Waliyah Mughis
Senior Instructor
Waliyah Mughis is a public health researcher with a background in clinical developmental psychology and currently a Senior Instructor at the Aga Khan University, with joint appointment between the Department of Community Health Sciences and the Brain and Mind Institute. She has a BSc in Clinical Psychology and MSc in Developmental Psychology from the University of Kent, UK. During her time there, she conducted research at the Kent Child Development Unit and completed clinical internships at the Kent & Canterbury Hospital.
Her contributions to science are notable in areas such as maternal, child, and family health research, public health interventions, clinical practice, and education and training.
Waliyah joined the Department of Psychiatry at Aga Khan University Pakistan in 2015, working as a clinician and coordinator for the Child Learning Behaviour Clinic on neurodevelopmental conditions, particularly autism. Her clinical training includes play and art-based therapies for paediatric populations and CBT, DBT, and EMDR for adolescents/adults. She continued her role as a Research Specialist in the Department of Paediatrics & Child Health (2018-23) where she worked on research and implementation projects ranging from trials for clinical investigational devices to community-based infant and child mortality surveillance to early childhood development and family mental health. As visiting faculty at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and Institute of Business Management (IoBM), she has also developed and taught undergraduate-level courses on foundations of human behaviour, human developmental psychology, and applied psychology in public health.
Waliyah is affiliated with the British Psychological Society, Pakistan Psychological Association and the American School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Society. She has served as a consultant for numerous NGOs focused on human rights, education, and mental health, and is an advisory board member for Taskeen Health Initiative. She is an independent expert reviewer for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Global Health Research Programme and a review editor for the Paediatrics and Public Health sections of BMC & Frontiers journals. Her publications explore topics like community-based grief support for bereaved parents, digital interventions for health behaviour change, psychosocial interventions for paediatric patients, and school-based health promotion interventions.
