About — [The Mental Health AI Policy Project]

Our Team

Abir Aldhalimi, PhD

Founder

Abir Aldhalimi, PhD, founded the Mental Health AI Policy Project to ensure that the development of artificial intelligence in mental health is shaped by empirical evidence and informed by the communities that use the technology. The Project works at the intersection of mental health, technology, and regulation to advance policies that protect consumers - including patients - support clinicians, and enable responsible innovation.

A Yale- and Stanford-trained clinical psychologist, Dr. Aldhalimi is a clinical instructor and researcher at the Yale School of Medicine, the Chief Clinical Officer of a digital mental health company supporting children with disabilities and their families, and an advisor to the Global AI Council on the safe and ethical use of AI. Dr. Aldhalimi has been a practicing clinical psychologist and mental health policy advisor for over a decade, including roles at the U.S. Agency for International Development and in U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan's office.

Nuha Alshabani, PhD

Director of Research and Stakeholder Engagement

Nuha Alshabani, PhD, is the Director of Research and Stakeholder Engagement at the Mental Health AI Policy Project, where she leads research and community engagement that informs evidence-based policy on artificial intelligence in mental health care. Her work ensures that the Project's policy analysis is grounded in rigorous evidence and in the experiences of consumers, clinicians, developers, and other stakeholders.

Dr. Alshabani previously served as an Associate Professor at Boston University School of Medicine. An implementation scientist by training, she brings research expertise in stakeholder engagement, mental health program design, and program adaptation to meet community needs. Her work emphasizes collaboration with communities to design, test, and implement strategies that increase accessibility, quality, and engagement in mental health care - expertise she now brings to artificial intelligence and mental health policy.

Courtney Whitt, PhD

Advisory Board, Behavioral Health Workforce

Dr. Courtney Whitt serves on MHAIP's Advisory Board, bringing her expertise on the workforce implications of AI mental health policy. A counseling psychologist and Executive Director of the Florida Center for Behavioral Health Workforce (FCBHW), she is a leading voice on the structural challenges facing the behavioral health workforce.

She advises MHAIP on how emerging state laws, particularly those mandating clinical oversight of AI tools in care, will affect clinician capacity, scope of practice, and workforce sustainability across diverse practice settings.

Our mission

States are passing AI mental health laws faster than the evidence, and often without input from the people these laws affect: clinicians, consumers—including youth and those from historically marginalized backgrounds—and developers.

We close that gap through research, analysis, and community consultation—producing policy recommendations that protect consumers and hold up in practice.

Our independence

The Mental Health AI Policy Project is independently governed. Our research and recommendations reflect the evidence base, not the interests of any individual funder. We do not accept funding tied to specific findings or recommendations. We publicly disclose our funders and publish our methodology and analyses. This transparency is foundational to the credibility of our work with legislators, regulators, and clinicians.

How we work

Better policy begins with better evidence.

We believe better policy begins with better evidence—especially in an area as consequential as AI in mental health. We track AI mental health policies to understand how regulators are approaching this domain. Drawing on a team of mental health professionals, implementation scientists, and lawyers, we analyze these laws to identify where they can be improved and what lessons can be shared with others, including policy staff. We listen to the clinicians, developers, and consumers these laws affect. This includes better understanding how certain groups, including youth, are using AI in ways that the safeguards in these laws might miss. We bring all this together into guidance policymakers can use. Our aim is to ensure that those writing these laws are doing so with sound, evidence-based recommendations in hand.

Our Team

Abir Aldhalimi, PhD

Nuha Alshabani, PhD

Courtney Whitt, PhD

States are passing AI mental health laws faster than the evidence, and often without input from the people these laws affect: clinicians, consumers—including youth and those from historically marginalized backgrounds—and developers.

Better policy begins with better evidence.

Contact us.