Prof Ricardo Araya is Lead of the Global Mental Health Research Group and a Director of the Centre for Global Mental Health, which is based in the Health Service and Population Research Department at the IoPPN. Prior to joining King’s College London, Ricardo was a Professor of Global Mental Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and co-Director of the Centre for Global Mental Health, a joint venture between the LSHTM and IoPPN which he helped foster.

Prof Ricardo Araya's field of expertise is in the development and implementation of simple and affordable interventions to treat mental disorders, particularly in resource-poor settings. He has previously developed a model of care to treat common mental disorders, which has been adapted and used in several middle and low-income countries. I has a leading role in a number of major initiatives to increase mental research capacity in Latin America, and strong collaborative links with a wide range of research partners in Africa.