Maria is a Health Services Researcher at King’s Improvement Science Centre (KCL), where she currently works on the evaluation of the clinical effectiveness of mental health services within South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. Maria initially joined KCL in 2017 working with Prof Sir Graham Thornicroft at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), and has since coordinated several global mental health research initiatives - the MASC study (Adverse sequelae of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health care in seven LMICs); The INDIGO Network (an international collaboration of research experts committed to the reduction of stigma and discrimination related to mental ill health); The Lancet Commission on Ending Stigma and Discrimination in Mental Health (LCS), including its translation into six languages; and the Commission Partnership Implementation (CIP) group, focused on implementing impact oriented recommendations from the LCS report.

Graduating from Complutense University of Madrid (BSs+MSc) as a political scientist, Maria is currently completing her PhD at the Centre for Implementation Science, part of the Health Services and Population Research Department. Her research investigates the design and implementation of exit strategies in global health interventions funded by Official Development Assistance and private philanthropy in LMICs. The aim of this project is to develop a tool which can be used to guide the process of withdrawing external resources from local communities without compromising the positive impact achieved to date.

Prior to joining KCL, Maria worked as a Junior Policy Officer at the Directorate-General for International Partnerships at the European Commission in Brussels where she worked with the EU Council on mainstreaming digital technologies in international development initiatives. She is currently part of the writing group of the upcoming WHO anti-stigma in mental health toolkit.

Research Interests

• Implementation Science
• Global Mental Health
• International Development Cooperation
• Interdisciplinary policy-making
• Exit Strategies

Expertise and Public Engagement

• Maria managed the London branch of Young Professionals in Foreign Policy (YPFP, 2020-2022), a non-partisan organisation which develops the leadership skills of young policymakers.
• Funded by Research England and alongside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), she organised a conference titled “UK’s International Offer: Opportunities and Challenges for Realising the Development-Diplomacy Dividend” (2021) between early career researchers from UK universities and early to mid-career civil servants from the FCDO.
• In 2022 Maria became a Parliamentary Researcher for the UK House of Lords, a scheme sponsored by King’s Policy Institute. She was appointed as Senior Parliamentary Researcher to the Office of Baroness Hunt, which then led to the establishment of the ESRC funded Research to Policy Mechanism, focused on improving LGBTQ+ life outcomes in the UK. The project is currently led by Dr Feldman and Dr Maine.

Teaching

Maria is a Graduate Teaching Assistant supporting:

• Global Mental Health MSc (Theory to Practice module)
• Psychology BSc (Women’s Mental Health module)
• Mental Health Studies MSc, leading seminars, workshops, and assessments

Key publications

• Thornicroft G, Sunkel C, Milenova M; Commission Implementation Partnership. How to stop stigma: implementing The Lancet Commission on ending stigma and discrimination in mental health. Lancet Psychiatry. 2024 Feb;11(2):88-89. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(23)00374-7. Epub 2023 Nov 23. PMID: 38008101.

• M Milenova, S Parry, N Mehta, and G Thornicroft. Stigma and Discrimination in relation to People with Mental Health Conditions and Psychiatric Institutions. In Ethics in Psychiatry. European Contributions, 2nd edition, Springer (in press)

• Thusini, S., Milenova, M., Nahabedian, N., Grey, D. B., Soukup, D. T. & Henderson, D. C., 8 Jun 2022, In: BMC Health Services Research. 22, 1, 44 p., 1083. Identifying and understanding benefits associated with return-on-investment from large-scale healthcare Quality Improvement programmes: an Integrative Systematic Literature Review.

• Thusini S, Milenova M, Grey B, Soukup TA, Henderson C. (2022) The development of the concept of return-on-investment from large-scale Quality Improvement programmes in healthcare: An Integrative Systematic Literature Review. BMC Health Services Research.

• Thornicroft, G., Sunkel, C., Alikhon Aliev, A., Baker, S., Brohan, E., el Chammay, R., Davies, K., Demissie, M., Duncan, J., Fekadu, W., Gronholm, P. C., Guerrero, Z., Gurung, D., Habtamu, K., Hanlon, C., Heim, E., Henderson, C., Hijazi, Z., Hoffman, C., Hosny, N., M., Milenova & 23 others, 22 Oct 2022, The Lancet Commission on ending stigma and discrimination in mental health. In: The Lancet. 400, 10361, p. 1438-1480

• Brohan, E., Milenova, M., Bakolis, I., Evans-Lacko, S., Kohrt, B., Thornicroft, G., Vogel, D. & Wade, N., 1 Sep 2022, Measurement of mental illness stigma and discrimination. (The Cambridge Handbook of Stigma and Mental Health)

• Koschorke M, Oexle N, Ouali U, Cherian AV, Deepika V, Mendon GB, Gurung D, Kondratova L, Muller M, Lanfredi M, Lasalvia A, Bodrogi A, Nyulászi A, Tomasini M, El Chammay R, Abi Hana R, Zgueb Y, Nacef F, Heim E, Aeschlimann A, Souraya S, Milenova M, van Ginneken N, Thornicroft G, Kohrt BA. (2021) Perspectives of healthcare providers, service users, and family members about mental illness stigma in primary care settings: A multi-site qualitative study of seven countries in Africa, Asia, and Europe. PLoS One. 27;16(10):e0258729. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258729. PMID: 34705846; PMCID: PMC8550394.

• Taylor Salisbury T, Kohrt BA, Bakolis I, Jordans MJ, Hull L, Luitel NP, McCrone P, Sevdalis N, Pokhrel P, Carswell K, Ojagbemi A, Green EP, Chowdhary N, Kola L, Lempp H, Dua T, Milenova M, Gureje O, Thornicroft G. (2021) Adaptation of the World Health Organization Electronic Mental Health Gap Action Programme Intervention Guide App for Mobile Devices in Nepal and Nigeria: Protocol for a Feasibility Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Res Protoc. 2021 Jun 15;10(6):e24115. doi: 10.2196/24115. PMID: 34128819.

• Gronholm PC, Nosé M, van Brakel WH, Eaton J, Ebenso B, Fiekert K, Milenova M, Sunkel C, Barbui C, Thornicroft G. (2021) Reducing stigma and discrimination associated with COVID-19: early stage pandemic rapid review and practical recommendations. Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci. 2021 Jan 28;30:e15. doi: 10.1017/S2045796021000056. PMID: 33504412; PMCID: PMC7884669.

• Heim, E., Kohrt, B., Koschorke, M., Milenova, M., & Thornicroft, G. (2020). Reducing mental health-related stigma in primary health care settings in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 29, E3. doi:10.1017/S2045796018000458

• Milenova, M., Gronholm, P. (2020) The Kindness of Lemons: Addressing COVID-19 stigma with small acts of kindness. Understanding the effects of mental health stigma. KCL Series on COVID-19. 18 May 2020. https://bit.ly/2THonsd

• Salisbury, Tatiana & Kohrt, Brandon & Bakolis, Ioannis & Jordans, Mark & Hull, Louise & Luitel, Nagendra & McCrone, Paul & Sevdalis, Nick & Pokhrel, Pooja & Carswell, Kenneth & Ojagbemi, Akin & Green, Eric & Chowdhary, Neerja & Kola, Lola & Lempp, Heidi & Dua, Tarun & Milenova, Maria & Gureje, Oye & Thornicroft, Graham. (2020). Feasibility study of the WHO e-mhGAP-Intervention Guide in Nepal and Nigeria : Emilia project study protocol (Preprint). 10.2196/preprints.24115.

• Heim E, Henderson C, Kohrt BA, Koschorke M, Milenova M, Thornicroft G. Reducing mental health-related stigma among medical and nursing students in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review. Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci. 2019 Apr 1;29:e28. doi: 10.1017/S2045796019000167. PMID: 30929650; PMCID: PMC6848770.

• González-Sanguino, C., Potts, L.C., Milenova, M. et al. (2019) Time to Change’s social marketing campaign for a new target population: results from 2017 to 2019. BMC Psychiatry 19, 417. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2415-x

• Thornicroft G, Bakolis I, Evans-Lacko S, Gronholm PC, Henderson C, Kohrt BA, Koschorke M, Milenova M, Semrau M, Votruba N, Sartorius N. (2019) 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.