
Bio
Dr. Johanne Eliacin is an Associated Health Postdoctoral Fellow at Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center.
She has a joint Ph.D. degree in psychological anthropology and clinical psychology from the Department of Comparative Human Development at The University of Chicago. She completed a clinical psychology internship at Purdue University and a postdoctoral clinical residency at Cornell University. Dr. Eliacin’s research focuses on the cultural study of health and illness, immigrants’ experiences, mental health, and health disparities.
Her research career began with studies of Caribbean immigrants’ mental health in the U.S. and sociocultural reintegration of repatriated Haitian refugees in Haiti. She extended her research interests to England where she conducted an ethnographic study of the high rates of schizophrenia among British African-Caribbeans. Through this project, Dr. Eliacin engaged with issues of social capital, social determinants of mental illness, immigrants’ assimilation and culture (re) production, and community expressed emotions.
Presently, her research focuses on health communications and reducing mental health disparities in the VA.