Prof Valerie DeMarinis, PhD (psychology) is Senior Professor in Public Mental Health at the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine at Umeå University, Sweden; Professor of Public Mental Health Promotion at Innlandet Hospital Trust, Norway; and Emeritus Professor in Psychology of Religion and Cultural Psychology at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research areas include refugee mental health, cultural information in treatment, public mental health and violent extremism. Recent/current research programs include: Director of the Wellbeing and Health section of the nationally-funded IMPACT research programme/Centre of Excellence at Uppsala University; Primary Mental Health Analyst for the EU- Horizon 2020 project RESPOND: Governance of Migration; and, PI for both Swedish and Norwegian projects on medical communication efficacy of the Cultural Formulation Interview (DSM-5). Her applied research and clinical work includes a focus on radicalisation and preventing violent extremism as a public mental health concern, including with young people who have been involved with either white-power extremism or Islamist extremism.
Dr. Maria Nordendahl, MD, PhD is a medical doctor practitioner with a specialty in general and family medicine. She is also a Senior Lecturer in general and family medicine and cultural issues in diagnoses and treatment at the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine/ Med School, Umeå University, Sweden. She conducts clinical work at the Primary Health Care Centre, which has a specialised migrants’ care section. Together with Prof. Valerie DeMarinis and Dr. Eolene Boyd-MacMillan, she shares an interest in Public Mental Health Promotion and research related to this area, working in different research and clinical contexts to promote the integration of Mental Health into Public Health. In addition to considering the interaction of psychosocial and biomedical risk factors, Dr Nordendahl is active nationally in formulating primary care’s role for both identifying mental health aspects of, and coordinating resources for, addressing radicalisation and extremism. As a member of the Public Mental Health Team of Umeå and Cambridge, her contributions to the EC H2020 project DRIVE research project include investigating and targeting characteristics, behaviors, and processes present in individuals and groups within radicalisation and extremist contexts.