Photo of Mary Bunn

Mary Bunn PhD

Assistant Professor

Co-Director, Global Mental Health Research and Training Program, Center for Global Health

University of Illinois Chicago

Contact

Email:

mbunn [at] uic.edu

Office Phone:

(312) 413-4627

Building & Room:

School of Public Health / Psychiatric Institute (SPHPI) 588

Address:

1601 W. Taylor St. SPHPI MC 912 Chicago IL 60612

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Office Phone:

(312) 355-2136

Building & Room:

Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI) 424

Address:

912 S. Wood St. Department of Psychiatry (MC 913) Chicago IL 60612

Related Sites:

About

Mary Bunn, PhD, LCSW is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, Department of Psychiatry. She is also a core faculty member and Co-Director of the Global Mental Health Research and Training Program in the UIC Center for Global Health, and a clinical faculty member in the Mood and Anxiety Disorder Program, where she provides therapy services to survivors of war, torture, and forced migration.

Her research program focuses on community-based mental health prevention and care interventions for refugees and forcibly displaced communities across the migration continuum. This involves bridging prevention and intervention research to integrate a spectrum of services for communities with diverse needs. She is particularly interested in peer service delivery models, family-based approaches, and how to best mobilize social and family resources through interventions. Her research integrates implementation science and human-centered design to enhance the uptake and sustainability of evidence-based mental health services for refugee communities.

Restoring Social Bonds: Group-based Treatment and the Social Resources of Syrian Refugees in Jordan

Strengthening Family and Community Support for Arabic-speaking Refugee Communities in Chicago.

  • Selected Publications

    Bunn, M., Haidar, A., Golden, S. & Hall, B. (in press). Leveraging the power of groups for forced migrant populations impacted by war and torture: Building family and community resources among Syrian refugees in Jordan. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy.

    Bunn, M., Dilts, C., Jung, E., Sharifi, F., Sohail, R. & Betancourt, T. (in press). Assessing the needs of Afghan children and youth: A qualitative investigation of culturally relevant mental health and emotional distress phenomenon. Transcultural Psychiatry.

    Weine, S., Arenliu, A., Görmez, V., Bunn, M. & Polutnik-Smith, C. (in press) Developing and pilot testing a Low-Intensity Family Support (LIFS) intervention for Syrian Refugees in Istanbul. Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health.

    Rosenberg, J., Kazmir, S., Dang, H., Rodriguez, Y., Bunn, M., Giri, M. (in press) Ethical approaches to patient-centered, trauma-informed asylum and other legal humanitarian relief evaluations for pediatric and young adult clients. American Journal of Bioethics.

    Olayo-Mendez, A., Bunn, M. & Betancourt, T. (in press). Family and caregiving systems strengthening to promote the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing for displaced families and communities. Encyclopedia of Social Work.

    Bunn, M., Potocky, M., Graunke, M., Dumett Torres, E., Yunez, S., Farmer, B. and Weine, S. (2026). Conceptualizing mental health service delivery for refugee and forcibly displaced communities: A scoping review of MHPSS service models and frameworks for populations impacted by trauma or displacement. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy. doi: 10.1037/tra0002076.

    Bunn, M., Graunke, M., Lia, X., Izquierdo, S., Abebayo, N., Sunkel, C. & Cook, J. (2025) Peer service models in behavioral health: A scoping review of Medicaid funding to inform service delivery for forcibly displaced populations in the U.S. PLOS Mental Health 2(10): e0000480. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000480

    Guisto, A., Mootz, J., Bunn, M., Waller, B. & Jaguga, F. (2025). The call to increase adoption of family-based interventions in global mental health programming. Psychiatric Services. 76 (4), 413-416. doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.20240243

    Boateng, G. O., Wachter, K., Schuster, R. C., Burgess, T. L., & Bunn, M. (2024). A scoping review of instruments used in measuring social support among refugees in resettlement. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 21(6), 805. doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21060805

    Bunn, M., Samuels, G. & Higson-Smith, C. (2023). Ambiguous loss of home: Syrian refugees and the process of losing and remaking home. Wellbeing, Space & Society 4, 100136. doi.org/10.1016/j.wss.2023.100136.

    Bunn, M., *Khanna, D., Farmer, E., Esbrook, E., Ellis, H., Richard, A., & Weine, S. (2023). Rethinking mental healthcare for refugees. SSM-Mental Health, 3: 100196. doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2023.100196.

    Bunn, M., Christopher, E., Polutnik Smith, C., McCoy, J., Hanneke, R., King, M., Ellis, H., Cardeli, E., Weine, S. (2023) Rehabilitation and reintegration of women and children returning from violent extremist contexts: A rapid review to inform program and policy development. Terror and Political Violence. 36(4), 455-487. doi:10.1080/09546553.2023.2169143.

    Ellis, H., King, M., Cardeli, E., Christopher, E., Davis, S., Yohannes, S., Bunn, M., McCoy, J., Weine, S. (2023) Supporting women and children returning from violent extremist contexts: Proposing a 5R framework to inform program and policy development. Terror and Political Violence. 36(4): 425–454. doi:10.1080/09546553.2023.2169142.

    Bunn, M. & Betancourt, T. (2023). Strengthening mental health services for refugee children resettled in the U.S. Child Evidence Briefs. https://www.srcd.org/research/strengthening-mental-health-support-services-refugee-children-resettled-us

    Weine, S., Bunn, M., Birman, D., Polutnik-Smith, C., Christopher, E., King, M., McCoy, J., Razdykova, G., Cardeli, E., Ellis, B.H. (2023). Assessing person-centered outcomes in women and children returning from violent extremist conflict. United States Institute of Peace.

    Bunn, M., Zolman, N., Polutnik, C., Khanna, D., Betancourt, T. & Weine, S. (2022). Family-based mental health interventions for refugees across the migration continuum: A systematic review. SSM-Mental Health, 2, 100153. doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2022.100153

    Neville, S. DiClemente-Bosco, K., Chamlagai, L., Bunn, M., Freeman, J., Berent, J., Gautam, B., Abdi, A. & +Betancourt, T.S. (2022). Investigating outcomes of a family strengthening intervention for resettled Somali Bantu and Bhutanese refugees: An explanatory sequential mixed methods study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19 (19), 12415. doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912415

    Bunn, M., Marsh, J., Haidar, A. (2022). Sharing stories eases pain: Core relational processes of a group intervention with Syrian refugees in Jordan. Journal for Specialists in Group Work. 47(2), 110-132.doi.org/10.1080/01933922.2021.2000084

    Acri, M., Falek, I., Bunn, M., Dominguez, J., Gopalan, G., & Chacko, A. (2021). Peer models for families involved in the child welfare system: A systematic approach. Journal of Public Child Welfare. 17(1), 118–140. doi.org/10.1080/15548732.2021.1996503

    Bunn, M., Gonzalez, N., Falek, I., Weine, S., Acri, M. (2021). Supporting and sustaining non-specialist health workers to deliver interventions for mental health in LMICs: An umbrella review of implementation processes and mental health outcomes. Intervention  Journal of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Conflict-AffectedAreas. 19(2), 155-179. doi.org/10.4103/INTV.INTV_47_20

    Weine, S. & Bunn, M. (2020) How can the COVID-19 response advance global mental health? Intervention 18 (1), 92. doi.org/ 10.4103/INTV.INTV_9_20

    Marsh, J. C., & Bunn, M. (2018). Social Work’s Contribution to Direct Practice with Individuals, Families, and Groups: An Institutionalist Perspective. Social Service Review, 92(4), 647-692. doi.org/10.1086/701639

    Bunn, M., Goesel, C., Kinet, M., & Ray, F. (2016). Group treatment for survivors of torture and severe violence: A literature review. Torture: quarterly journal on rehabilitation of torture victims and prevention of torture, 26(1), 45-67. doi.org/10.7146/torture.v26i1.108062

    Bass, J., Murray, S. M., Mohammed, T. A., Bunn, M., Gorman, W., Ahmed, A., Murray, L. & Bolton, P. (2016). A randomized controlled trial of a trauma-informed support, skills, and psychoeducation intervention for survivors of torture and related trauma in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq. Global Health: Science and Practice, 4(3), 452-466. doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-16-00017

Seminar has a video recordiing - Seminar has a video recordiing.

Date Released Title Source
04/20/2022 Dr. Mary Bunn was just awarded funding from the Office of Refugee Resettlement/SAMSHA
11/22/2021 The Global Mental Health Program Co-Directors Drs. Mary Bunn and Stevan Weine would like to share a Call for Abstracts International Workshop on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Interventions for Refugees