Xanthe Hunt
Professor Xanthe Hunt is a member of faculty at Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), an associate professor of global health at Stellenbosch University, and an honorary specialist scientist at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC). At AHRI, she leads adolescent mental health, a major strategic research area for the institute.
Xanthe holds a PhD in psychology from Stellenbosch University and has postgraduate training from Harvard and Stellenbosch Universities in epidemiology, biostatistics, and research methods. Her expertise is in mental health, violence prevention and intervention, sexual health, disability, and social protection.
In her research, Xanthe has worked across sub-Saharan Africa, including in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia, and has led health systems’ strengthening initiatives, monitoring and evaluation projects, as well as a range of research studies including trials. Xanthe’s work also includes a strong policy and knowledge mobilization component. During her time at the World Health Organisation she contributed to the global visibility of childhood disability as a priority for health strategies and policies, and her work on violence and disability has been instrumental in the capacity development of government officials, frontline workers, and civil society actors internationally.
Xanthe has published over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles, over 10 book chapters, and has published one book. She has been an invited speaker at large international convenings such as the Global Disability Summit and World Mental Health Forum. She is a member of several steering committees for international initiatives in mental health, disability, and child development.
Additionally, she teaches undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and provides capacity development workshops for research and project staff globally, with a focus on monitoring and evaluation and health systems’ strengthening. She supervises PhD students and early career researchers through her affiliation with Stellenbosch University.
Xanthe was the 2018 recipient of the Stellenbosch University Chancellor’s Medal, a 2019 NIH Fogarty Fellow, and was named one of Mail & Guardian’s 200 Trailblazing Young South Africans to Watch.
Get in touch with Xanthe via xanthe.hunt@ahri.org
Click here for a full list of publications.
Selected Recent Publications
Bliznashka, L., Hentschel, E., Ali, N. B., Hunt, X., Neville, S. E., Olney, D., Pitchik, H. O., Roy, A., Seiden, J., Cordero, K. S., Thapa, A., and Jeong, J. (2025) . Psychometric properties of early childhood development assessment tools in low-and-middle-income countries: a systematic review. BMJ Open.
Hunt, X., Marks, S., Hameed, Srisuppaphon, S., Diez-Canseco, F., Riewpaiboon, W., Viriyathorn, S., Tangcharoensathien, V., Goyal, D., Smythe, T., Khan, R. S., Ngoc, L. A., Ganle, J., Tetali, S., Huq, L., Shakespeare, T., Ilkkursun, Z., Acarturk, C., Mai, V. Q., and Banks, L. M. (2025) . How inclusive were strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19 for people with disabilities? Evidence from qualitative research in eight low- and middle-income countries. International Journal for Equity in Health.
Hunt, X., Saran, A., White, H., & Kuper, H. (2025). Effectiveness of interventions for improving educational outcomes for people with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews.
Mokaya, A. G., Nzuza, M., Dlamini, N., Nkosi, S., Smith, T., Wambua, G. N., Hunt, X., Stein, A., and Ngwenya, N. (2025) . Digital mental health interventions for adolescents and young people (10–24 years) in Africa: Protocol for a systematic review of mental health outcomes, engagement, and equity considerations. Wellcome Open Research.
Roest, … Hunt, X. et al. & World Mental Health International College Student collaborators. (2025). Comorbidity and temporal associations between mental disorders among college students in the World Mental Health International College Student Initiative. Psychiatry Research, 116605.
Bantjes, J., Hunt, X., Cuijpers P., Kazdin, A. E., Kennedy, C. J., Luedtke, A., Malenica, I., Petukhova, M., Sampson, N., Zainal, N. H., Davids, C., Dunn-Coetzee, M., Gerber, R., Stein, D. J., & Kessler, R. C. (2024). Comparative effectiveness of remote digital gamified and group CBT skills training interventions for anxiety and depression among college students: results of a three-arm randomised controlled trial. Behaviour Research and Therapy.
Schumann, G., Benegal, V., Bernard, A., Desrivieres, S., Feng, J., Gong, P., Heinz, A., Hunt, X., Jin, L., Kestel, D., Luterbacher, J., Marquand, A., Meyer-Lindenberg, A., Salomon, J., Shetty, S., Stahl, B., & Thompson, P. (2024) . The Earth Brain Health Commission: How to preserve mental health in a changing environment . Nature Mental Health.