Staff: Sonia Suri, PhD

Dr. Suri is a Senior Public Health Researcher with extensive experience in research and evaluation of behavioral health, educational, public health, human services, homelessness and forensic mental health programs. For 25 years Dr. Suri has evaluated health and social equity initiatives leading local, state, and national evaluation projects. In addition, Dr. Suri has led evaluation efforts for organizations that serve domestic violence, batterer intervention and child witness to violence services for immigrant and refugee populations at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. She led and directed evaluation of Strengthening Young Families through housing and wrap-around services at the National Center for Family Homelessness. At WJC, she plays a crucial leadership role in ensuring all College initiatives are evaluated comprehensively and effectively. As the Director of Program Development, Monitoring, and Evaluation, (PDM&E) she oversees the development and execution of robust program evaluation efforts. Throughout her tenure at WJC, Dr. Suri has served as the Research Director for several impactful community-based programs, including those supporting veterans, at-risk youth (PATHWAYS), INTERFACE resource and referral service individuals facing high-conflict divorce, and the Juvenile Court Clinic (JCC). Her management experience also extends to the coordinated evaluation of several multiple year HRSA student training grants: Graduate Psychology Education (GPE), Opioid Workforce Expansion Program (OWEP), Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) programs. She has been the Research Director of the Military and Veteran and the Train Vets to Treat Vets programs within which she has served as an unofficial mentor to Veteran and Military students and their families. She has also fostered collaborations with Drs. Contreras and Taveira-Dick to engage staff, faculty, and students at WJC in interpersonal intelligence training.