Dr. Bernadine Waller is an award-winning National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) T32 Research Fellow at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute where she focuses on intervention and implementation science in the Global Mental Health Division of the Psychiatry Department. Her research examines the intersections of intimate partner violence (IPV), help seeking and mental health, with a specific focus upon Black women.

Dr. Waller’s scholarship was used to help shape the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and is currently being used by the NYC Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic and Gender-Based Violence to improve the lives of Black women survivors. She has been a subject matter expert in the New York Times and the Atlanta Journal Constitution and has written OpEd articles for Newsday and the Huffington Post. Her TEDx Talk, Hindered Help, illuminates the barriers that prevent Black women from securing crisis assistance and is part of the required curriculum at the University of Michigan and Rutgers University.

Her passion for improving the mental health and overall wellbeing of Black women survivors has pushed her to the international forefront, partnering with the UN Women, along with providers in Barbados, Nigeria, Ghana, Canada, Malaysia, New York City, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and most recently Mozambique.

Dr. Waller earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Social Work and a Master of Arts in Mental Health Counseling from Adelphi University; as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, with a concentration in Legal Studies from Temple University.

She is a member of Zion Cathedral Church of God in Christ where she faithfully serves as a Deaconess, member of the intercessory prayer team, the Strategic Planning Committee and is an assistant Sunday School teacher.