About Us

Dr. Amy Nitza is the co-founder of Convergence Group LLC.

She is also the Director of the Global Center for AI and Mental Health at University at Albany, SUNY, where she works with local, national, and global partners to safely and effectively integrate cutting edge Artificial Intelligence into the mental health sphere.

She was previously the Executive Director of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health at the State University of New York at New Paltz.  

She is a psychologist with 20+ years experience providing mental health training in academic and non-academic settings both nationally and internationally. Domestically, she has developed and facilitated trainings for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Smithsonian Institution, and various state agencies in New York, Maine, South Dakota, and North Dakota, and numerous for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. 

Internationally, she was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Botswana, where she developed group interventions for HIV/AIDS prevention among adolescents.  In Haiti, she has collaborated with the University of Notre Dame to develop trauma-related interventions for children in domestic servitude, and to provide training for teachers in dealing with traumatized children in the classroom.  She is also currently collaborating with UNICEF USA to develop and implement a program of mental health support for children impacted by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.  In Bhutan, she worked as a psychologist providing direct service, training, and consultation at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuk National Referral Hospital. Most recently, she is collaborating with partners in Ukraine to implement mental health support programs for those impacted by the ongoing war.

Amy is the author and editor of numerous publications, including the recent book Disaster

Mental Health Case Studies: Lessons Learned from Counseling in Chaos.  She is a Fellow of the Association for Specialists in Group Work and is currently President of the Society for Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy (Division 49) of the American Psychological Association.  She holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Indiana University.  She formerly served as an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Professional Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

  We seek to promote:

• Mental health education and support for the first responder community
• Workforce resilience in businesses, non-profits and other organizations
• Best practices in the support and treatment of those impacted by trauma as victims and their responders
• Effective incorporation of mental health into all phases of emergency management
• Best practices in emergency management and response

We have a proven track record of working with culturally diverse populations in small and large business (both domestically and internationally), federal, state, and local governments, non-profit and community groups, and many others.

Nikhil Natarajan is the co-founder of Convergence Group LLC and a nationally recognized leader in emergency management and public health preparedness.

He most recently served as Deputy Director of the New York State Office of Emergency Management, where he oversaw statewide planning, training and exercise, radiological preparedness, and field operations. In that role, he directed multi-agency responses to hurricanes, flooding, severe storms, and other crises from both an EOC as well as command posts in the field. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he developed and led New York’s Mortuary Affairs Task Force and coordinated emergency repatriation missions in partnership with federal and military agencies, among other duties.

Previously, Nikhil was Deputy Director of the Office of Health Emergency Preparedness at the New York State Department of Health, where he managed statewide public health and healthcare preparedness programs. He was instrumental in creating the state’s Healthcare Facility Evacuation Center (which he led during Hurricane Sandy) and a statewide patient tracking system. He led health-sector responses to events including H1N1, Ebola, and other events.

Earlier in his career, Nikhil worked as a paramedic, supervisor, and educator, including serving as tenure-track faculty at SUNY Ulster, where he built and accredited a Paramedic Program and helped establish an Emergency Management degree. He has also served more than a decade in the volunteer fire service, grounding his leadership in front-line emergency response.

He is a frequent national speaker and subject matter expert, having presented at various local, regional, and national conferences, and his expertise has been featured in professional publications and media. 

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Administration from SUNY Empire State College and is a graduate of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.