Co-Founder

Dr Akeem Sule is the Co-founder of HIP HOP PSYCH and a Consultant Psychiatrist in General Adult Psychiatry, South Essex Partnership Trust, and an Honorary Visiting Research Associate at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge. He is also a Research Associate at Wolfson College, Cambridge University. He was recently appointed as a Senior Clinical Tutor, Cambridge University, School of medicine. Dr Sule has taught Psychiatry trainees/resident doctors in United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, Egypt, Nigeria,, Ireland and India. He is a member of the Association of University Teachers in Psychiatry. His medical degree was at the Ogun State University Teaching hospital, Nigeria. His Specialist Psychiatry training was with the Oxford Rotational Scheme. He also worked at the department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford and Hammersmith PET centre as a Clinical research worker where he did Neuroimaging Research. Dr Sule is an International member of the American Psychiatric Association.

In 2009, he was the winner of the Consultant Teacher of the Year award for Bedfordshire and Luton Partnership Trust and joint winner of the Consultant Teacher for Exams award. Dr Sule is consistently rated as one of the best teachers on the Stage 2 Cambridge medical school Psychiatry course and is a pioneer of the “Old School Hip Hop Method of Teaching”. It was this that led to him being invited to give a talk to the Cambridge Psychiatry society (student society). He invited Becky to give the talk with him and HIPHOPPSYCH was born. He has a special interest in biological psychiatry, psychopharmacology and psychotherapies.
He is a massive HipHop fan and a diehard Tupac Amaru Shakur fan.

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Wolfson HipHopPsych Link

Co-Founder

Dr Becky Inkster is the Co-founder of HIP HOP PSYCH and Neuroscientist in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge. She has an Honorary Contract with Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust and she is also affiliated with Wolfson College, University of Cambridge. Becky did her undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Toronto, Canada, while also publishing articles on neurogenetics at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

She moved to the UK and obtained her doctorate/DPhil in molecular neuropathology at Oxford University and then went on to work in several places (GlaxoSmithKline, Imperial College, University College London, Institute of Psychiatry) gaining a wide range of research skills and experiences in areas such as neuroimaging, advanced statistical modelling of imaging genetics data, and epigenetics.

Currently, she is working in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge. She is expanding her academic interests into epidemiology and population neuroscience. Most recently her work explores youth language and culture. She is also exploring how social media data influences mental health and how it relates to neuroscience data.

Now that HIP HOP PSYCH is off the ground (started from the bottom), Dr Inkster is gonna rescue a cat and name him Biggie. She is gonna touch up her tattoos while reading the latest edition of Lancet Psychiatry, and she's gonna brush up on her jump shot in preparation for her future b-ball game with Drake (positive visual imagery):....

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www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk Profile

http://www.wolfson.cam.ac.uk/people/dr-becky-inkster

HHP Intern from Stanford univ USA

Anjana Bala is a recent graduate from Stanford University where she majored in Human Biology. She is currently pursuing an MSc in Medical Anthropology at University College London (UCL). At Stanford, Anjana directed multiple hip-hop dance teams, and was involved in several arts education initiatives.

She grew up in the Fremont, California as the daughter of Indian immigrant parents. At a young age, she wondered how her own experience with culture could fit into a larger American narrative. Thanks to the hyphy movement in the Bay Area, hip-hop presented itself with doors wide open. Growing up, she paired dancing Bharatanatyam with training in hip-hop, learning Tamil with reading rap lyrics, and visiting the temple with attending hip-hop concerts.

She hopes by getting involved with HHP, she can continue to make connections between the arts and sciences to garner a deeper, more nuanced understanding of each field. She loves alternative r&b and J Dilla, and is excited to see how hip-hop will continue to grow as vehicle for social justice.

HHP Intern from Spelman College USA

Cassandra Ogbevire is a native of Chicago, Illinois and graduated from Spelman College with Honors in 2010 where she majored in Psychology. As a child growing up in urban Chicago, Hip-Hop played a significant role in her life. After witnessing a family member become diagnosed with a mental illness struggle to access mental health care services, at 16 Cassandra made a promise to herself to promote mental health awareness in urban communities similar to her own. During her matriculation at Spelman College, Cassandra was able to explore through research the role of stigma as it relates to the mental health care utilization in urban communities through earning the National Institutes Mental Health Careers Opportunities for Research (NIMH-COR) fellowship. As a NIMH-COR scholar Cassandra worked on several mental health research studies at renowned research institutions such as Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in which she presented her research findings at national and international conferences as an undergraduate student.

After graduating from Spelman College, Cassandra continued to use her extensive research skills to develop innovative interventions to address mental illness stigma and low utilization of mental health care services among urban communities outside of academia. She hopes by getting involved with HHP, she can explore further the role of unfiltered messages of mental illness found in Hip-Hop/ Rap lyrics and its influence on the utilization of mental health services among urban youth.

HHP IT specialist/ Producer / Consultant

Dr Mark Sheppard is a Producer, Remixer, Musician, Webmaster and IT Specialist.

In a career spanning three decades, he has collaborated with many artists including: ViX (Fuzzbox), Robin George (Thin Lizzy/ Robert Plant), JOANovARC, Donna Gardier (Sting/ Westlife/ TInchy Strider), Alisa B (Prince/ George Clinton), Angie Brown (Rolling Stones/ Kate Bush), Camille Alvey/ LollieVox (LeAnn Rimes), Ella Montclare (Dr Dre), Jo Gabriel, the Medieaval Baebes, Joy Shannon and Izzie Voodoo.

Mark is a writer, producer and multi-instrumentalist with thirty years of playing experience. His weapons of choice include guitar (acoustic / electric), 5 string bass, fretless bass, banjo, mandolin, keyboards and synthesizers.

www.theoffering.co.uk

Fierce Kitten Records