Sophia Banu, M.D., is a board-certified adult, child and adolescent psychiatrist and Associate Professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston, Texas. She completed her medical education in New Delhi, India, her psychiatry residency and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at St Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital, Columbia University, New York, and Psychosomatic fellowship at the Bellevue / NYU Hospital, primarily working with refugees and survivors of torture at the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture.  

Dr. Banu has extensive experience working with refugees, survivors of torture and natural disasters in Nepal, New York, Greece, Bangladesh, Turkey, and Houston. She founded the Center for International Trauma Survivors (CITS) for refugees and torture survivors working with resettlement agencies and medical students, conducting annual health fairs, wellness education classes for the refugees and training psychiatry residents and fellows to provide ongoing trauma responsive and culturally competent care with cultural humility.  

Dr. Banu co-founded the “Alliance Wellness Center in 2017 “for refugees and the underserved population and launched the Annual Refugee Mental Health and Wellness conference in 2018. She is one of the faculty supervisors for the BCM students Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) chapter and the Human Rights and Asylum Clinic. Her other contributions include being the co-founder and co-director of the Global Mental Health division under the Department of Psychiatry and one of the co-authors of the Handbook of Refugee Experience “Trauma, Resilience and Recovery.” As a global mental health consultant specializing in refugee trauma, Dr. Banu has volunteered her time to support the Safe Space Project as advisor and co-facilitator for Psychological First Aid (PFA) training.