Dr. Pateña is a global mental health practitioner and implementation researcher dedicated to narrowing the mental health treatment gap by scaling-up mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) interventions. He has over 15 years of experience providing direct mental health care, conducting population mental health research, and implementing community-based mental health interventions for vulnerable populations in the United States and globally. Motivated by a passion for bridging the research-to-practice gap, he utilizes implementation science to advance evidence-based MHPSS solutions in low-resourced settings and drive systems-level change through adaptive leadership.