James January, PhD, MSc
Associate Scholar
- Senior Lecturer and Clinical Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry & Mental Health, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, Malawi
- Malawi | Namibia | Zimbabwe
- Adolescent health | Health Equity | Humanitarian Crises | Mental health | Migrant Health | Non-communicable disease | Refugee health | Social determinants of health | Trauma Informed Care | Vaccine Research & Development | Vaccines | Women's health
Languages: English (Fluent), Chichewa (Fluent), Shona (Fluent)
BIO STATEMENT
Dr. James January is a Malawian clinical psychologist and senior faculty with over 20 years of experience in mental health research and education in Zimbabwe and Malawi. With an interdisciplinary background in psychology, public health, epidemiology, and implementation science, he serves as faculty at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences. His research focuses on strengthening mental health care systems in low-resource settings, with expertise in adolescent and perinatal mental health, psychiatric epidemiology, and global mental health services research. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and actively mentors early-career researchers, promoting mental health equity and informing health policies.
Recent Global Health Projects
WHO Special Initiative for Mental Health: Conducted baseline analyses in Bangladesh, Jordan, Paraguay, the Philippines, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe to assess mental health system gaps and guide national reform efforts.
SAFETY Planning Project (Malawi):
This project adapts and pilots an evidence-based suicide prevention intervention for adolescents living with HIV in Malawi. It aims to assess the intervention’s feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness through a hybrid implementation-efficacy trial in Lilongwe, helping address the high risk of suicide in this vulnerable population.
Select Publications
Khumalo-Punungwe, S., Manobo, B. M., & January, J. (2025). Towards Wellbeing and Resilience: Innovations in Community Mental Health Practice in Zimbabwe. In The Palgrave Handbook of Mental Health Practice in Sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 339-350). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.
Fraga, M. D. S. R., Angst, F. A., January, J., Madziwa, A., Gonah, L., & Lazzarotto, A. (2024). The burden and risk factors associated with infectious diseases among refugees in a camp for migrants in Porto Alegre: A cross-sectional survey. Annals of Global Health, 90(1), 48.
Kemp, C. G., Concepcion, T., Ahmed, H. U., Anwar, N., Baingana, F., Bennett, I. M., ... & Collins, P. Y. (2022). Baseline situational analysis in Bangladesh, Jordan, Paraguay, the Philippines, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe for the WHO special initiative for mental health: Universal health coverage for mental health. Plos one, 17(3), e0265570.
Last Updated: 22 October 2025