About Dr. Alisha Moreland-Capuia
 

Dr. Alisha Moreland-Capuia is a double board-certified addiction psychiatrist, author, researcher, and leading expert in trauma-informed systems change. She translates psychiatry and neuroscience into practical strategies that help leaders build safer, healthier, and higher-performing organizations.

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A graduate of Stanford University and the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dr. Moreland-Capuia completed her psychiatry residency and addiction psychiatry fellowship at Oregon Health & Science University. She practiced and taught at OHSU for more than a decade before moving to Boston.

 

Dr. Moreland-Capuia examines

struggling organizations because unresolved trauma does not remain contained—it spreads through leadership, workplace culture, policy, and performance. When fear, burnout, mistrust, and disconnection go unaddressed, both people and institutions pay the price. Drawing on principles grounded in science and history, she helps leaders

​​ identify the forces driving dysfunction and act before the damage becomes embedded, costly, and harder to reverse.

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Today, she is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Founder and Director of the Institute for Trauma-Informed Systems Change at McLean Hospital. She is also a faculty member at the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior and teaches on the intersection of neuroscience, trauma, and the law.

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Dr. Moreland-Capuia has advised organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to community nonprofits. Her work spans technology, music, healthcare, education, government, public policy, and the judiciary. She has also partnered with the Federal Judicial Center and the National Judicial College to train federal and state judicial leaders.

 

She is the author of Training for Change and The Trauma of Racism and is currently working on her third book. Her peer-reviewed research examines trauma-informed leadership, culturally responsive systems change, organizational resilience, and the neuroscience of fear.

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Her work is now expanding to Angola, where she is helping establish the Angola Institute for Trauma-Informed Systems Change. This initiative reflects her belief that healing, education, and healthier systems should be accessible across cultures and communities.

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At the heart of Dr. Moreland-Capuia’s work is a simple principle: when leaders understand how trauma and fear shape people and institutions, they can create systems where everyone has the opportunity to feel safe, matter, belong, and thrive.