Mental Health Advocate/Advocacy
The stigma against mental health care is still strong for healthcare workers seeking help and giving care. These leaders help reduce stigma and encourage access to a healthy health care workforce. They are experts in psychiatry, and mental health Past winners include Justin Bullock, MD, Jessica Gold, MD and Jack Turban, MD.
While serving as California's Acting Surgeon General (2022) and previously the Office's inaugural Chief Health Officer (2019-2022), Dr. Bhushan centered principles of well-being and equity within her own leadership of her teams, and also centered these principles in her approach to crafting the statewide, cross-sector approach to preventing and addressing childhood trauma and toxic stress that she led the way in describing in the first ever California Surgeon General's Report, as well as in crafting the first-in-the-nation ACEs Aware Initiative, a healthcare-based initiative intended to assess and treat toxic stress. She led the development all clinician-facing core trainings and clinical tools that form the stratum for this statewide initiative that has already formally screened and treated nearly 1 million patients. Further, while serving as Acting Surgeon General, Dr. Bhushan shared her own story of living with bipolar disorder, which reached and inspired millions.
Kali Cyrus MD MPH is a psychiatrist and advocate for mental health and health equity who brings a unique approach to diversity, equity and inclusion. She is a Stanford, Emory, UIC, and Yale trained physician and public health thought leader. Her work is informed by her personal experience as a Black, Queer woman. Dr. Cyrus is a Board Member of the Committee to protect Medicare, and currently serves as an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In her academic work, Dr. Cyrus has developed curricula to help medical trainees understand and respond to oppression. Pairing her deep expertise with humor, Dr. Cyrus brings humanity to challenging topics and works with individuals and corporations around issues of race, identity, and conflict. She is a featured expert on Season 3 of Showtime's Couples Therapy. Dr. Cyrus is a co-founder of Gemma and serves as the Chief Impact Officer.
Dike Drummond MD is a Mayo trained Family Practice Physician and the leading coach, trainer and consultant on the prevention of burnout in individual physicians and the realization of the Quadruple Aim in healthcare organizations. Dr. Drummond is the CEO and Founder of TheHappyMD.com where the website receives 25,000 website visitors a month and hosts an online community of over 18,000 physicians from 63 countries around the world. Dr. Drummond has over 3000 hours of one-on-one physician coaching experience and has trained over 40,000 doctors on behalf of 175 corporate clients to date.
Simon A. Rego, PsyD, ABPP, A-CBT, is Chief Psychologist at Montefiore and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at our Albert Einstein College of Medicine. His clinical interests focus on the use of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety and mood disorders, as well as obsessive-compulsive and stress-related disorders in adults. Dr. Rego’s research interests focus on the application of CBT and other evidence-based therapies to various psychological disorders, including anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, mood, and stress-related disorders; insomnia and other sleep disorders; and body-focused repetitive behaviors such as trichotillomania. His work has been in many peer-reviewed journals and book chapters, and he has presented at conferences nationally and internationally. He co-authored The 10-Step Depression Relief Workbook: A Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Approach, which has been published in English, German, Polish, and Russian. Dr. Rego has been recognized for his many contributions to the medical community. In 2018, he received the Jerilyn Ross Clinician Advocate Award from the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. In 2017, he was awarded the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, an award recognizing those who demonstrate leadership, excellence and longevity within their chosen profession. In addition to being a founding clinical fellow of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America and a fellow of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, he is board certified in cognitive and behavioral psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology, and a member of many other professional organizations, including the Canadian Association of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies and the International Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Foundation.
Brittany K Bankhead-Kendall, MD, MS is Assistant Professor of Surgery, Trauma/Acute Surgical Care at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. She and her husband sent their children from Boston to Texas early in the COVID19 pandemic and gave their lives to research and treatment. Over the following years, she has shared stories of COVID19: from observations in the trauma ward beginning in March/April 2020 and to early commentary on the stresses of caring for critically ill patients. Her experience with pandemic trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder was featured in the New Yorker, a Pew Trust Stateline Article, an American College of Surgeons bulletin, and other nationwide news outlets.
Kali Cyrus MD MPH is a psychiatrist and advocate for mental health and health equity who brings a unique approach to diversity, equity and inclusion. She is a Stanford, Emory, UIC, and Yale trained physician and public health thought leader. Her work is informed by her personal experience as a Black, Queer woman. Dr. Cyrus is a Board Member of the Committee to protect Medicare, and currently serves as an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In her academic work, Dr. Cyrus has developed curricula to help medical trainees understand and respond to oppression. Pairing her deep expertise with humor, Dr. Cyrus brings humanity to challenging topics and works with individuals and corporations around issues of race, identity, and conflict. She is a featured expert on Season 3 of Showtime's Couples Therapy. Dr. Cyrus is a co-founder of Gemma and serves as the Chief Impact Officer.
Dr. Helen Egger is co-founder and chief medical and scientific officer of Little Otter. Her major research focus is on the developmental epidemiology of early childhood mental health and digital health utilizing cutting-edge technologies (i.e., computer vision and machine learning) to both advance the knowledge base in developmental neuroscience and improve the assessment of mental health disorders in young children (infant to preschool) in the U.S. and globally.
Don’t Clock Out is a nonprofit organization founded in 2022 in response to the tragic suicide of a registered nurse, Michael Odell. The organization provides resources and support for the Mental Health of Nurses and Healthcare workers alike. Their mission is: - To advocate for nurses living with mental illness and provide a digital crisis intervention platform to members of the nursing community who are considering suicide. - To provide a research-based peer support network for bedside nurses and nursing assistants; to share common experiences and emotional reactions with others who have had similar experiences, and to bridge the gap between bedside nursing caregivers and mental health treatment
