Maria Cristobal

MHPSS Regional Advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean, HIAS

Maria is a Spanish psychologist with 15 years’ experience in global MHPSS programming. She has served in many highly unstable humanitarian contexts such as Yemen, North Sudan, Indonesia, Jordan, Mexico, Colombia, Kenya, Turkey or Ethiopia, working with communities affected by violence and forced displacement. She also has a long trajectory as trainer of teams involved in emergency responses at INGO, public and private sectors, and university level. She is a former global MHPSS advisor for MSF (Doctors without borders) and currently she is the MHPSS regional advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean at HIAS. Maria is passionate about humanitarian aid and social change and aims at contributing through her expertise in MHPSS, to support vulnerable collectives to thrive.

Email: maria.cristobal@hias.org

Professional Expertise

Disciplines

Psychology

Topical EXPERTISE

Conflict/post-conflict settings, Displaced population health, migration/refugee issues, Primary health care, Stress and coping

Methodological Areas

Human-centered design/design thinking/innovation techniques, Program evaluation

Strategies expertise

Capacity building, Health promotion, Quality improvement, Task shifting/sharing

Intervention Expertise

Cognitive behavioral therapy, Health system interventions, Mental health awareness/promotion, Psychosocial skills

Partnership Expertise

Health departments/health agencies, International NGOs