Katherine Venturo-Conerly

Katherine Venturo-Conerly

PhD Student in Clinical Psychology at Harvard University and Co-founder and Scientific Director at Shamiri Insitute

Harvard University

Shamiri Institute

Biography

I am a third-year doctoral student at the Harvard Laboratory for Youth Mental Health and the Co-Founder and Scientific Director of the Shamiri Institute. The Shamiri Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to developing, testing, and disseminating scalable mental health and wellness interventions for youth in Kenya; the Shamiri Institute has raised over three million USD and provided programming to over ten thousand youth. I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College in 2020 with an A.B. in psychology, a minor in global health and health policy, and a language citation in Spanish. Additionally, I am passionate about statistics and have taught courses in statistics (using R) and research methods.

My professional aims are twofold: 1) to conduct applied, community-based research on psychotherapies for youth (i.e., children and adolescents) to improve quality and accessibility of youth clinical care, and 2) to deliver evidence-based, yet flexible and individualized, clinical care in community settings to youth and their families. I work toward these aims primarily through research in the United States and in Kenya. Much of my research involves studying the effectiveness of treatment elements and features using multiple methods. To this end, I am currently studying decision making about treatment elements in modular psychotherapies such as MATCH using multi-level models and statistical learning, studying the effectiveness of individual treatment elements in the Shamiri Wellness Intervention in a randomized controlled trial, and studying the effects of a single treatment principle (practicing the opposite) using ecological momentary assessment. I have also conducted several meta-analyses and systematic reviews to assess existing literature on youth psychotherapies.

As a clinical psychology graduate student, and as a researcher focused on provision of therapies in community settings, I also work directly with children and adolescents and their caregivers to provide assessment and intervention services, and have conducted clinical trainings for high school graduate lay-providers through the Shamiri Institute. Finally, I am passionate about mentoring and aim to provide high quality mentorship to individuals with a variety of personal characteristics and professional goals and interests.

Download my CV.

Interests
  • Youth Psychotherapy
  • Global Mental Health
  • Applied Statistics
Education
  • AB in Psychology, 2020

    Harvard University

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
PhD Candidate
Harvard University
Sep 2020 – Present Cambridge, Massachusetts
 
 
 
 
 
Co-Founder and Scientific Director
Shamiri Institute
May 2019 – Present Nairobi, Kenya
 
 
 
 
 
Clinical Practicum Student
Boston University Child CARD
Jul 2022 – Present Boston, Massachusetts
 
 
 
 
 
Clinical Practicum Student
OCD Institute at McLean Hospital
Jun 2021 – Jun 2022 Belmont, Massachusetts
 
 
 
 
 
Undergraduate Researcher
Harvard University
Jan 2017 – Sep 2020 Cambridge, Massachusetts
 
 
 
 
 
Research Assistant
Columbia University
Jul 2017 – May 2019 New York, New York

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