In their talk Mary and Wangari state that when Kenyans are faced with tragedy, they are very resilient. They use humor to cope with tragedy.especially with the new, online tribe of Kenyans
trailblazing community engagement, better known as ‘Kenyans On Twitter’ or KOT,
Wangari has 14 years’ experience in designing and implementing Psychology and Research programs. Her niche is empowering people with disabilities/special needs and their caregivers, particularly the Deaf. She is a founder member of Afrika Hai, where she uses expressive arts to co-produce knowledge in local communities and to restore African indigenous healing knowledge ways. She founded a program called Study Smart, which provides mental health and wellness support for researchers. She earned a global award at the American Psychological Association 2018 Convention on a research titled: Barriers to Mental Health Access for Deaf Adults in Kenya: A Review. She is a candidate of Doctor of Psychology, PsyD, Clinical Psychology, at United States International University-Africa (USIU-Africa), where she is also a Doctoral Teaching and Research Assistant. She was a founder of the USIU-Africa Disability Policy and the Sign Language Club.
Mary works at True North Society, where she supports Military veterans to re-integrate into
society after their service. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Montclair State University, New
Jersey, United States and a Master’s Degree from United States International University (USIU-
Africa). She has been practicing psychology for over 10 years.
In 2019 she supported civilians affected by the terrorist attack at 14 Riverside Nairobi.
Mary has worked with victims of torture and war trauma from our neighboring countries of
Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
She has held a managerial and supervisory position of trauma counselors in the northern areas of
Kenya. In this capacity she was also a trainer who provided needs based trainings for personnel
from various organizations such as UNHCR and Red Cross. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
HUMOR FOR RESILIENCE | Wangari Joyce & Mary Kittakah | TEDxStateHouseRoad