Lisa R. Fortuna, MD, MPH
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Psychiatry

Biography
I am the medical director for child and adolescent psychiatry services for the Boston Medical Center, and co-director of the Transforming and Expanding Access to Mental Health in Urban Pediatrics –TEAM UP for Children, a 4 year behavioral health integration project in pediatrics at three community health centers. TEAM UP is supported by the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation.
My clinical career has focused on treating a range of childhood psychiatric disorders with a particular focus on Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, and mental health services, research on access to care and quality of treatment for underserved and vulnerable populations including children, immigrant and refugee populations. These areas of clinical practice and research are my passion and have resulted in my engagement in many rewarding projects which include: being a cofounder of a refugee immigrant mental health clinic in Boston, being an investigator in national and international studies of immigrant mental health and addictions which have contributed to the field’s understanding of treatment needs and interventions for these populations.
I have published in peer reviewed journals on the topics of Latino mental health, PTSD, improving access to mental health services by Latinos and other U.S. underserved minorities. I have also worked on developing mental health interventions and services for unaccompanied refugee minors from Latin America and in promoting integrated mental health interventions in pediatric primary care.
My book “Mindfulness-Based CBT for Adolescent PTSD and Addictions” was published by New Harbinger Press in October 2015 and is a product of a five-year National Institute of Drug Abuse research grant during which I developed and tested an effective intervention for adolescents with co-occurring traumatic stress and addictions.
Education
- University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, MD
- Episcopal Divinity School, MDiv
- Hunter College, MPH
- Yale University, BA
Publications
- Published on 5/25/2023
Godfrey LB, Cloitre M, Elwy AR, Fortuna LR, Fuchs C, Valentine SE. Study protocol for a hybrid 1 effectiveness-implementation trial of Brief Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation (Brief STAIR) and web-administered STAIR (webSTAIR) for posttraumatic stress disorder in integrated primary care. Contemp Clin Trials. 2023 Aug; 131:107241. PMID: 37244367.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 4/21/2023
Fortuna LR, Martinez W, Porche MV. Integrating Spirituality and Religious Beliefs in a Mindfulness Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for PTSD with Latinx Unaccompanied Immigrant Children. J Child Adolesc Trauma. 2023 Sep; 16(3):481-494. PMID: 37593049.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 4/17/2023
Fortuna LR, Bagot KS. Editorial: Inconclusive (or "Elusive"): Concordance Between Substance Use Self-report and Toxicology for Diverse Youth Populations. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2023 Jul; 62(7):721-723. PMID: 37075888.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 4/5/2023
Ng LC, Miller AN, Bowers G, Cheng Y, Brigham R, Tai MH, Smith AM, Mueser KT, Fortuna LR, Coles M. A pragmatic feasibility trial of the Primary Care Intervention for PTSD: A health service delivery model to reduce health disparities for low-income and BIPOC youth. Behav Res Ther. 2023 Jun; 165:104310. PMID: 37040669.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 3/28/2023
Robles-Ramamurthy B, Fortuna LR. Editorial: Institutional Commitment Is Needed to Promote Antiracist Care of Unaccompanied Immigrant Minors. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2023 Mar 28. PMID: 36997113.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/6/2023
Freitag GF, Salem H, Conroy K, Busto C, Adrian M, Borba CPC, Brandt A, Chu PV, Dantowitz A, Farley AM, Fortuna L, Furr JM, Lejeune J, Miller L, Platt R, Porche M, Read KL, Rivero-Conil S, Hernandez RDS, Shumway P, Sikov J, Spencer A, Syeda H, McLellan LF, Rapee RM, McMakin D, Pincus DB, Comer JS. The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) pediatric and parent-proxy short forms for anxiety: Psychometric properties in the Kids FACE FEARS sample. J Anxiety Disord. 2023 Mar; 94:102677. PMID: 36773484.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/3/2023
Fortuna LR, Brown IC, Lewis Woods GG, Porche MV. The Impact of COVID-19 on Anxiety Disorders in Youth: Coping with Stress, Worry, and Recovering from a Pandemic. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am. 2023 Jul; 32(3):531-542. PMID: 37201965.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 1/1/2023
Novins DK, Althoff RR, Brotman MA, Cortese S, DelBello M, Doyle A, Drury SS, Fortuna L, Frazier JA, Fristad M, Henderson SW, McCauley E, Middeldorp C, Njoroge WFM, Rogers CE, White T. Editors' Best of 2022. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2023 Jan; 62(1):1-7. PMID: 36581385.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 12/19/2022
Zolli N, Loubeau JK, Sikov J, Baul TD, Hasan S, Rosen K, Buonocore O, Rabin M, Duncan A, Fortuna L, Borba CPC, Silverstein M, Spencer AE. "If he doesn't buy in, it's a waste of time": Perspectives from diverse parents and adolescents on engaging children in ADHD treatment. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2022 Dec 19. PMID: 36534302.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/15/2022
Fortuna LR, Shah LD. Editorial: Racialized Trauma and Emotion Regulation in a Dysregulated World. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2023 Feb; 62(2):127-129. PMID: 36400279.
Read at: PubMed
View 49 more publications: View full profile at BUMC