Sharon M. Holder, PhD., MSc., MSW

Sharon M. Holder is Chief Executive Officer for Msingi Institute. In her current role, Dr. Holder provides strategic leadership and programmatic structures align with the Institute’s vision to be a global change agent to ensures that mental health and substance use resources are accessible to everyone without stigma or discrimination.

Prior to her role with Msingi Institute, Holder brought over 25 years of interdisciplinary experiences as a social scientist, social worker, administrator, and researcher. She worked as a consultant with both national and international organizations and fosters on-going relationships with government and non-governmental agencies. Holder was an Embedded Research Scientist in the Academic Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Greenville Health Systems jointly appointed at Clemson University, Department of Youth, Family and Community Studies, Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life as a Research Assistant Professor. Previously she was the Director of the Ageing Resource Information Support & Education (ARISE) Program at the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston (UTHSC-H), School of Nursing, Center on Aging, Houston, TX, where she developed, implemented geriatric care management program and provides strategic leadership to ensure alignment between the Centers mission, goals, and structures of UTHSC-H School of Nursing Center on Ageing.

As a social scientist, both her clinical and research focus has been in ageing, health disparity and behavioral health research. Her most recent research seeks to understand the dynamics of mental health stigma, substance use and co-occurring disorders and how to improve access, treatment and outcome among vulnerable, marginalized and underserved populations. As a trained gerontologist she is committed to improving mental health equity across the life-course. Her work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and she authored a book on health, ethnicity and aging. Dr. Holder has presented nationally and internationally on ageing, mental health disparity and mental health stigma. She served as the principal investigator and co-investigator on several grants and contracts.

Dr. Holder was the founder and past Chair of the Southeastern Symposium on Mental Health, which was designed to provide a vehicle for bridging the gap between mental health, research, practice, and advocacy amongst practitioners, caregivers, and stakeholders. She also co-developed the Annual Upstate Mental Health showcase which provides a forum for the dissemination of mental health and substance use information to the underserved, marginalized and clinical populations.

Dr. Holder earned her PhD in gerontology from the Center for Research on Aging, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Southampton, United Kingdom (UK), a Master of Science in Gerontology from Institute of Gerontology, Faculty of Social Sciences & Public Policy, King’s College, University of London, UK and a Master of Social Work from the Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA., and her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Houston-Downtown, Houston, TX. She was a research fellow at Pacific Institute, San Francesco CA. Dr. Holder has served on several Boards and is currently an Advisor on the Greenville Mental Health Champions Board, SC Department of Mental Health. She is a Patient Centered Outcome Research Institute (PCORI) Ambassador and serves as merit reviewer for PCORI. Dr. Holder also received numerous scholarships, awards and honors.