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Inseparable is the only mental health advocacy organization focused on building a social movement with the power to win major federal and state reforms that will save lives and improve care for millions of Americans.
The health of our minds is inseparable from the health of our bodies. The rise in mental health issues, stigmas surrounding mental illness, and the lack of durable funding to address crises and long-term challenges, has created an urgent need for stronger policy & funding solutions and greater understanding.
We all go through hard times. We lose jobs and loved ones. We get anxious and depressed. We feel like we’re barely hanging on sometimes. For some of us, it’s clinical. For all of us, it matters. And when we care for our minds, it’s no less urgent than the care we need for our bodies. Each affects the other — just like us. Together, we are inseparable.
Inseparable is the only mental health advocacy organization focused on building a social movement with the power to win major federal and state reforms that will save lives and improve care for millions of Americans.
Established in 2020, Inseparable is a growing coalition of people from across the country who share a common goal to fundamentally improve mental health care policy — to take care of ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities. We are coming together as a united, hopeful force to press our leaders to support the idea that, with tangible policy solutions, the health of our minds cannot be separate from the health of our bodies.
Inseparable fights for a future where mental health policy, no longer an afterthought, helps our country thrive. Together, we will empower people in America from every town, city, and home to better care for one another by demanding and winning policy that better cares for us all.
Our job is to build hope and power for those who need it the most. To be bold. To think in innovative ways. To take risks and advocate fearlessly. Put simply, we are here to win – and for those wins to change and save lives.
Learn about Inseparable’s first 3 years. With the invaluable support of our amazing partners, we have accomplished so much – and only just begun.
Bill Smith
Founder & CEO
Alicia Diaz
Co-founder
Chris Cordingley
Co-founder
Amy Runyon-Harms
Chief Operating Officer
Angela Kimball
Chief Advocacy Officer
David Lloyd
Chief Policy Officer
Keris Jän Myrick
VP of Partnerships and Innovation
Caitlin Hochul
VP of Public Policy
Jake Swanton
VP of State Affairs
Kathleen Kelly Daughety
VP of Campaigns & Civic Engagement
Dana Balter
Director of Communications
Ali Larson
Political Program Director
Pooja Mehta
Senior Associate of Activist Engagement
Shaymaa Ennajhi
Comms & Content Associate
Bex Pachl
Project Coordinator
Breona Gamble
Research Associate
Guiying Zhong, BS
Inseparable Fellow
Jennifer Christian Herman, PhD
Inseparable Fellow
Zane Landin, BS
Inseparable Fellow
S. Bryn Austin, ScD
Inseparable Fellow
Sharron Stephens, MA
Inseparable Fellow
Rachna Saralkar, MD
Inseparable Fellow
Brian Bond
Executive Director, PFLAG
Brianna Cayo Cotter
Senior Vice President of Social Impact, ViacomCBS
Lishaun Francis
Senior Director of Behavioral Health, Children Now
Krithika Harish
Senior Program Officer, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies
Shelley A. Hearne DrPH
Dean Sommer & Klag Professor of Public Health Advocacy
Patrick J. Kennedy
Former U.S. Representative,
Founder, The Kennedy Forum
Michael A. Lindsey, PhD
Dean, NYU Silver School of Social Work
Will Lippincott
Member & Board of Directors, Didi Hirsch Mental Health Serv.
Dr. Benjamin F. Miller
Chair, Inseparable Advisory Board
Norm Ornstein
Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
Kathleen M. Pike, PhD
Professor & Director, Columbia-WHO Center
Zak WillIiams
Mental Health Advocate,
CEO & Co-Founder, PYM Health
Inseparable is a growing movement dedicated to mobilizing people across the country who share a common goal of helping ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities by improving mental health policy. We are coming together as a united force to press our leaders to recognize that mental health care is health care, period, and to win major reforms that help save lives and improve care for millions of Americans.
Founder & CEO
Bill Smith is the founder and CEO of Inseparable, a national nonprofit working to make mental health care available to all. Since founding the organization in 2020, Bill has led a team advancing significant bipartisan wins for mental health on both the state and federal levels. Under his leadership Inseparable launched the Hopeful Futures Campaign, a coalition of organizations dedicated to bringing mental health services to every child in every school across America. His commentary on mental health policy has appeared in USA TODAY, The New York Times, Forbes, The Dallas Morning News, MSNBC, Variety, and more.
Bill also co-founded Civitas Public Affairs Group, a values-based firm providing advocacy and public affairs campaigns to solve the most pressing societal challenges of our time. Prior to co-founding Civitas, Bill was the national political director at Gill Action, where he was a lead strategist in the campaign to achieve marriage equality in the United States. A native of Alabama, Bill resides in Washington, D.C. and serves on the board of End Citizens United.
Co-founder
Alicia is a co-founder of Inseparable. In her role, Alicia supports Inseparable’s digital communication program, strategy development, fundraising, and organizational administration. Alicia has managed the successful launch of both Inseparable’s Hopeful Futures Campaign and A Better Response.
In addition to her work at Inseparable, Alicia works to make it easier for candidates to run for office. Prior to her work as a consultant, Alicia served as a staff assistant for the Presidential Personnel Office at the White House under the Obama Administration. Alicia earned her bachelor’s degree in economics and international studies with a concentration in peace and conflict resolution from the University of California, Irvine. A native of northern California, Alicia currently resides in Maryland.
Co-founder
Chris is a co-founder of Inseparable. In his role, Chris oversees Inseparable’s communication and research programs and supports strategy and partnership development, fundraising, and scaling of the organization. Chris has run state campaigns to increase parity access and supported efforts to pass school based mental health reforms across the country.
In addition to his work at Inseparable, Chris manages large-scale research programs and communications campaigns and advises international and U.S. based donors across a number of issues. Chris began in the office of U.S. Senator Max Baucus and was a part of the successful 2012 reelection campaign of U.S. Senator Jon Tester. Chris has also presented for the American Society for Public Administration and is a graduate of the University of Montana Davidson Honors College. Chris resides in Helena, Montana.
Chief Operating Officer
Amy Runyon-Harms is the Chief Operating Officer at Inseparable. Amy has over 20 years of direct service, philanthropic, and advocacy experience in the nonprofit, public, and political sectors in the United States and abroad.
Amy previously served as the Executive Director at ProgressNow Colorado and as the Director of Political Outreach at Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. Amy spent nearly a decade in various roles, including Director of Programs and Colorado Legislative Director, at both the Gill Foundation and the Gill Action Fund. Most recently, Amy advised women’s equality and workers’ rights organizations as an independent consultant and oversaw the human rights portfolio as a State Department employee at the US Embassy in Angola, during which time she was awarded a Meritorious Honor Award.
Amy has served on numerous boards over the course of her career and was a member of the Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce Leadership Denver program. She is a graduate of Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa and spent two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Tanzania. When she’s not traveling the world with her husband Jason, Amy loves to entertain friends and explore her current home of Washington, D.C on her red Electra.
Chief Advocacy Officer
Angela Kimball is the Chief Advocacy Officer at Inseparable. Angela is a nationally recognized expert in mental health policy who is passionate about mobilizing people to champion better care and fight inequities for people with mental health conditions. Angela is a frequent contributor to national media on mental health policy and previously served as National Director, Government Relations, Policy & Advocacy at NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), where she helped advance significant legislation and investments in mental health services.
Angela’s path in the mental health movement was inspired by her son’s path of recovery after a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Her quest to find mental health care led her to early work as a family advocate, which propelled her to pursue deeper levels of policy and advocacy. As executive director of NAMI Oregon, her work led to the reinstatement of mental health and substance use coverage in the Oregon Health Plan, Oregon’s Medicaid program, and the overwhelming bipartisan passage of Oregon’s comprehensive mental health parity bill. In later roles, Angela provided expertise on a broad range of policy issues across the country as director of state policy for NAMI’s national office and gained invaluable expertise helping implement Oregon’s transformative, community-governed integration of Medicaid health, mental health, substance use and dental services as an Innovator Agent with the Oregon Health Authority.
Angela graduated from Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon and has received multiple awards for her work on children’s mental health reform and mental health parity. In her spare time, she enjoys reading fiction, spoiling her cats, and kayaking on the Deschutes River in Oregon.
Chief Policy Officer
David Lloyd is the Chief Policy Officer at Inseparable. David is a nationally recognized expert on a range of mental health and substance use issues. He has deep knowledge of health insurance coverage, mental health parity, and the barriers individuals and families face when seeking services. David was previously Chief Policy Officer at The Kennedy Forum, where he led successful state and federal policy initiatives, including the enactment of nation-leading insurance legislation in California and federal legislation that ended the ability of state and local governments to discriminate against their employees seeking mental health coverage.
David’s journey to mental health policy began in the U.S. Senate, where he served as a Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, a longtime mental health champion. After the Senate, he served in leadership roles at an Illinois-based children’s advocacy organization, where he developed a deep interest in childhood trauma and its long-term effects on children, families, and communities. In Illinois, he helped secure major investments in early childhood education and expand the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit, which puts hundreds of millions of dollars back into the pocket of low-income working families.
David testifies regularly before state legislatures on mental health policy and has been quoted in outlets across the country, including major publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and NPR. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention and serves on the board of the California Access Coalition. He has a bachelor’s in History from Cornell University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his husband, Jeremy.
VP of Partnerships and Innovation
Keris Jän Myrick is the Vice President of Partnerships and Innovation at Inseparable. She previously served as the Co-Director of The Mental Health Strategic Impact Initiative (S2i) which aims to advance the transformation of mental health by catalyzing cross-sectional reforms, strengthening collaborations, and bridging gaps. She currently serves on the Board of and is policy liaison for the National Association of Peer Specialists (N.A.P.S.) and the Board of Directors for Mental Health America. Ms. Myrick previously held positions as the Chief, Peer and Allied Health Professions for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, the Director of the Office of Consumer Affairs for the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) of the United States Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), President and CEO of Project Return Peer Support Network, a Los Angeles-based, peer-run nonprofit and the Board President of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
Ms. Myrick is a leading mental health advocate and executive, known for her innovative and inclusive approach to mental health reform and the public disclosure of her personal story. Ms. Myrick has over 15 years of experience in mental health services innovations, transformation, and peer workforce development. In June 2021, Ms. Myrick was the recipient of Mental Health America’s highest honor the Clifford W. Beers Award.
Ms. Myrick’s personal story was featured in the New York Times series: Lives Restored, which told the personal narratives of several professionals living with mental health issues. Ms. Myrick is an in-demand national trainer and keynote speaker, and authored several peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. She is known for her collaborative style and innovative “whole person” approach to mental health care and is a podcast host of “Unapologetically Black Unicorns” which centers on lived experience, race equity and mental health change agents.
Ms. Myrick a Certified Personal Medicine Coach and Certified Therapeutic Game Master; has a Master of Science degree in industrial organizational psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology of Alliant International University. Her Master of Business Administration degree is from Case Western University’s Weatherhead School of Management.
Vice President of Public Policy
Caitlin Hochul is the Vice President of Public Policy at Inseparable. With more than a decade of policy and communications experience, Caitlin has successfully organized impactful outreach and awareness campaigns and engaged elected officials to advance inclusive policies across the U.S. At Inseparable, Caitlin brings her knowledge of mental health policy and experience driving positive change through policy making to help transform mental health care access nationwide.
Prior to Inseparable, Caitlin most recently served as the Director of Communications and Policy at Concepts Communications, where she provided strategic management and policy expertise on a number of federal contracts. Notably, Caitlin spearheaded a national task force on workforce mental health that convened state and local leaders to craft innovative policy solutions that support worker mental health and bolster the behavioral health workforce.
Caitlin received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs from the University of Mary Washington. In her spare time, Caitlin enjoys spending time in the great outdoors, often exploring new adventures with her husband and their dog.
Vice President of State Affairs
Jake Swanton is Vice President of State Affairs at Inseparable. He brings to this work nearly 20 years of leadership in advocacy, policy, and legislative strategy across the government, non-profit and private sectors.
Jake’s early professional experience is a cross-section of public service, politics, and campaigning. Over nearly a decade in the United States Senate, his roles ranged from health care policy advisor to former U.S. Senator Mark Udall during debate of the Affordable Care Act to later leading Udall’s policy team as Legislative Director. On the campaign side, Jake’s experience spans presidential, ballot issue, senate and mayoral races. He was staff for both of Barack Obama’s presidential efforts in his home state of Colorado, including as the campaign’s CO state policy director for the 2012 re-elect.
After leaving the public sector in 2014, Jake joined the Pew Charitable Trusts, leading a team focused on expanding access to dental care, criminal justice reform, economic mobility and more. Later, as chief of staff and policy director at rideshare company Lyft, Jake spearheaded national government strategies to bring rideshare into the healthcare market as well as boost state incentives for vehicle electrification. He also directed legislative strategy for the company across the Mountain West. Prior to joining Inseparable, Jake was Head of Social Impact at Guild Education.
Jake earned a BA from the College of William & Mary and holds a Master of Public Policy in health care from The George Washington University. He finally moved home to Denver in 2019 after many years in DC, loves his black lab mix Jolene, and works as a part time flying trapeze instructor.
Vice President of Campaigns and Civic Engagement
Kathleen Kelly Daughety is the Vice President of Campaigns and Civic Engagement at Inseparable. Kathleen has over 15 years of experience in campaigns, strategic planning, project management, and stakeholder engagement across the political, private, and tech sectors. To Inseparable, Kathleen brings an undefeated electoral record; a keen interest in mental health, addiction abatement, and suicide prevention; and a commitment to making mental health an urgent priority for elected officials.
Kathleen began her career in Kansas politics, campaigning to elect Governor Kathleen Sebelius twice. She continued her career with the Democratic Governors Association, Governor Jay Nixon (MO), U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (CO), and Priorities USA, setting fundraising records in three states. Kathleen also spent several years in in the private sector, helping to launch the Women’s eCommerce Network at Liberty Media and McDelivery at Uber Eats, as well as, founding Well Technologies, a startup that aimed to leverage behavioral science and technology to help users achieve healthier alcohol use.
Kathleen serves on the NYC leadership board of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots movement to end gun violence; the junior board of Shatterproof, a nonprofit dedicated to reversing the addiction crisis; and as a counselor for CrisisText. Kathleen holds a BA from the University of Kansas and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Outside of advocacy, Kathleen enjoys writing, reading, ballet, hiking, small-wave surfing, and very-low-stakes poker. A native of Kansas, Kathleen resides in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and baby daughter.
Director of Communications
Dana Balter brings more than two decades of experience in communications, policy, advocacy, and politics to her work at inseparable. She has previously overseen communications at nonprofit organizations working in social justice and disability services. She has also taught and done research in the field of public administration. Dana is most well known as a two-time Democratic nominee for Congress in New York’s 24th district in 2018 and 2020. One of her proudest campaign achievements is that dozens of her staff and volunteers–many of whom were involved in electoral politics for the first time–have since run for and won local office.
Dana has taught at every level from pre-K to graduate school, from special education students to senior government officials. She has held various appointments at universities including Syracuse University, Binghamton University, and the Academy of Public Administration under the President of Kazakhstan. A true lover of education, she holds a Bachelors of Science in Speech from Northwestern University and a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Connecticut. When she is not working, you might find Dana hiking (or forest bathing) in Pratt’s Falls Park, making art in the sunroom, or snuggled up watching TV with her son and rescue pups.
Political Program Director
Ali Larson is the Political Program Director at Inseparable bringing a background in community engagement, campaigning, education, and public service. Having started her career in the United States Senate, she developed a strong passion for advocacy which only grew as she shifted gears and later entered the world of public education. Ali spent over a decade working in various leadership roles, serving a diverse neighborhood school in Denver, CO, where she led turnaround efforts with fellow community advocates. She saw firsthand the deep need for mental health care access and its significant and indisputable role in students’ overall academic and social-emotional success. She counts her time working in this complex system, serving, working, and advocating with families and students from all backgrounds, as one of the most impactful and rewarding experiences of her life.
Ali has degrees in Political Science and Business Administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and she later attended the University of Colorado at Denver’s Graduate Urban Community Teacher Education Program. Volunteerism being one of her core values, she spends time supporting and managing the campaigns of local leaders, serves as an Editorial Board member of an educational journal, and is extremely active in the community that she loves.
With her husband and two children (a soccer-loving pre-teen son and a sassy, energetic daughter with Cystic Fibrosis), Ali enjoys traveling and adventuring in the great state of Colorado and beyond. She also enjoys diving into books with her book club, listening to and playing music with friends, and supporting Denver’s women and minority owned businesses.
Senior Associate of Activist Engagement
Pooja Mehta is an outspoken South Asian Mental Health Advocate, and has been telling her story to audiences across the United States for the last 7 years. Originally from Raleigh, North Carolina, Pooja holds a Masters in Public Health from Columbia, and is building a career working in Health Policy in Washington, DC. As a professional with lived experience and a suicide loss survivor, she is eager to further the conversation around the role public health and patient perspective plays in mental health system reform and looks forward to changing the way we think and talk about mental health and suicide as a society. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, trying new restaurants, and spending time with her loved ones.
Comms & Content Associate
Shaymaa is a passionate storyteller and lifelong advocate for social justice and policy issues. In her role as Communications and Content Associate at Inseparable, Shaymaa is responsible for supporting Inseparable’s digital communication program, social media campaigns, organizational storytelling, and content creation efforts. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Communications and Public Relations, with a concentration in Nonprofit Leadership and Social Innovation, from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Shaymaa brings several years of experience in the digital communications world to her role, having previously worked on numerous social media campaigns as a communications specialist at various public relations agencies.
Although she is a Baltimore native, she’s spent several years living and working in Washington, D.C. As an avid concert-goer and foodie, she spends a lot of time exploring cities with friends. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, learning languages, reading fiction, and being in the great outdoors.
Project Coordinator
Bex Pachl (they/them) is the Project Coordinator for Inseparable. They oversee and coordinate schedules on behalf of Inseparable’s Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Advocacy Officer, and Chief Policy Officer. In their role, Bex serves as a conduit of information and resources across the organization, keeping leaders efficient and helping Inseparable fight for better mental health policy and access across the United States.
Prior to joining Inseparable, Bex served as an Executive Assistant to the CSO of a voting rights organization and an Executive Assistant to the Founding Partners of a polling firm. In addition to their administrative work, Bex is most proud of the team culture they helped facilitate and grow at their previous organizations through meeting/event facilitation and showing up each day with intention and kindness.
Bex graduated in 2020 from Wellesley College with a degree in Sociology. Bex lives in Washington, DC, and, in their spare time, enjoys reading literature, being outside with friends, and spending quality time with their two cats.
Research Associate
Breona Gamble is currently in her last semester of Law School at Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University School of Law in Orlando, Florida. Over the past 6 years, she has developed legal research skills working with a plethora of law firms in her hometown of Chicago, Illinois, and her new home of Orlando, Florida. Breona has a strong interest and involvement in policy and advocacy and plans to use her legal skills as an attorney to help create, analyze, and implement policy changes throughout the country. Beyond her future legal career, Breona enjoys assisting people in meeting their health and wellness goals through personal training. She believes physical fitness is one of the best medicines for mental health.
Inseparable Fellow
Guiying (Angel) Zhong (she/they) is a youth mental health advocate and scholar-activist. Situated at the intersection of research and public impact, her work seeks to empower historically marginalized communities, build capacity for culturally responsive research and care, and advance mental health equity through epistemic justice.
They have served as a Climate Action Fellow for White Pony Express, a food recovery organization committed to ending food insecurity in Contra Costa County; a Civic Action Fellow for Little Manila Rising, a South Stockton-based non-profit committed to bringing health, educational, and environmental wellness to the region; and an inaugural Next Gen youth advisor for the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI).
Angel is currently a Research Analyst at the UW-Madison Center for Health Disparities Research (CHDR), where they are assisting with “The Neighborhood Study”, an NIH-funded project examining the relationship between where people live and their brain health across the lifespan. They hold a B.S. in Psychology from the University of the Pacific where they supported campus mental health initiatives from a peer support framework as a student government senator, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) director, and student body president.
Inseparable Fellow
Jennifer Christian-Herman, Ph.D. is the Vice President of Mind Body Medicine at Blue Shield of California, a nonprofit health plan serving 4.8 million members in the state’s commercial, individual, and government markets. In this role, she leads an evolving portfolio of innovations that leverage technology and clinical interventions focused on behavioral health, lifestyle medicine, social drivers of health, and digital therapeutics, with the goal of improving access to care, member engagement and clinical outcomes. She is responsible for developing and leading Blue Shield’s strategy to transform behavioral health for members and providers by expanding access to care, enhancing care coordination, integrating behavioral health into primary care, and offering robust upstream solutions rooted in lifestyle medicine.
Prior to joining Blue Shield, Dr. Christian-Herman was the Executive Director of Strategic Customer Engagement, Product Innovation and Evaluation at Kaiser Permanente. She previously served as the National Vice President for Integrated Health Improvement at Health Net and as the Regional Director of Clinical Research for CIGNA Health. Dr. Christian-Herman has also held roles with Cerner Health Solutions and at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute and Department of Psychology.
She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from SUNY-Stony Brook and completed her pre-doctoral internship at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute & Hospital. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in UCLA’s Department of Psychology focusing on treatment outcome research for bipolar disorder. She is a licensed clinical psychologist.
Much of Jennifer’s work focuses on the intersection of mental, physical and social health. She is passionate about housing as a driver of health and is involved with issues of mental health care in permanent supportive housing and in unhoused populations, including board roles and work with community agencies in Skidrow and Hollywood. She is currently serving on the board of the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health.
Jennifer and her husband split their time between Los Angeles and Palm Springs. She is a passionate runner and the proud mother of a 26-year old son and three rescue dogs.
Inseparable Fellow
Zane Landin recently graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a Bachelor of Science in Communication and Public Relations. He lives in Washington, D.C., working at the National Geographic Society as an Internal Communications Specialist. As someone incredibly involved and passionate about DEIA work, he is involved in all the inclusion networks. He serves as the Co-Chair for NGS’ “The 15%+,” the inclusion network advocating for apparent and non-apparent disabilities. He has served on over 20 youth boards and board of director roles.
He is a dynamic, award-winning speaker and poet, writer, entrepreneur, and champion for mental health, disability, and DEIA in all areas of life. He has spoken at places like the White House and MTV for the first-ever Mental Health Youth Action Forum, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration at a youth mental health panel, and on a local television appearance that aired on over 90 television stations nationwide.
Zane has appeared on over 100 platforms like Forbes, Buzzfeed, Jubilee, US Reporter, New York Weekly, Authority Magazine, Channel Kindness, CanvasRebel Magazine, Shoutout LA, Voyage LA, Zoom, Joplin Globe, Exeleon Magazine, The Conversationalist, Seek the Joy Podcast, Coming from the Heart Podcast, Hearts Unleashed Podcast, Go Solo, and Yahoo! Finance. Learn more about Zane on LinkedIn and Instagram!
Inseparable Fellow
Dr. S. Bryn Austin is an award-winning researcher, teacher, and mentor. She is Professor in Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and Research Scientist in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. She directs the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders: A Public Health Incubator, based at the Harvard Chan School and Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Austin is a Past President of the Academy for Eating Disorders and Past President of the Eating Disorders Coalition, the leading community advocacy organization dedicated to U.S. federal policy on eating disorders. She is a social epidemiologist and behavioral scientist with a research focus on health inequities, especially those affecting socially and structurally marginalized adolescents, and she has received numerous grants funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and foundations to support her research. She leads two primary research programs: One focuses on environmental influences on eating disorders risk and public health approaches to primary and secondary prevention of eating disorders with an emphasis on policy translation research and advocacy. The second focuses on determinants of sexual orientation and gender identity disparities in a range of health domains, including disordered weight-related behaviors, substance use, bullying victimization, and other health risk indicators. A unifying goal of her academic career has been to advance innovations in transdisciplinary science applied to eating disorders prevention and the study of health inequities adversely affecting socially and structurally marginalized youth.
Inseparable Fellow
Sharron Stephens works in program management, assessing programs and is responsible for team development and risk mitigation. Her Masters degree is in International Relations focusing on Policy and Transnational Crime, she is a member of the World Affairs Council. She works with organizations on policy development and policy research regarding, mental health, racial injustice and international affairs. She researches state and federal policies as well as proposed bills on a local and federal level to keep the members of the organization 1M4, abreast of developments that relate to mental health and police reform.
Her earlier work focused on research in academia and developing microlending programs for countries in Southern Africa and trade programs in the Asia Pacific. Born in England and raised in the Midwest, Sharron lives in Michigan with her family and enjoys fencing, painting, spending time with her family and …..researching policies.
Inseparable Fellow
Dr. Rachna Saralkar, MD, is a double-board-certified psychiatrist and clinical informatics specialist with over a decade of diverse clinical experience. Her mission is to revolutionize mental health care by seamlessly merging technology with human compassion, taking a holistic approach that encompasses clinical, business, and policy considerations. She aspires to create lasting change in the field, with a particular emphasis on shaping mental health policies for the benefit of individuals and communities.
Rachna is the Medical Product Director at Deliberate AI, practices psychiatry at Comprehensive Psychiatric Services, and also advises mental health startups. She earned her medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University, completed her residency at Johns Hopkins, and holds a Masters in Clinical Informatics Management from Stanford.
Beyond her career, she treasures time with her family, currently cherishing the wonderful rollercoaster ride early parenthood has to offer with her two young kids.
Executive Director
PFLAG
Brian Bond is a former Obama Administration official and LGBTQ advocate with an extensive background in constituency outreach and coalition bridge-building. Brian most recently served as the Coalitions Director for the Climate Action Campaign in Washington D.C., working to protect clean air and promote action to limit climate change. Prior to that, he was the Deputy CEO for the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
During the Obama Administration he served as Deputy Director for the White House Office of Public Engagement and primary liaison for the LGBTQ community, the first to serve in that role. After the successful re-election of President Obama in 2012, he moved to the Environmental Protection Agency to work on the Administration’s climate initiatives as Associate Administrator for Public Engagement and Environmental Education. Prior to these roles, he served as the Executive Director of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and is credited with expanding the success of the organization and support for LGBTQ candidates during his six-year tenure, which began in 1997.
Brian is a Missouri native and has a degree in Public Administration from Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri.
Senior Vice President of Social Impact
ViacomCBS
Brianna Cayo Cotter is Senior Vice President of Social Impact for ViacomCBS’ Youth and Entertainment Group including MTV, VH1, CMT and Comedy Central, where she oversees multi-platform campaigns to engage viewers on important social issues, including the Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated mental health initiative, Half of Us, as well as MTV’s ongoing voter mobilization campaigns.
Prior to joining MTV, Brianna founded and led the global communications team at Change.org, the leading global social action platform. Throughout her career, Brianna had led high-impact and award-winning national campaigns to turn-out youth voters at Energy Action Coalition and expand paid family leave for millions of people at PL+US
Senior Director of Behavioral Health,
Children Now
As part of the health team, Lishaun supports Children Now’s mental health/trauma efforts.
Prior to joining Children Now, Lishaun Francis was an Associate Director at the California Medical Association. She provided policy support and analysis for California physicians on the issues of Medi-Cal, Workers’ Compensation, and Health Information Technology. Lishaun spent over two years with the Legislative Analyst Office (LAO where she provided fiscal and policy analyses to the State Legislature on issues of mental health, developmental disabilities, and alcohol and drug programs. In Washington, D.C., Lishaun Francis worked as a Program Analyst for the U.S. Department of Education, providing fiscal support on issues of higher education.
Lishaun Francis received her Master’s of Public Policy from the University of Michigan, and her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Spelman College in Atlanta, GA.
Senior Program Officer, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies
Krithika Harish is a Senior Program Officer at the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies where she leads the women’s political power and leadership portfolio. Prior to joining Schusterman, Krithika was a Senior Associate at Civitas Public Affairs where she worked to advance a wide range of progressive policies through legislative and advocacy campaigns.
Krithika was part of the team that launched Inseparable in 2020 and helped lead the organization’s policy and partnerships work until early 2022. In 2018, she co-founded the Pipeline Fund, a project dedicated to building a more reflective democracy by supporting groups that recruit and train diverse candidates, staff, and elected officials. Krithika now proudly serves on the Pipeline Fund’s Advisory Board.
Krithika holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of California, Davis. Born in India and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Krithika is a proud immigrant American.
Dean Sommer & Klag Professor of Public Health Advocacy and Director Center for PH Advocacy
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Dr. Shelley Hearne brings an extensive track record of leadership, policy impact, institution building, and teaching in health advocacy. At the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, she is the inaugural Alfred Sommer & Michael Klag Decanal Professor of the Practice for Public Health Advocacy and director, Center for Public Health Advocacy.
In addition to being a Johns Hopkins professor, Shelley currently serves as the president of CityHealth, an initiative of the de Beaumont Foundation and Kaiser Permanente. In addition, she runs the Forsythia Foundation, an environmental health philanthropy, as a consultant.
Previously, Dr. Hearne was the founder of the Trust for America’s Health, a national public health advocacy organization, the managing director of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Health group, which included its biomedical research, food, pharmaceutical, and financial security programs, the acting director of NJ’s pollution prevention program, and the executive director of the Pew Environmental Health Commission.
Shelley has been devoted to health advocacy in practice and in teaching. She is experienced running advocacy campaigns that successfully helped pass and implement important public health policies, such as the model N.J. Pollution Prevention Act, Nationwide Environmental Public Health Tracking Network, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act, and the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act. She was an early instructor for the Hopkins’ health advocacy course and won the national Delta Omega award for innovative curriculum. She has served in numerous national leadership positions, including chair of APHA’s executive board and vice president of the Council on Education for Public Health. She has been widely covered in the press and has substantial experience testifying before and engaging with policymakers.
Shelley has received numerous awards for her advocacy efforts, including the Senator Lautenberg Award for lifetime achievement in public health, the APHA’s Executive Director Citation, and Bowdoin College’s Common Good award. She received her B.A. in chemistry and environmental studies with honors from Bowdoin College and a DrPH in environmental health science from Columbia University’s School of Public Health.
Former U.S. Representative
Founder
The Kennedy Forum
During his time in Congress, Patrick J. Kennedy was the lead author of the groundbreaking Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (Federal Parity Law), which requires insurers to cover treatment for mental health and substance use disorders no more restrictively than treatment for illnesses of the body, such as diabetes and cancer. In 2013, he founded The Kennedy Forum, a nonprofit that unites advocates, business leaders, and government agencies to advance evidence-based practices, policies, and programming in mental health and addiction. In 2015, Kennedy co-authored the New York Times Bestseller, “A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction,” which details a bold plan for the future of mental health care in America. In 2017, he was appointed to the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.
Kennedy is also the founder of DontDenyMe.org, an educational campaign that empowers consumers and providers to understand parity rights and connects them to essential appeals guidance and resources; co-founder of One Mind, an organization that pushes for greater global investment in brain research; co-chair of Mental Health for US, a nonpartisan initiative designed to elevate mental health and addiction in policy conversations during the 2020 election cycle; and co-chair of the Action Alliance’s Mental Health & Suicide Prevention National Response to COVID-19.
Executive Director
McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at New York University (NYU)
Constance and Martin Silver Professor of Poverty Studies
Silver School of Social Work at NYU
Dr. Michael A. Lindsey is a noted scholar in the fields of child and adolescent mental health, as well as a leader in the search for knowledge and solutions to generational poverty and inequality. He is the Executive Director of the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at New York University (NYU), the Constance and Martin Silver Professor of Poverty Studies at NYU Silver School of Social Work, and an Aspen Health Institute Innovators Fellow. He also leads a university-wide Strategies to Reduce Inequality initiative from the NYU McSilver Institute.
At the NYU McSilver Institute, Dr. Lindsey leads a team of researchers, clinicians, social workers and other professionals who are committed to creating new knowledge about the root causes of poverty, developing evidence-based interventions to address its consequences, and rapidly translating their findings into action through policy and best practices.
Among their latest work is a three-year research grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study the effectiveness of a novel treatment intervention for keeping Black adolescents engaged in depression treatment.
Previously, Dr. Lindsey was an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work and a Faculty Affiliate at the University of Maryland Department of Psychiatry’s Center for School Mental Health.
Dr. Lindsey leads the working group of experts supporting the Congressional Black Caucus Emergency Taskforce on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health, which created the report Ring the Alarm: The Crisis of Black Youth Suicide in America. Also, he is a member of an expert advisory board for The Jed Foundation and a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academies of Practice (NAP) in Social Work. As well, he is on the editorial boards of the journals Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research and School Mental Health.
Dr. Lindsey holds a PhD in social work and MPH from the University of Pittsburgh, an MSW from Howard University, and a BA in sociology from Morehouse College.
Member
Board of Directors, Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services
Will Lippincott is a LA-based literary agent at Aevitas Creative Management. He specializes in politics, narrative non-fiction, current events, history, and memoir, representing prize-winning and best-selling journalists at The New York Times, MSNBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, The Economist, and NPR, and leading American thought leaders, scholars, and activists.
Lippincott is a founding board member and present board secretary of the media watchdog organization Media Matters for America. In 2019, he joined the Board of Directors of Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, one of the oldest and largest mental health, substance use and recovery, and suicide prevention organizations in Southern California.
In 2015, Lippincott wrote a widely-shared article in The New York Times about his struggle with depression and suicidality, the suicide of his father, and the successful adoption of a new therapy. He continues to share his lived experience to advocate for large-scale change, speaking with clinicians and consumers at conferences, events, and workshops hosted by the JED Foundation, United Suicide Survivors International, and ISIDBT, among others.
Chair, Inseparable Advisory Board
Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Stanford School of Medicine
Dr. Benjamin F. Miller, PsyD is a national expert in the area of mental health, policy, and ways to integrate mental health into both clinical and community settings. Most recently, Miller was President of Well Being Trust. Prior to joining Well Being Trust, Miller spent eight years as an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine where he was the founding Director of Eugene S. Farley, Jr. Health Policy Center. He is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Stanford School of Medicine.
He received his doctorate in clinical psychology from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. He completed his predoctoral internship at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, where he trained in primary care psychology. In addition, Miller worked as a postdoctoral fellow in primary care psychology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. He has written and published prolifically on the need to address specific health policy and payment barriers for successful mental health integration. He has been featured in numerous media outlets including CNN, NBC News, USA Today, New York Times, NPR, PBS NewsHour, and many more. Outside of his job, Dr. Miller enjoys playing music, mountain biking, rock climbing, and painting. He and his family live in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Resident Scholar
American Enterprise Institute
Norman Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He is a contributing editor and writer for The Atlantic, and has been an election eve analyst for CBS News and BBC News. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Campaign Legal Center.
He served as a senior counselor to the Continuity of Government Commission and co-directed the AEI-Brookings Project on alternatives to the Independent Counsel Act. Mr. Ornstein led a working group of scholars and practitioners that helped shape the law, known as McCain-Feingold, that reformed the campaign financing system. He was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004.
Ornstein has a BA from the University of Minnesota and an MA and PhD from the University of Michigan. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from his alma mater in 2007. Ornstein was spotlighted as one of 2012’s 100 Top Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine.
Professor & Director
Columbia-WHO Center for Global Mental Health
Deputy Director
Health and Aging Policy Fellows Program, Columbia University Department of Psychiatry & Mailman School of Public Health
Kathleen M. Pike, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at CUIMC. She serves as Chair of the Faculty Steering Committee for the Global Mental Health Programs, Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Capacity Building and Training in Global Mental Health at Columbia University, and Deputy Director of the Health and Aging Policy Fellows Program. She is also a Senior Supervising Psychologist in the Center for Eating Disorders at CUIMC.
Dr. Pike has been involved with global initiatives focused on mental health, education, and women’s health throughout her career. She has held academic and administrative university appointments in Japan, where she served as Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean for Research at Temple University Japan and Visiting Professor at Keio University. She received a Faculty Fulbright Award for research on eating disorders, an area of expertise where Dr. Pike has led pioneering work on risk factors, treatment development, and implementation. She developed an internationally-disseminated and evidence-based relapse prevention treatment program of cognitive-behavioral therapy for anorexia nervosa. She conducts clinical training and education globally across the range of mental disorders to expand clinical and research capacity for treatment in low-resource communities and promote mental health literacy and advocacy for individuals with mental illness. Dr. Pike has also directed several programs that engage the arts to advance understanding and increase access to mental health services, including the Tohoku Theater Project in Japan and the National Endowment for the Arts Artist in Residency Program hosted at Columbia University.
A long-time advocate for increasing access to care, Dr. Pike has provided mental health policy consultation to Japanese parliamentary representatives and United States mental health policy organizations. She is also committed to supporting corporations in their efforts to address mental health in the workplace. As such, she consults with global corporations with the aim of integrating best practices to reduce the burden of mental illness and enhance mental health and wellbeing in today’s rapidly changing workplace.
Dr. Pike has maintained an ongoing research program supported by grants and awards from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH), Fulbright Foundation, Takeda Foundation, Japan National Institute of Health, Keio University, Columbia University, Temple University, the Japan Foundation, and private philanthropic funding. She has published over 100 articles and book chapters on eating disorders, culture and psychopathology, global mental health, and mental health in the workplace and has authored and presented more than 200 workshops, invited lectures, papers, and poster presentations.
She serves as a member of the Advisory Board for the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She is a Trustee of the Jewish Board (the largest non-profit mental health and social service provider in New York State) and the International Rescue Committee.
Mental Health Advocate
CEO & Co-Founder
PYM Health
As a mental health advocate, Zak Williams focuses his time and effort on sharing his story and his experiences to support initiatives and campaigns seeking to remove the stigma and address the challenges associated with mental health topics. Zak is CEO and founder of anxiety relief company PYM and is an investor in technology and consumer packaged goods companies. Formerly, Zak was COO of the recommendation platform Crossing Minds, the Director of Business Development for media company Condé Nast, and the marketing lead for gaming and media platform N3TWORK.
Zak is a US trustee of United for Global Mental Heath and board member of mental health awareness nonprofit Bring Change 2 Mind and the Yerba Buena Center of the Arts where he focuses on guiding the organizations’ strategy and business development initiatives. He received an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in Linguistics from New York University.
If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. Crisis Text Line also provides free, 24/7, confidential support via text message to people in crisis when they text HOME to 741741.