CPRC

Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Columbia University School of Social Work and a member of the Hispanic Treatment Program, a clinical intervention research team at New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Brave Heart is an affiliate of the Columbia Population Research Center, focusing on immigration of Indigenous Peoples from Latin America, and a faculty affiliate of the Institute for Latin American Studies. Currently, Dr. Brave Heart’s projects include identifying key cultural components of collective trauma, grief, and loss among Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, to inform clinical intervention research. This work builds upon Dr. Brave Heart’s Historical Trauma and Unresolved Grief Intervention, recognized in 2001 as an exemplary model in SAMHSA’s Center for Mental Health Services special minority initiative, through a Lakota Regional Community Action Grant on Historical Trauma. Dr. Brave Heart developed historical trauma and historical unresolved grief theory and interventions among American Indians, which have become internationally recognized. In 1992, she founded the Takini Network, a non-profit organization devoted to community healing from Indigenous intergenerational massive group trauma. Dr. Brave Heart is expanding her work with reservation populations in the United States and Canada to include Indigenous and Mestizo populations from Latin America.

Dr. Brave Heart incorporated historical trauma intervention components in reservation parenting prevention and intervention work through a number of successful SAMSHA grants and directed the international Models for Healing Indigenous Survivors of Historical Trauma: A Multicultural Dialogue Among Allies Conference from 2001-2004. A repeat conference presenter for the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Dr. Brave Heart is also a consultant to the National Indian Country Child Trauma Center and supervises psychiatric residents at Columbia on the DSM IV Cultural Formulation.

Dr. Brave Heart received her M.S. in Social Work from Columbia University in 1976,  and her PhD in Clinical Social Work from Smith College in 1995. Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia University in 2007 where she is engaged in interdisciplinary work with psychiatry, Dr. Brave Heart was a tenured faculty member at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work. Dr. Brave Heart coordinated the Native People’s Curriculum Project and was core faculty in the Post-Graduate Trauma Response and Recovery Certificate Program. Dr. Brave Heart’s goal is to deepen the scientific rigor of her publications and research agenda. Currently, she is examining the prevalence of DSM IV disorders among American Indians in a nationally representative sample.

Dr. Brave Heart's Departmental Biography Page