Biosketch Mario Incayawar (Maldonado)

Mario Incayawar, M.D., M.Sc.

Dr. Mario Incayawar (Maldonado) is a Quichua physician, educator, and researcher interested in Amerindian psychiatry, pain and ethnicity, and the psychobiology of the healing process. He is the former Henry R. Luce Professor in Brain, Mind, and Medicine: Cross-Cultural Perspectives at Pitzer, Claremont McKenna and Harvey Mudd Colleges, California; and Director of Runajambi (Institute for the Study of Quichua Culture and Health) in Otavalo, Ecuador.

Academic & Professional Background. Dr. Incayawar is the recipient of the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship 2006; an elected member of the Executive Committee of the Transcultural Psychiatry Section of the World Psychiatric Association; Founding Member of the Editorial Board of the World Cultural Psychiatry Research Review (WCPRR) journal, and Regional Advisor for Ecuador; and Associate Editor, Transcultural Psychiatry Section, WPA Newsletter. Dr. Incayawar completed his medical school in Quito, Ecuador, a graduate diploma in community health at the Université de Montreal, a Masters’ degree in transcultural psychiatry at McGill University in Canada, and an advanced training at the National Institutes of Mental Health Research Center on the Psychobiology of Ethnicity at UCLA, USA. Currently, Dr. Incayawar is completing a Ph.D. program in biomedical sciences with focus on the psychobiology of pain experiences among Amerindians. For five years, he was both a scientific consultant and editor of the Transcultural Medicine Section of l'Omnipraticien medical magazine, a publication (24 issues/year) targeting French speaking GPs and family practitioners of Quebec, Canada. He has authored 50 papers in medical education and delivered scholarly presentations in Canada, USA, Ecuador, Europe, and Japan. Dr. Incayawar teaches the following courses:

Culture and Psychobiology of Pain. More information HERE

Amerindian Psychiatry. More information HERE

Healers, Doctors and the Brain. More information HERE

Science and Alternative Medicine. More information HERE

Luce Faculty Seminar Series. Organizer of the following themes:

Healer-Physician Collaborations in the Americas: The Indigenous Peoples' Experience, Spring 2004

Mind-Computer Interactions, Spring 2003

Health Disparities in the USA, Spring 2002

The Science of Alternative Medicine, Spring 2001

Fine Arts, Brain, and Medicine, Spring 2000

Culture, Brain, Mind, and Medicine, Spring 1999

More information HERE

Membership. The Transcultural Psychiatry Section, World Psychiatric Association; World Association of Cultural Psychiatry; The Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture; and the American Pain Society.

Research. In the past several years, he completed research on “Llaqui” (depression), and pain experiences among the Quichua communities in the Andes. Currently, he is engaged in a research project entitled “Screening Clinically Promising Healing Practices among Native Americans of California,” a study supported by a Faculty Fellowship from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation. Another on-going study is on Tongva Medicinal Plants (Native Americans of California).