Ms Maria Milenova

Maria works with Prof Sir Graham Thornicroft and co-ordinates the INDIGO Network for Stigma and Discrimination at David Goldberg Centre.  

She contributes to the organization of events and meetings, writing of papers, compiling reports and briefings on global mental health research on national and international health frameworks. She leads the INDIGO-Primary Policy Analysis Group alongside Dr Brandon Kohrt and Dr Mirja Koschorke and participates in two MRC funded multi-stakeholder research programmes.  

Maria holds a BSs+MSc in Political Science and Governance from Complutense University of Madrid and studied at the University of Sussex as an Erasmus student. Prior to joining King’s College London in 2017, she was a Junior Policy Officer at the Directorate-General for International Development and Cooperation at the European Commission in Brussels where she worked with the EU Council on mainstreaming digital technologies in international development initiatives. 

Research Interests 

• Mental health in LMICs 
• Stigma and discrimination in mental health  
• Development of international programmes  
• Implementation Science 

Expertise and Public Engagement

Maria is a Committee Member and part of the programming team at the London offices of Young Professionals in Foreign Policy (YPFP). YPFP is a non-profit organisation that brings together a thriving community of government reps, private sector and civil society who train the next generation of international affairs leadership. Maria has chaired sessions on security and public health with The Economist’s Defence editor, former UK Secretary of State and is currently negotiating a team up with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).  

Key publications

• Heim, E., Henderson, C., Kohrt, B., Koschorke, M., Milenova, M., & Thornicroft, G. (n.d.). Reducing mental health-related stigma among medical and nursing students in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 1-9. doi:10.1017/S2045796019000167 
• Heim, E., Kohrt, B., Koschorke, M., Milenova, M., & Thronicroft, G. (n.d.). Reducing mental health-related stigma in primary health care settings in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 1-10. doi:10.1017/S2045796018000458 
• Thornicroft G, Bakolis I, Evans-Lacko S, Gronholm PC, Henderson C, Kohrt BA, Koschorke M, Milenova M, Semrau M, Votruba N, Sartorius N. Key lessons learned from the INDIGO global network on mental health related stigma and discrimination. World Psychiatry. 2019 Jun;18(2):229-230. doi: 10.1002/wps.20628. PMID: 31059636; PMCID: PMC6502412