clinical practice, teaching, and mentorship. In 2025 she was awarded the inaugural Donna Stewart Medal by the International Association for Women’s Mental Health for her contributions to awareness of the social and structural determinants of mental health problems experienced by women. Jane Fisher was President of the International Marce Society for Perinatal Mental Health 2016-2018.
Dr Jesús Cobo Gómez (Spain)
He develop his Grade in Medicine - MD (1986-1991) at the University of Cantabria (Spain), his speciality in Psychiatry at the Bellvitge University Hospital of Barcelona (1996-2000), the European Master in Neuroscience and finally his PhD on History of Sciences at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - UAB (2006). Since 2000, he has been working in direct healthcare, teaching, and research at University Parc Taulí Hospital - I3PT Foundation (Sabadell). His scientific career covers mainly psychoneuroendocrinology and gender mental health issues, including different aspects of perinatal mental health, with more than 150 articles published and more than 5 active projects in the area. He is also Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the UAB and CIBERSAM member. He has supervised several PhD, bachelor's or master's theses. Member of the Advisory Council on Sexual, Emotional, and Reproductive Health and Scientific Coordinator of the Perinatal Mental Health Plan of the Government of Catalonia. Current President of the Spanish Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health.
Prof Muthoni Mathai (Kenya)
Prof Muthoni Mathai is An associate Professor at the - Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Nairobi in Kenya. Is a clinician and researcher having graduated as a doctor from the University of Nairobi in 1983, awarded a Masters’ degree in Psychiatry (M. Med Psychiatry) 1990 at the same university in 1990. Was awarded a PhD in Social Work in 2005 at the University of Kassel in Germany as a recipient of a scholarship by the Heinrich Boell Foundation. In 2007 returned to Kenya to take up a teaching position at the University of Nairobi, Faculty of Health Sciences. Interested in Depressive disorders, Trauma, Adolescence and Maternal mental health. Is a therapist and trainer for TF-CBT and Interpersonal Therapy. Has been a researcher for several years with predominantly funding from the National Institute of Health. MPI, of now concluded DAPPER NIH/GACD project. MPI of an NIH funded: Integrating A Transdiagnostic Psychological Intervention in The Care for Adolescents and Youth with HIV In Kenya. Member of Kenya Psychiatric Association, Kenya Medical Association and a previous board member of World Association of Cultural Psychiatry.
Dr Bibilola Oladeji (Nigeria)
Bibilola Damilola Oladeji (MBBS, MSc, PhD, FWACP(Psych)) is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria and a consultant psychiatrist to the University College Hospital, Ibadan. Prof Oladeji is the Co-Director for the WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health, Neurosciences, Drug and Alcohol Abuse, University of Ibadan. Her research interests are psychiatric epidemiology and implementation science with a focus on improving access to mental health service through integration with primary care and other healthcare services. She has special interest in perinatal mental health and the mental health aspects of HIV. She has led several training efforts to improve mental knowledge and skills for both physician and non-physician primary healthcare providers. Prof Oladeji is the course director for the Africa Centre for Disease Control sponsored Mental Health Leadership and Advocacy Short Course in Ibadan with a goal of improving public mental health knowledge to drive advocacy for improvements in mental service, policy and legislation across Africa. She is a member of the International Marce Society for Perinatal Mental Health, the World Psychiatry Association Section on Epidemiology and Public Health and currently serves on the World Health Organization Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Mental Health, Brain Health and Substance Use.
Dr Lauren Osborne (USA)
Lauren M. Osborne graduated from Weill Cornell Medical College and received her psychiatric training at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute. She completed both clinical and research fellowships in women's mental health, and is an expert on the diagnosis and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders during pregnancy, the postpartum, the premenstrual period, and perimenopause. Dr. Osborne is an Associate Professor of OB-GYN and of Psychiatry and serves as the Vice Chair of Clinical Research in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine. Her research on perinatal mental illness focuses on models of care and on biological mechanisms and biomarkers, with a focus on neurosteroids and the immune system, and she runs the PIPPI Lab – Psychoneuroimmunology in Pregnancy and Postpartum – at Weill Cornell. Dr. Osborne’s clinical work consists of collaborative care for perinatal mental health within OB/GYN. She is also the President-Elect of Marcé of North America; founder and chair of the National Curriculum in Reproductive Psychiatry, a free web-based standardized curriculum; and an editor of The APA Textbook of Women’s Reproductive Mental Health. Her work has been supported by the Brain and Behavior Foundation, the Doris Duke Foundation, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, the Department of Defense, the NIMH, and the NICHD.
Prof Anne-Laure Sutter-Dallay (France)
Professor Anne-laure Sutter-Dallay is a perinatal psychiatrist, Head of the Regional University Department of Perinatal Psychiatry in Bordeaux, France (University Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry). The department includes inpatient and day-hospital services, a liaison psychiatry team serving the two largest maternity hospitals in the region (approximately 8,000 births annually), a mobile perinatal psychiatry team, and a regional resource service dedicated to coordinating complex care pathways for women with psychiatric disorders who are planning a pregnancy or during the perinatal period. She is also a researcher at the Bordeaux Population Health Research Center (INSERM 1219), University of Bordeaux, within the HEALTHY team. Her research focuses on the course and treatment of parental perinatal psychiatric disorders, with particular interest in fetal and newborn development following antenatal exposures related to maternal mental health and its treatments. At the national level, she contributes to the development of perinatal mental health policy through her involvement with several health authorities, including coordinating the perinatal psychiatry section of the French National Psychiatry Commission and co-leading the development of the French High Authority for Health (HAS) guidelines in perinatal psychiatry. Her longstanding commitment to the Marcé Society began in 1993, when the late Professor Channi Kumar invited her to attend the International Marcé Society Congress in Eindhoven. This formative encounter marked the beginning of a sustained involvement in the Society at both national and international levels. She was a founding member of the French-speaking Marcé Society in 1998 and later served as its President. She was also a member of the Executive Committee of the International Marcé Society from 2002 to 2020, including serving as Co-Secretary from 2012 to 2016. Throughout her career, Professor Kumar's vision and mentorship have remained a lasting source of inspiration for her commitment to advancing perinatal mental health and the mission of the Marcé Society.
