By Britt Jensen and Michael Martin
The John E. Martin Mental Healthcare Podcast is a 5-episode mini-series featuring leaders in mental healthcare. Episode guests were selected to provide a wide range of industry perspectives to team
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The podcast currently has 11 episodes available.
Brandon Johnson is a public health advisor at the Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Administration, SAMHSA, in the suicide prevention branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, HHS, where he oversees a number of suicide prevention grant programs. Outside of his work at SAMHSA, Brandon is the creator of the Black Mental Wellness Lounge, a YouTube channel dedicated to discussing black mental health and healing.
In this episode, Brandon speaks to us outside of his role representing SAMHSA. Everything that he shares with us are his opinions, not those of the agency he works for.
Episode Quotes:Why he founded the Black Mental Wellness Lounge
[2:18] With the pandemic happening, it shifted all of our ways of life– the things that we could do, where we could go, how we felt about our own safety, how we felt about our own health, as well as the health of people that we cared about.
And at the same time that the pandemic was happening, there were a couple of really traumatizing incidents in the Black community. We had the death of George Floyd. We had Breonna Taylor's death, we had Ahmaud Arbery’s death. And this is all during the pandemic, right?
On cultural humility
[8:23] It’s taking that step further from cultural competence, which says, I am proficient enough and know enough about your culture to be able to service you, right? Cultural humility says that I will never know everything about your culture. That is not a realistic thing that I can do. However, what I want to know is how your culture impacts you.
On mental health advocacy at the local level
[12:32] We're the organizers, we’re the infrastructure, right? We are the place where plans can happen. We're the conveners, right? We can bring people together to work on topics and issues.
On compassion
[25:12] We can't expect ourselves to be perfect and exemplary every day. So we can't expect our kids to be, either. That's something even as a parent, with my 11 year old, eight year old, that I'm trying and learning myself in my parent’s journey.
Show Links:We welcome Rebecca Egger and Dr. Helen Egger to the podcast. Rebecca's the CEO, and Dr. Egger is the Chief Medical Officer of Little Otter Health. Rebecca's also Dr. Egger's daughter. Together, they started Little Otter, a company that takes a family-first approach to mental health care.
Episode Quotes:On the inspiration for the company
[7:31] Little Otter was born out of the experience with my son's illness. And just to be clear, it presented with psychotic and other neuropsychiatric symptoms– and with autoimmune encephalitis. And so again, my child is alive because I was his mother and I knew that this is not what schizophrenia looks like. This is not what bipolar disorder looks like. I was able to advocate and get him deep care, months in the hospital.
On the name of the company
[10:23] Sea otters are very sweet creatures. I mean, we've all seen the videos of them holding hands while they're sleeping. They are always in these family units and pods. Right? So we felt like it was a great representation of what we were trying to build.
On customer experience
[14:40] When people join Little Otter, you do the assessment. Then they do a welcome call with one of our parenting specialists to hear about what the challenges are, and then are referred to care based on what we learn. And then a full diagnostic assessment is done.
We have over 30% of our families are working with more than one little oter provider because we provide child therapy, child psychiatry, parenting, learning, with Master's level folks who are delivering evidence-based parenting guidance and support.
On the societal cost of untreated pediatric mental health disorders
[17:50] The cost is astronomical. We know one out of five children has an impairing mental health disorder. We know that in ages two to six years old, the rate of impairing mental health disorders is the same as in older ages. It's a different pattern of disorders, but the overall rate is the same. And we know that when children have mental health disorders that are untreated, it has a huge impact on their ability to function and develop.
Show Links:Today, we welcome Allison Rodriguez to the podcast. In addition to being a John E. Martin Fellow, which Allison received in 2017, she's a senior training specialist at West Coast Children's Clinic in California, a psychotherapist, and an advocate for children's welfare.
She has a wide breadth of experience working across the US as a teacher, researcher, trauma specialist, and advocate for veteran, maternal, adolescent, and Latinx communities.
Episode Quotes:On the nature of her work
[5:14] The kids that we see are almost all traumatized in some way. Most of them meet the criteria for complex trauma, which means they've been exposed to multiple traumas, often from an early age. That impacts the way they learn and grow in various ways.
We also see them not only in the office but in various locations like their homes, schools, sometimes juvenile halls, and other places, where we coordinate care with a lot of other providers.
On research
[8:11] I think one thing that research has taught me is the power of numbers. There are a lot of things that are really difficult to measure, and these things will surprise you in what the numbers show. They can be a huge lesson in things that you had no idea were more of a system-wide phenomena.
So, for example, there's some really lovely research that discusses how patients define things like trust. It shows that there are cultural differences between how that word is assessed and what it means. And that's just an example of how research can illustrate things that you didn't know that you didn't know in practice.
And it can really improve the work that you're doing.
On where good research comes from
[9:08] I think it comes down to the researcher’s goals and ideas about what will make for interesting results. It's really simply what the person is interested in, and what they think will produce a result that is important in the work.
This is a really important part of research, because it's very much a field that's based on what folks who do a lot of this work think will be useful. That means that the topics you read about are well-defined in the sense that they come mostly from researchers’ own minds, but it also adds a limitation in that researchers only know what they know.
Advice for people pursuing a career in this field
[21:37] First and foremost, be curious. Consider things from various perspectives and ask questions, even if they seem like a no-brainer, because you'll often find things are not as simple as they seem.
Secondly, I would say reach out to people and ask to talk to them. I can't tell you how beneficial it's been for me to get to know some of the folks in the field just from reaching out and asking them some questions.
And then third, I would really advocate for people considering their careers in terms of their lives overall.
Show Links:Marti Taylor is the president and CEO of OneFifteen and the Executive Director of Behavioral Health at Verily. She started her career in nursing, Prior to joining Verily and OneFifteen, she spent many years working in hospital administration.
Most recently, she served as CEO of the University Hospital and the Ross Heart Hospital at the Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center.
Episode Quotes:On the name of her company
[6:32] OneFifteen is a sobering acknowledgement that more than 115 people were dying every day in the United States in 2017, 2018 from an opioid overdose. And it was really to show our quest to reverse this course. People that are living with substance use disorder are our sisters and our brothers, and our parents and our friends and our neighbors, and their lives are worth fighting for.
On the intersection between mental health and substance use disorders
[8:12] Often, substance use and mental health issues contribute to the expression of one another. People with mental health disorders might use substances to self-medicate, and often people with substance use disorders develop mental health issues as a result of changes to their brain. And the conditions can often exacerbate one another when people experience those simultaneously.
So there's not only an intersection between the two, but also a heightened risk of people living with both disorders.
On stigma
[16:41] Today, most people are comfortable if others know that they have a cancer diagnosis or a cardiovascular diagnosis, and that prompts others to have a sense of ‘how can I help this individual?’
And whether that's bringing a casserole over to their home or whether that's saying, ‘How can I help you at your job?’ We don't have that yet in mental health where not everyone is comfortable with others knowing that they have some sort of a mental health or a substance use disorder diagnosis. And nor do others know what to do if they do open up to them and say, ‘I have a mental health diagnosis.’
On the role of virtual care
[22:45] It is virtual first, but it is very much partnered with a human touch. And I think, especially in substance use disorder and behavioral health more broadly, we have to think about that human touch component as well. So in the last four years that I've been working at Verily, I Absolutely see the advantages that technology can do to supplement care and to complement care.
But it's not going to completely take over for care.
Show Links:Today, we talk with Alice Zhang and Nisha Desai, co-founders of Anise Health. Anise is a culturally responsive digital mental health and well-being platform dedicated to meeting the unique needs of communities of color. For now, it’s focused on Asian American folks.
This is our first episode of the 2022 season of the John E. Martin Mental Healthcare Podcast. But more than that, it’s a homecoming of sorts. We first met Alice and Nisha in 2021 when they were business school students competing in the John E. Martin Dental Healthcare Challenge case competition. Today, we find them working on one of the greatest challenges of our day. I hope you’re excited to join us in learning more about their success and what motivated them to embark on this journey.
Episode Quotes:On grounding philosophies
[4:28] Anise is really centered on this one concept: that culture matters a lot in mental healthcare. And we're incorporating culture and intersectionality into evidence-based treatment. Anise is actually the first digital mental health platform that's dedicated to meeting the needs of the Asian American community.
To start, we offer culturally adapted therapy, coaching, and a self-service tool, which research has shown to be five times more effective than existing one-size-fits-all model. One reason behind that is because modern therapy ignores cultures, despite it playing a critical role in shaping how we experience the world, how we express our emotion, and hence what strategies can effectively resolve our psychological blockers and barriers.
On initial personal experiences with mental health services
[11:11] It didn't work for me because, no matter how long I spent explaining my upbringing and things that I thought were causing me trouble, I don't think it really got through to my therapist, Or, the strategies that he was recommending didn't necessarily work for me. And it wasn't until I found a therapist who approached therapy with culture in mind that I started to understand myself better from the lens of someone who grew up in this culture.
I cycled through several therapists until I found one that worked for me. And I think for a lot of people, when they're just starting out, they have no benchmark comparison. So, we're trying to take that work away from someone who's already in a place of distress to have to go through multiple trials until they can find someone that can understand them.
On why Anise works
[13:09] Unfamiliarity with verbalizing and expressing feelings is something that is often a barrier for many Asian clients to even start therapy. It’s also often a reason for why they drop out of therapy prematurely. They aren't able to see the progress, in the early days, that they're probably hoping for, and it results in mistrust with their provider.
They feel like, ‘if I'm not making progress, like why am I wasting time doing this?’ For the Asian community, where not only is this verbalization that’s an issue, but also: people really want to achieve and they wanna get things done, they wanna be action-oriented. The behavioral coaching integration built into our care model really helps achieve progress quickly.
On dealing with racism
[16:12] There's some things that are institutionalized, some forms of– whether it's racism or oppression– that might have deeper structural roots, that aren't going to change anytime soon.
So perhaps the right approach is accepting a certain situation and learning how to be okay with it in order to move forward.
Show Links:Occupational health and safety aren't confined to the physical and industrial protection of workers. Most of the time, job responsibilities take a toll on our mental health. By recognizing that workers' emotional and mental struggles are as equally important as their physical pain, Anita Tarab was able to start conversations around it and stir workers to be more open to receiving help.
Anita is the Global Sr. Director of Sustainability, Environment, Health, and Safety at Google Data Centers. She is responsible for ensuring the health and safety of employees and contractors at all Google data centers and construction sites across the globe. She trains company leaders to become more vulnerable, share their stories, and speak from their hearts.
In this episode, you will hear how our guest combined her knowledge and experience to drill down the causes of mental health issues among workers in the mining industry and in the tech company she currently works at.
Episode Quotes:What differences have you observed as you transitioned from mining to a giant tech company?
[00:04:39] There was an absolute focus on safety in mining because we talked about life and death, and indeed, people did die. When you go into tech, and they're going, what do you mean? Will I fall out of my desk chair? But the data centers themselves had a lot of issues, especially with electrical safety, a tremendous amount of power that goes into data centers.
What are your responsibilities as Global Senior Director of Sustainability, Environment, Health, and Safety?
[00:06:40] We really have three missions, right? Protect the workers or anyone who comes to work on our site, not just Google people, but anyone who comes to work on or near a Google site. And that doesn't mean just a data center. It could mean a leased property or a warehouse. And those are often not Google employees, but I look at it as a moral responsibility to them.
The second part of our mission is to protect the innocent. So nothing leaves our sites, no spills and no air emissions, being completely 100% in compliance with the regulatory requirements, no matter where we are in the world is incredibly important to us.
The final leg of that three-legged stool is to protect Google reputationally. I don't ever want to be in the news because of something that we didn't do, or we didn't do correctly, and protecting the environment and protecting people who come in contact with our facilities.
What mental health and work-related challenges have you witnessed among workers?
[00:08:22] Several years ago, I looked at who we were and said, we're physically protecting people, but are we protecting them emotionally? I looked at the things that drive construction workers or even data center workers or people who are on the road a lot to despair. And I was able to check almost all of the boxes in construction. They're often travelers who live in motels.
It's a very macho environment where talking about your problems and how you're feeling just as not exist, you can see within the construction industry, that the suicide rate is incredibly high.
[00:09:57] The data center environment is also similar. Many of our workers come out of the military. It is another sort of very macho environment. Some do talk to each other, but if you're even slightly different if you're gay or BI or trans if you're not white, it is not as fun place to work as it could be.
On incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion into her team’s work and program.
[00:22:34] We've contracted with a group called Black Girl Doctor. It is a team of essentially female Black psychologists who do monthly seminars open to whoever wants to be there but
focused on the Black community to come in and just talk with them and to speak. That's picking up some steam. I believe we need to bring in Spanish-speaking psychologists to do something very similar. Holes for us right now are the LGBTQ community where we really need to start focusing in that area as well.
When things are stressful or tough, how do you take care of your mental health?
[00:31:22] I take a lot of walks; half-hour, 45 minutes, and an hour. It's just a huge part of my day. I walked with my partner, so it actually gives us an opportunity to just chat, which is really nice. When I'm really, really stressed, I bake. Because baking is precise, and you can't be distracted. And if you are, it's a big disaster. Just weighing out the flour and weighing up butter is a very precise thing. Watching bread rise, I can't think of anything less stressful. But it really helps. And I spend a lot of time in my garden. I made it a point this spring through summer till just around now to not eat any vegetables that I haven't grown. I'm running out of those right now, though. I also have some colleagues and friends I talked to, and that makes a big difference as well.
Show Links:In this episode, we speak with Erica Stephens-Lynch, Global Supplier Diversity Director at Dow (material sciences company) about how companies can contract with and support diverse suppliers. Diverse suppliers are businesses that are 51% or more owned by people of color, women, LGBTQ individuals, people with disabilities, veterans, and other minorities.
The episode discusses how diverse suppliers can be supported by advocacy groups, health insurance pooling through professional employment organizations, creative payment terms and contracts, and the overall ways in which mental health challenges intertwine with these issues. When supported by well-resourced companies, diverse suppliers can profit and build generational wealth. However, they have a slimmer chance of penetrating the market when larger companies are chosen time and time again. Erica strives to change this inequitable industrial landscape.
She builds the capacity and connects small businesses to work with bigger companies. A great deal of Erica's motivation comes from her desire to improve underserved communities.
In this episode, you will gain insight into the major challenges that diverse suppliers face in stabilizing their business, as well as the mental health support they need.
*Definition Notes:
What is Supplier Diversity and how does it affect businesses?
[00:03:41] Supplier diversity focuses on woman-owned, minority-owned, LGBTQ-owned, veteran-owned, and disabled-owned businesses. Those five groups are the individuals that we are trying to make sure get an opportunity to succeed in the business world. So when you take a look at those different groups, there are particular needs that each of those groups addresses and within those groups, there are going to be different sets of needs.
And it's really important because if you recognize they all have been in some way, shape or form underrepresented in the industry. And so what this is doing is trying to make sure that they now get to do business with the industry. They get to do business with big companies, Fortune 500 companies, Fortune 100 companies, and the like and bring their skills, their talents, their innovation to us.
What are the biggest challenges for employees of diverse suppliers regarding mental health?
[00:36:05] Mental health is something that can impact any one of us. You don't have to be a diverse supplier, you don't have to be in a big business, any individual can be impacted by mental health. The stigma is still there about mental health, but at the end of the day, it's getting better. But along with that, we've also got to understand what those resources are and be able to help direct people to get the help that they need. And that's, I think, the biggest challenge that you have in the industry because we're not focusing on mental health, we're focused on employing people.
Erica Stephens-Lynch encourages MBA students to have an impact on society through their entrepreneurial spirit.
[00:49:46] I would just suggest that we start thinking bigger. We become those next diverse companies. We become those fulfillment of gaps in the industry, but we also focus not only on our sales, we focus on others. We focus on the community. We focus on giving back. That would be my biggest suggestion to how do we contribute and how do we move forward from here.
Show Links:Growing up in a predominantly White community, Lee Jourdan knows that an inclusive and psychologically safe space is needed for people of color to reach their full potential at work. Lee graduated with a degree in National Security and Foreign Affairs from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He was former Chief Diversity Officer, Global Diversity at Chevron Corporation, where he works to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion for all people in the workplace. Lee is currently an independent board director of PROS Holdings, a provider of AI-solutions, where he serves on the Leadership and Compensation committee. Lee also co-authored From Shoeshine to Star Wars, a book chronicling his father’s life and Black leadership.
This episode will touch on the state of mental health of those who served in the military and how Lee Jourdan used his leadership role as chief diversity inclusion executive to increase the representation of women, Black, and more minorities in the workplace.
Episode quotes:On being a leader from a young age.
[00:02:48] "I continued to be in leadership positions not because I wanted to be a “leader”. I always felt like if there was something that needed to be done, someone kind of needed to start doing it. And as I think through my life, I've had occasion to do that from time to time."
How can organizational leaders create an inclusive workspace with psychological safety aspects?
[00:30:09] "I created an acronym, F.L.A.V. It stands for feedback, listening, authenticity, and vulnerability, which are the four things I think you need to create that psychologically safe space. As a leader, if you are providing feedback, both constructive and reinforcing, if you're providing that active listening, people know that you're really hearing what they're saying, that you're valuing what they're saying."
On promoting mental health to communities of color
[00:43:40] "I think the most important thing we can do across the board and particularly in communities of color, is to understand each other better, to do our homework, to do some reading, to pick up a book and just understand other people's perspectives."
Advice for people pursuing their goals.
[00:50:10] "I've found so many times throughout my career, I would just say yes to things I wasn't 100% sure that I could do. I would step outside my comfort zone, and those turned out to be the best opportunities that I ever had so I continued to do that. What I'll tell you is that life begins at the end of your comfort zone. So, step out of that comfort zone and do those things."
Show Links:In this episode, we’ll talk about the accessibility, affordability, and diversity issues surrounding mental health care, including health insurance coverage and provider availability. Karan Singh is the co-founder and COO of Ginger, a mental health company that provides chat with a trained behavioral health coach within seconds and video appointments with licensed therapists and psychiatrists within days. Karan advocates for a preventative approach to addressing the unmet needs in mental health, including health insurance coverage and diversity and availability of providers. Ginger has recently finalized a merger with the meditation and mindfulness-focused company Headspace, forming Headspace Health.
Listen to learn how the merging of technology and mental health care will provide more people access to affordable and more inclusive services.
Episode quotes:
On why he got involved in the mental health care space and founded Ginger
[00:02:59] "Culturally, socially, emotionally, this was the no-go zone for so many people. No one talks about mental health care, and certainly not in a lot of communities of color. As I started to dig into this space, I learned that many communities don't talk about mental health care, but the stigma around mental health is pretty pronounced. And I realized I wanted to have an impact on that. I didn't know exactly how and in what ways, but I got really interested in understanding this intersection of data and mental health care, and ultimately founded Ginger and have been on this adventure ever since, in pursuit of really delivering on that promise."
Where do you see the innovation in the mental health space in the next 3 to 5 years?
[00:25:51] "I think what we're going to start to see is an increased focus on not just accessibility and affordability, but efficacy. And really making sure that which we roll out works, right? And an increasing focus on science and evidence-based research to demonstrate the impact of these sorts of interventions. I think we're going to start to see more and more of this long tail of interventions if you will. These things that we've traditionally never really considered mental health treatments start to get adopted in small ways where we are able to leverage a lot of the data that we're collecting as a field to figure out what works for whom, when, and how."
Thoughts on having a diverse team
[00:35:48] "I think it starts from within, first and foremost, which is not only hiring a diverse set of providers but a diverse team at all levels of the organization, including leadership and board of directors. That's been a really big focus of ours and will continue to be a focus of ours to make sure that at every level of the organization, we commit to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging because, ultimately, I think it's the belonging that encompasses the rest. We thought long and hard to make sure that any group we considered joining forces with was aligned and had that same core commitment to DEIB and should factor into who we choose to partner with and how we grow. We're not doing it just because; we're doing it because it will create a better end product."
With fewer resources, how can smaller companies provide better employee mental health care?
[00:28:45] "I'd encourage them to see what they might already have access to because they may not realize that they already have access to a set of innovative solutions that actually could be quite effective. And if you're not sure, you know, ask your health plan, your benefits consultant, or other resources —they could help guide you through that process. Because there are actually a number of these programs that may be covered and they may have access.
I think more broadly, we're going to start to see, especially as we continue to focus on affordability, that these solutions do become economical for that segment of the market as well. That for the price of, in effect, covering lunch, you can actually get access to a month or a few months’ worth of care, right? That's a pretty different economic equation, even for SMBs or other smaller entities who might think that this is just cost-prohibitive. And so, I think that's something that I encourage anyone who's thinking about that space to really challenge the assumption that it has to be expensive to be good."
Show Links:In the first episode of the John E. Martin Mental Health Care podcast, we feature corporate health and wellbeing coach Newton Cheng. His passion solves business problems for employers who want to provide physical and mental health support to their employees.
As the Global Director of Health and Performance at Google, Newton has been helping businesses create a culture of wellbeing. He emphasized that investing in their employees' wellbeing generates a greater return on investment than clawing back healthcare claims costs.
Tune in to the next episodes of John E. Martin's Mental Healthcare Podcast, where you'll learn how to care for your wellness and overall mental health.
Episode Quotes:On calling their department Health and Performance
[00:03:45] “We're called Health and Performance for a very intentional reason. We know there is a really big connection between a person's health and wellbeing and human performance. There's always this tension in the workplace between short-term performance and managing your health and wellbeing. And we believe that by combining the science of these two areas, we can help both individuals and organizations be way more successful and thrive in the long run.”
The impact of transitioning wellness offerings from on-site to digital
[00:05:46] “The transition to digital helped us reach people in new ways, but then now there's a new tension of being always on the screen.
With digital, not only could we reach people through a variety of different programs like talent shows, dance, cooking classes, and we can do that much more flexibly through digital channels, but we can now reach right into your home. So, we hear these awesome stories about not only the Google employee participating, but their son or their spouse or their grandparent, which is something that was just really hard for us to do before was to engage them. And that's just a wonderful thing. The issue now is we all know the issues around the fatigue of video chat, of being on constant calls all day, and how the number and duration of calls have actually increased.
So, on the one hand, we can do some new really interesting things for your health and wellbeing via digital. On the other hand, we know it's a really fraught way to deliver services right now because of that fatigue.”
The benefits of investing in caring for the team's mental health and wellness
[00:09:02] “The bigger opportunity I see is, first, there is a huge body of research where there's a huge relationship between an organization's core business strategy and their culture, and how those things support each other and make the business successful.
Over here, we've talked about the science of the connection between health and wellbeing and then human performance. And so how by improving someone's health and wellbeing, you can improve performance across a variety of contexts. That's the huge ROI I see where if I'm talking about an organization the size of Google, clawing back healthcare claims costs is on the order of millions. If I talk about a percentage performance bump across all the individuals in an organization like Google, that puts us into talking about billions of value.
So, that's where I feel like the conversation needs to go. There's a lot of research and connecting the dots that need to be done, but it's a massive opportunity.”
How do you create a program that encourages diversity and inclusion among the participants?
[00:30:43] “There is a diversity problem where if you look at your practitioners, people of color are just not heavily represented. Some of our team decided that this was a good time to move on because they had geographical flexibility. And so, we had the opportunity to rebuild our team. What looked like was the sourcing of candidates, suddenly there were a lot more people of color. And so, inadvertently because of the pandemic, we had a heavy turnover. Our team shifted from not very many people of color to over half people of color in the Bay Area. That normally would have taken a few years, but it accelerated because of the pandemic. And I think the outcome is going to be really positive for our community.”
Show Links:Corrine Marquardt is a 5th semester MBA/MPH candidate at UC Berkeley. While at Berkeley, she focused on mental health and health technology while exploring a career in product management. Prior to Haas, Corrine worked in management consulting with Deloitte, working with the FDA as her primary client. She worked on a variety of FDA projects, including work on a multi-tool platform to improve drug review processes, establishing evaluation processes for updating oncology drug labels, and strategic visioning for new FDA processes for reviewing software-based medical devices.
While at Haas, Corrine was a VP of Careers for the Haas Healthcare Association and Co-lead for the 2021 Haas Healthcare Conference. She additionally led student planning efforts for the first year of the John E. Martin Mental Health case competition in Fall 2020. Inspired by the mental health experiences shared during this competition, Corrine has spent the last year pursuing research and work experience opportunities in the mental health space. Most recently, she worked as a Product Intern with Lyra Health and will be returning to Lyra after graduation as a Product Manager on Lyra’s provider solutions.
Elle Wisnicki is a 2nd year MBA Student at UC Berkeley Haas. She is focusing in mental health technology solutions and exploring a career in user experience research and design. Elle has worked on mobile apps for first-generation students and is working on health navigation tools for patients and with limited English proficiency and their families. She has also worked on peer-to-peer mental health solutions, crisis response, and in foster care. She has focused on health insurance reimbursement and mental health/wellness as employer-benefits. She is also a Martin Mental Health Fellow.
Elle is passionate about promoting work-life balance options for herself and others. She is happiest in nature and with animals and hopes to create wellness retreat programming some day.
Prior to Haas, Elle worked in management consulting for pharmaceutical and biotech companies, focused on a diversity of project types in therapy areas that include sickle cell disease, reproductive health, and more. She also worked as a Mental Wellness Coach for a text-based mental health startup called Sibly. While attending Columbia University for undergrad she interned at Planned Parenthood where she championed telehealth solutions for patients, policy change, and recruiting patient advocates.
The podcast currently has 11 episodes available.