PSYCHIATRY, POLICY & GLOBAL HEALTH

Divya founded and now serves as director of Early Childhood Services at Emma Bowen Community Service Center, where she oversees the therapeutic preschool and all attachment and play-based mental health services for children ages 0-8.

She provides care for children ages 5-18 through her private practice and at Bellevue Hospital. As Clinical Assistant Professor at NYU, she teaches an undergraduate class called Liberty and Justice for “All” on systemic inequalities affecting marginalized children. She volunteers at Cornell Center for Human Rights, where she conducts psychological evaluations for undocumented children and trains lawyers on trauma-informed care.

Divya consults on children’s mental health policy implementation at NY State Office of Mental Health. She has been involved in several global mental health initiatives and research projects, most recently in youth mental health program implementation in Mozambique and in implementing school-based wellness initiatives for newcomer immigrants in the Bay Area. She currently consults for Columbia International AIDS Care and Treatment Program.

She serves on the APA Council on Communications and previously served on the Council on Government at Advocacy Relations where she helped author an anti-racism guide for agencies. She also sits on the Board of Directors for The Arthur Project. She presents regularly on intersectionality, immigration, the prison system, and anti-racism as they relate to children’s wellbeing.

Divya is a graduate of Northwestern University and completed her adult psychiatry and child psychiatry training at UCSF and Columbia/Cornell New York Presbyterian, respectively. She completed a fellowship in public psychiatry at Columbia University. She also completed psychoanalytic coursework at The San Francisco Psychoanalytic Center and a media program at Harvard University.

Prior to becoming a doctor, Divya was an elementary school teacher for Chicago Public Schools. She grew up in California and Texas and currently lives in Brooklyn. When she’s not writing or working with kids, you can find her hiking, dancing, exploring an art gallery, or playing with a foster pup!