Cassis Boateng is a first year Hillman Scholar in Nursing Innovation. He earned his MPH from the Perelman School of Medicine. He is interested in the intersection between mental health, addiction, trauma and spirituality across the lifespan. Specifically, he wants to know the role of spirituality in building resilience among different forms of mental illnesses and outcomes, and the neural correlates by which spirituality is expressed. He has worked with both animal and human subjects in the lab and clinical setting trying to understand the etiology of substance use disorders. He also uses GIS to determine neighborhood factors that contribute to mental health and trauma. He serves as a research assistant across two schools: school of nursing and medicine, working on NIA and NASA funded projects.