Vera A Muñiz-Saurré, MPH

Vera A. Muñiz-Saurré, M.P.H., is a Clinical Research Program Coordinator and Peer Advocate for the Response to Risk Program

Vera A. Muñiz-Saurré (they/éle) is a nonbinary, queer, Peruvian public health professional of mixed Spanish and Andean ancestry working as a Program Coordinator and Peer Advocate for the Massachusetts Psychosis Prevention Partnership (M3P) and Building Bridges towards Equity in Psychosis Intervention and Careers (2B-EPIC) grants at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a Peer Counselor at the Lab for Early Psychosis at McLean Hospital.  

Community-Focused Abolition: Vera is diagnosed with Schizoaffective disorder, a survivor of conversion therapy targeting their sexuality, and identifies as Mad and a psychiatric survivor. Starting in 2017, Vera helped found and admin the Psychosis Spectrum Server on Discord and still helps maintain that community! Vera’s ideology and public health approach centers abolition of long-standing oppressive systemic structures, investment in harm reduction-based support services, and reindigenization of academic knowledge systems in both theory and application. 

Academic Interests: Vera graduated with their Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and their Master of Public Health in Community Assessment, Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation from Boston University and uses what they learned working in public health to help strengthen their communities, to abolish systemic barriers that create poor health outcomes, and create community spaces/dialogues that center people with lived experience of marginalization through a framework of meaningful participatory design that recognizes the value of all forms of Traditional Ecological Knowledge.