Theresa S. Betancourt is the inaugural Salem Professor in Global Practice at the Boston College School of Social Work and Director of the Research Program on Children and Adversity (RPCA). Her work focuses on the psychosocial impact of adversity on children and families, resilience, and mental health services research. She is Principal Investigator of an intergenerational study of war-affected youth in Sierra Leone and leads implementation science research in Rwanda to examine strategies for scaling and sustaining quality in an evidence-based home visiting intervention to promote early childhood development and prevent violence (Sugira Muryango). Using community-based participatory research methods, she has co-developed similar family strengthening interventions for resettling refugee families in the U.S. raising school-age children.
Dr. Betancourt has served as an advisor for UNICEF, the International Rescue Committee, Amnesty International, the US Institute of Peace, and the World Health Organization, and served as an expert of the International Criminal Court. Her book, Shadows into Light: A Generation of Former Child Soldiers Comes of Age, published in 2025 by Harvard University Press, provides insights into the long-term psychological and developmental effects of family separation, war, and exposure to violence as well as lessons of resilience. Dr. Betancourt has been profiled in the BC Chronicle, Boston Globe, CNN, NPR, SIRIUS FM, WHYY Radio, New Yorker, National Geographic, BOLD, BBC.com, and in an interview with Larry King on “PoliticKing.” In 2025, she joined the board of Save the Children U.S.