Damian Omari is a global mental health and public health practitioner committed to building systems that center youth voices, equity, and community leadership. While at Moi University, Damian founded “Unveiling the Mask,” an arts-based mental health movement that reached over 5,500 students directly and millions online, and contributed to the establishment of a student mental health support centre. This work earned various awards, including the World Dignity Project Award and invitations to present at multiple conferences.
Since then, Damian has worked across low- and middle-income settings at the intersection of youth mental health, climate resilience, digital innovation ethics, lived-experience governance, and public health systems. He’s contributed to and helped shape programs, research, and policy initiatives with organizations including the Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health, Healthy Brains Global Initiative, Wellcome Trust, McKinsey Health Institute, University of Oxford, Africa CDC, Prospira Global’s $200M ICONIQ Youth Mental Wellbeing Fund and now with the University of Toronto.
Damian brings technical skills and leadership to his work with an ability to challenge norms, convene diverse actors, and translate community experience into people-centered, system-level solutions.
Damian is currently a Mastercard Foundation Scholar and MPH Student at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, continuing to strengthen his skills while contributing to meaningful, locally grounded and globally relevant impact.