Daughter. Aunty. Scholar. Activist. Friend.
I am the daughter of Punjabi-Sikh immigrants and was born in Houston, Texas. I moved to Los Angeles in 2016 after living and working in Haiti and Peru for three years. After graduating from Harvard Medical School, I completed nine years of post-graduate training in adult psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, global mental health, and health services research. I then worked in various psychiatric clinical care settings while developing innovative medical education content pertaining to racism and antiracism.
In 2021, I launched my private practice in California with the goal of providing high-quality, antiracist, and affirming mental healthcare that promotes healing and joy. Few providers possess my unique academic and clinical expertise, as well as my passion for the work I feel so privileged to do. In addition to providing clinical care, write and teach extensively about health equity and antiracism in mental healthcare and healthcare more broadly. My scholarship enhances and deepens my clinical work.
I believe that the people I see find their way to me as much as I find my way to them.
Education & Training
UCLA Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship
Harvard Medical School and Partners in Health Dr. Mario Pagenel Fellowship in Global Mental Health Delivery (Haiti, Peru)
University of Colorado Adult Psychiatry Residency
Harvard Medical School, MD (Honors)
Duke University, BA in History (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa)
Awards & Honors
Gertrude Rogers Greenblatt Award (clinical excellence in child psychiatry), UCLA Division of Child Psychiatry
Ritvo Award (academic excellence in child psychiatry), UCLA Division of Child Psychiatry
Laughlin Fellow, American College of Psychiatrists
Minority Fellowship Program Grantee, American Psychiatric Association
Gold Humanism in Medicine Award
Fellow, Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry
Fulbright Scholar, South Korea
Board Certification & Licensure
Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology, Psychiatry
Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
California, New York, and New Jersey Medical License
California DEA License
Research & Scholarship
Co-Founder, Antiracism Healing Collaborative, Home of the Antiracism in Medicine Curriculum Series
Global Mental Health Researcher, Harvard Medical School, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine
Health Services Researcher, University of Colorado Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health
Selected Publications
Articles
Legha RK and Miranda J. An Anti-Racist Approach to Achieving Mental Health Equity in Clinical Care. Psychiatric Clinics of North America 2020;43(3): 451-569.
Asmerom B, Legha RK, Mabeza RM, Nuñez V. An Abolitionist Approach to Antiracist Medical Education. AMA J Ethics 2022;24(3):E194-E200.
Legha RK, Clayton A, Yuen, L, Gordon-Achebe K. Nurturing Children's Mental Health Body and Soul: Confronting American Child Psychiatry's Racist Past to Reimagine Its Antiracist Future. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America 2022 Apr;31(2): 277-294.
Legha, RK and Gordon-Achebe K. The Color of Child Protection: Antiracism and Abolition in Child Mental Health. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America 2022 Oct;31(4): 693-718.
Legha RK and Martinek N. White Supremacy Culture and the Assimilation Trauma of Medical Training: Ungaslighting the Physician Burnout Discourse. BMJ Medical Humanities 2022.
Book Chapters
Gordon K, Starks S, Hairston D, Legha R. Legacy of racism in American medicine and psychiatry. In Racism and Psychiatry: Formulation and Treatment in a Social Justice Era, 1st edition, ed. M Medlock et al., Springer Publishing Co., New York, NY, 2018.
Miranda J, Snowden L, Legha R. How Do Mental Health Policies Affect Disparities? In Mental Health and Mental Health Care? In Handbook on Mental Health Policy: Controversies and Challenges, 1st edition, ed. H. Goldman et al., Palgrave Macmillan Publishers, 2018.