Harvey Whiteford

Harvey Whiteford, MBBS, MPH, PhD is Professor of Psychiatry and Population Mental Health at the University of Queensland, Australia and an Affiliate Professor of Global Health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, where he is responsible for the mental and substance use disorder component of the Global Burden of Disease studies. He also leads the Policy and Epidemiology Group at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research and is the Chief Investigator for an Australian Centre for Research Excellence in mental health systems improvement.

Dr. Whiteford trained in medicine, psychiatry, and health policy in Queensland and at Stanford University in California. He has held senior clinical and administrative positions including those of Director of Mental Health in the Queensland and federal governments in Australia. He was the first mental health specialist appointed to the World Bank and worked in the Health, Nutrition and Population Sector of the Human Development Network in Washington, DC, assisting low- and middle-income countries to improve their mental health, substance abuse, and neurological services. He has worked on mental health reform with national governments in Europe, Africa, and Asia and with the World Health Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.