Faculty & Staff

Gail Elizabeth Wyatt, PhD is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Bio Behavioral Sciences at the Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Behavior at the David Geffen School of Medicine, licensed Clinical Psychologist and sex therapist and has held the Dena Bat Yaacov Endowed Chair in Psychiatry. She is the first African American Psychologist at DGSOM to be so awarded. She also holds honorary doctorates at the University of Cape town, South Africa and at Alliant and Pepperdine Universities. Dr. Wyatt’s focus over 51 years has been on disparities the effects of trauma on mental health and has over 300 publications and six books, that include research in India,

Jamaica and East and South Africa, thus far. She was the first person of color to receive the prestigious NIH Research Scientist Career Development Award for 17 years and developed methodologies to capture the cultural context of stress and oppression overlooked in clinical research that contribute to medical and psychiatric misdiagnoses among people of color. She was the first African American to receive a license to practice Psychology in California. She founded and directed the Center for Culture, Trauma and Mental Health Disparities and the Sexual Health Programs, served as one of the Associate directors of the UCLA AIDS Institute for over two decades and has received continuous funding from NIH, private foundations and state organizations since 1980. Her landmark research chronicled the prevalence of sexual abuse among African American men and women and with her findings, helped to extend the reporting limitations of abuse and violence that has facilitated survivors to disclose their past abuse. Dr. Wyatt has provided Congressional testimony 10 times, and of those testimonies, two were before then senator Joseph Biden at the Violence Against Women hearings. Dr. Wyatt wrote “Stolen Women: Reclaiming our Sexuality, Taking Back our Lives” by Wiley and Sons, is a best-seller that details the effects of slavery and oppression on African American women today, based on 20 years of her research.  She has been instrumental in leading NIH funded research teams of color and mentoring students from diverse backgrounds and disciplines. She is well known speaker: She has given community level and professional presentations in every medium, including on Oprah Winfrey’s ‘Speak Sis’ series about Black women’s mental health.  Dr. Wyatt has received numerous awards for her work in diversity, inclusion and trauma for people of color at risk for or living with HIV. This overdue recognition could have not been possible without the creation of a close and supportive network of family, friends, a strong belief in God and the resilience to match that of her ancestors, who for two generations before her were college educated, musical and prolific speakers. She has been married to Dr. Lewis Wyatt for 60 years, a retired OB-GYN, a son, Lance, a plastic surgeon and entrepreneur and graduate of UCLA medical school and Harvard, two granddaughters, Mureya, a Fordham University freshman and Kamile, a second-year graduate student in music composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston.  Dr Wyatt also had a daughter who was also a UCLA medical school grad, Lacey who is now an angel. A scholarship for UCLA medical students that has supported 5 students, this far, has been in her name for 11 years. The legacy continues.

Alison Hamilton, Ph.D., M.P.H., is a Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Director of the Semel Institute Implementation Science and Practice Hub at UCLA, and a Research Career Scientist and Implementation Research Director at the VA Center for the Study of Healthcare Innovation, Implementation & Policy at the Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, and. She received her Ph.D. in medical and psychological anthropology from UCLA in 2002, and her M.P.H. in Community Health Sciences from UCLA in 2009. Dr. Hamilton’s research portfolio focuses on improving health services for vulnerable populations by understanding people’s lived experiences and implementing evidence-based and evidence-informed practices in contextually and theoretically informed ways. She is currently PI of eight major VA- and NIH-funded implementation and health services research initiatives, including the NIAID-funded Rapid, Rigorous, and Relevant Implementation Science Hub. She serves as an Associate Editor for Implementation Science Communications, and on the Editorial Boards of Implementation Science, Women’s Health Issues, and Implementation Research and Practice. She is an Honorary Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Dr. Hamilton received the 2025 George M. Foster Practicing Medical Anthropology Award from the Society for Medical Anthropology, recognizing her lifetime achievements in applying theory and methods in medical anthropology, with impacts on policy.

Norweeta G. Milburn, Ph.D. is a Professor Emerita in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA Semel Institute Center for Community Health. She received her Ph.D. in Community Psychology from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). Prior to coming to UCLA, she was an Associate Professor of Psychology at Hofstra University in New York and Assistant Director of the Psy.D. Program in School/Community Psychology. Her research interests include homelessness, substance abuse, family interventions and mental health.

She has been a principal investigator of National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) research on homeless adults and a co-principal investigator of U.S. Department of Education research on coping and adaptation in older African Americans, and was a co-principal investigator of a National Institute of Mental Health investigation of anxiety and depression in older African Americans. As a principal investigator of National Institute of Mental Health and NIDA studies of homeless and African American youth, she has examined paths into and out of homelessness, and risk for HIV among homeless youth in the U.S. and Australia; is implementing a behavioral intervention for homeless adolescents at risk for HIV and their families; and testing recruitment strategies for behavioral interventions.

Professor Kleintjes worked in the Western Cape Province’s Department of Health as a clinical psychologist and then as a programme manager for mental health between 1990 and 2004. From 2004 to 2006, she worked as a research manager in mental health and substance abuse at the Human Sciences Research Council, after which she joined the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at University of Cape Town as a researcher in mental health policy development (2006-2010) and convener of the Postgraduate Diploma in Addictions Care (2011).

She returned to the Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital in Cape Town, remaining jointly appointed to the Department of Psychiatry & Mental Health at the University of Cape Town as a Senior Lecturer, then Associate Professor, and co-head of the Division of Psychotherapy (2012-2018). In March 2018, she was appointed to the Vera Grover Chair and Professor of Intellectual Disability in the Department of Psychiatry & Mental Health at UCT.

Her research interests include recovery –oriented public mental health policy and service development for people with psychosocial disability and intellectual disability, and promotion of self-advocacy by people with psychosocial and intellectual disability.

Professor Simbayi was the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO) for Research (DCEO-R) of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) of South Africa since 1 January 2016 and is now retired. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Sussex in England, United Kingdom. He is a registered Research Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa's Professional Board of Psychology and also a Member of Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). He is also currently an Honorary Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town. He is also a National Research Foundation (NRF)-rated researcher.

During the past two decades Professor Simbayi has mostly conducted his research in the area of social aspects of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In particular, his research has focused on second-generation HIV surveillance especially using biobehavioural surveys, HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination, orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), determinants of HIV infection (such as poverty, alcohol and drug use, gender-based violence, sex in the presence of blood, multiple sexual partnerships, and male circumcision), and theory-based HIV social and behavioural risk reduction interventions including positive prevention which targets people living with HIV/AIDS who are aware of their status. He has published 138 scientific articles in both local and international peer-reviewed academic journals, 26 research reports, 15 abstracts, and 12 book chapters. He co-edited a book entitled HIV/AIDS in South Africa 25 Years on: Psychosocial Perspectives which was published by Springer of New York in 2009. He has also presented more than 300 papers and posters at both local and international conferences.

Professor Mashudu Davhana-Maselesele was born at Balanganani village at Ha-Davhana being the third born child of the late Vhamusanda Vho DMK Davhana and Mrs Nyambeni Rhodah Davhana (nee‘ Nengovhela). She trained as a nurse and midwife at the then Venda Nursing College and served as a Professional nurse at Donald Fraser hospital. She obtained BA(Cur) Nursing Education and Community Health Nursing Science; Honours BA(Cur) in Nursing Education and Masters in Nursing Education all at UNISA. She completed her Doctoral degree in Programme Development at the University of Johannesburg. She was awarded a scholarship through Fogarty Funding to pursue her Postdoctoral studies at the University of California (Los Angeles) USA in collaboration with University of Limpopo. Her Post Doctoral studies focused on trauma research with special emphasis on Gender Based Violence. She also did Postgraduate Diploma in International Research Ethics in Southern Africa (IRENSA) at UCT.

Her academic career started at the University of Venda between 1998 and 2007, where she progressed from Junior Lecturer to Senior Lecturer, teaching nursing programmes from undergraduate to postgraduate levels. Subsequently, she spent a decade at North-West University (NWU), holding key academic leadership positions, namely; Executive Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Science and Technology, Vice Rector for Teaching/Learning and Research, and Campus Rector of Mafikeng. She later moved to the Eastern Cape Province where she served as Rector of the Mthatha Campus at Walter Sisulu University for two years before becoming Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic Affairs and Research for two years.

During her tenure at NWU, she played a pivotal role in raising funds for capacity development, establishing research collaborations, and creating doctoral sandwich programmes for young academics. Her research primarily focuses on Gender-Based Violence and vicarious trauma among caregivers, particularly in the context of HIV and AIDS. As a passionate advocate of Problem-Based Learning, she has conducted training on the use of PBL as a teaching strategy in collaboration with Mc Master University (Canada). She has supervised and co-supervised 24 Masters and Doctoral candidates and published articles in accredited journals nationally and internationally. She also mentored Post-Doctoral Fellows in collaboration with the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Presently, she is actively involved in a 5-year project for Sustainable Academic Capacity Building for Excellence through Research and Training (SACERT) Programme developing research capacity amongst young academics pursuing their doctoral studies in South Africa, collaborating with the following institutions: UCLA (USA), NWU, SU, UCT, UL, UNIVEN,WSU and HSRC.

She served as Editor-in-Chief of CURATIONIS, an accredited journal, and was a member of the South African Nursing Council (SANC) for a decade. She has been involved in programme development and reviews nationwide through participation in the Council on Higher Education (CHE) activities.

She now serves as Deputy Vice Chancellor: Teaching and Learning (DVC: T/L) at the University of Mpumalanga.

Tamra Burns Loeb, Ph.D., a SACERT and IMB faculty member, is a counseling psychologist, behavioral science researcher, and Adjunct Associate Professor in the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM). She conducts qualitative, integrated mixed-methods, and quantitative research to document disparities in the social determinants of health and identify barriers to health care access and utilization. Dr. Loeb’s research also focuses on developing novel methods to assess the impact of patient level characteristics, including trauma and adversity, among individuals at risk for or living with chronic disease. Her work examines outcomes in health and mental health care, program implementation, and has also focused on the development of behavioral interventions to reduce health risks.

Professor Soraya Seedat is a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Executive Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Stellenbosch University. She held the South African Research Chair in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder for 15 years (until the end of 2022) and currently directs the South African Medical Research Council Unit on the Genomics of Brain Disorders. She has more than 20 years of clinical, epidemiological and basic neuroscience research experience as a psychiatrist working in the field of traumatic stress, anxiety and neuroscience and has published over 500 peer-reviewed journal manuscripts, co-edited four books and 30 book chapters. She has served two terms as the President of the College of Psychiatrists of South Africa and three terms as Secretary and is currently a member of the Board of Directors and an Honorary Registrar of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. Prof Seedat is an expert in the field of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety disorders, in adolescents and adults, and in the investigation of mechanisms of risk and resilience in adolescent and adult samples and has published widely in these areas. She has ongoing projects in PTSD, anxiety disorders, neuroAIDS and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. She has also been involved in multiple research training, capacity building and leadership development activities in sub-Saharan Africa and internationally, supported by NIMH grants and other funding initiatives.