Shelly Evans

Shelly Evans is a Licensed Professional Counsellor with a Master’s in Counselling Psychology. She currently resides in Akron, Ohio. Shelly has been a volunteer mental health trainer with Network for Africa since 2008 and has made numerous trips to northern Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Sierra Leone. Using the training programme developed for Network for Africa, Shelly has also taught counsellors helping the Yezidi survivors of Islamic State’s brutal occupation of Iraq. Prior to becoming involved with N4A, she lived and worked in South Korea and China. She was a board member of Step Up, An American Association of Rwandan Women and travelled to Rwanda multiple times as a mental health trainer, which is how she became connected with Network for Africa. At home in Akron, Shelly is a PhD candidate in the College of Public Health at Kent State University. Her research interests lie in refugee health and social & behavioral sciences. She is also a volunteer with a local organisation, Akron Interfaith Immigrant Advocates, that represents migrants in the northeast Ohio region. She is part of a team that provides mental health support to migrants as they navigate the processes of acculturation.