2026 SA-ACAPAP Website

Our Keynote Speakers:

• • • Dr Massimiliano Orri | McGill University, Canada

Dr. Massimiliano Orri is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University, a Principal Investigator at the Douglas Hospital Research Centre, and an associate member in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health at McGill University. He is a Theme Lead in the Montreal WHO/PAHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health. His multidisciplinary research program in psychiatric epidemiology aims to understand the risk factors of suicide across the lifespan using data from large population-based longitudinal studies and genetically informed methods. Besides research, Dr. Orri practices as a clinical psychologist in the Depressive and Suicide Disorders Program at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute

• • • Prof Linda Richter | University of the Witwatersrand

Prof Richter is a Distinguished Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand. She led the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development in its first four years from 2014-2018. She is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa, a Research Associate in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford (UK), a Faculty Affiliate of the World Policy Centre at the University of California in Los Angeles, and an advisor to the World Health Organization in Geneva on early child development. From 2003-2006, she was a Visiting Researcher at the University of Melbourne, from 2007-2010 a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University (USA), and from 2010-2012 she served in Geneva as Advisor on Vulnerable Children at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. She obtained her PhD in Psychology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.