Mukhtar, Sonia

Sonia Mukhtar is a Research Intern at UNU-CRIS, contributing to the Nature, Climate, and Health Cluster in collaboration with the CliMent EU COST Action project. Sonia is pursuing her education across a multidisciplinary consortium of institutions in the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s in Public Health in Disasters (EMJM-PHID): the University of Oviedo (Spain), Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), and the University of Nicosia (Cyprus). With a strong academic foundation in mental health, holding a Bachelor’s in Applied Psychology and a Master’s in Counseling Psychology, Sonia has actively led and contributed to several research initiatives in mental health, psychosocial vulnerabilities, and public health equity, especially in disaster and crisis contexts. Her academic record of over 45 peer-reviewed scientific research publications, cited more than 2,580 times, and prior experience as a university faculty member in research and teaching roles reflects both scholarly depth and real-world relevance to the pressing issues of our time.

At UNU-CRIS, her research will focus on the nexus between mental health and climate change, particularly in Spain, with special attention to climate-induced stressors. Sonia’s work aims to bridge psychological research with climate resilience frameworks, identifying inclusive and sustainable interventions to mitigate mental health risks associated with climate extremes. She will be investigating the effects of climate-related disasters on mental well-being and supporting integrated, long-term mental health strategies within environmental governance and public health planning. Her work contributes to shaping evidence-based policy at the climate-health nexus, focusing on climate vulnerable regions and crisis-affected health systems.

Simultaneously, Sonia will also be undertaking a secondary project examining the post-disaster mental health outcomes, community resilience and institutional responses following the 2022 floods in Pakistan. Through this work, she will be co-authoring a UNU-CRIS working paper under the supervision of Nidhi Nagabhatla offering policy-relevant strategies for integrating mental health into climate adaptation and disaster preparedness in both Europe and South Asia. Her interdisciplinary interests in equity, mental health, and climate health position her as an emerging voice driving forward transformative change in the fields of public health, humanitarian response, and sustainable development.