Ebony Rao

Ebony Rao serves as Senior Health Program Manager for the Office of Violence Prevention with Mecklenburg County Public Health. Since graduating with her Master's in Counseling Psychology from Columbia in 2011, she has worked in mental health-related roles, beginning as a school counselor and therapist before moving to North Carolina and joining public health as a crisis therapist. Her path led her to train law enforcement on trauma response, lead the Crisis Intervention Team, develop a postpartum screening program, and create a COVID response team that served over 10,000 community members. She recently completed her PhD in Public Health Sciences, with research on childhood trauma as a precursor to maternal mental health issues. Rao is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Supervisor trained in EMDR and TF-CBT, and holds a perinatal mental health credential through Postpartum Support International. She led the RECAST grant program to increase trauma-informed care and reduce community violence, developing train-the-trainer programs and school initiatives that reduced suicide and violence by over 50 percent. She is a member of Postpartum Support International, the American Public Health Association, EMDRIA, the American Psychological Association, the North Carolina Public Health Association, and Phi Beta Zeta. Rao attributes her success to resilience shaped by her own childhood trauma and credits advice to explore new opportunities, which guided her into public health. She is a fellow of the North Carolina Maternal Mental Health Fellowship and engages in advocacy and professional speaking on maternal mental health and healing from childhood trauma.