Who We Are

Caya Lewis Atkins is an experienced health policy and programming professional with experience in government, advocacy, and foundations. She is currently consulting on U.S. domestic and global health strategy, engagement and capacity building through her firm GlobalDC Strategies. Her professional interests and expertise include U.S. and global public health, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), health equity and disparities, HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Ms. Atkins was previously the Counselor for Science and Public Health at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). As a part of HHS’ senior management team she directly advised the HHS Secretary on a range of public health and science matters and collaborated with CDC, NIH, and HRSA leadership to develop and advance HHS initiatives. She was also the Chief of Staff for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) during the first years of ACA implementation and the Director of Outreach and Public Health Policy for the Office of Health Reform during the year that the ACA was successfully negotiated, passed and became law.

Ms. Atkins more recently served as Deputy Coordinator for Multi-Sector Responsibility and Diplomacy in the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) at the U.S. Department of State that oversees the implementation of the $6 billion U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). In that role, she led the multilateral diplomacy and private sector engagement work of the office including collaboration and negotiation with high-ranking members of governments, foundations and multilateral organizations including the WHO, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS TB and Malaria, UNAIDS.

Prior to her work at HHS, Ms. Atkins was the Deputy Staff Director for Health for the Senate HELP committee under the chairmanship of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy. In this role, she led staff work on the public health portfolio, most notably the drafting and negotiation of the prevention, wellness and public health titles of the ACA. She was also a Senior Policy Analyst focused on race and ethnicity at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Director of the NAACP Health Division.

Ms. Atkins received a BA from Spelman College and a Master’s of Public Health from the University of Michigan.

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.

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

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.

Sejal Hathi is a primary care doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital and clinical fellow on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, who has dedicated her career to serving vulnerable communities in the United States and globally — with special attention to women and girls. Over the last decade, Sejal has founded and led two social enterprises advancing women’s rights and agency — over time, across six continents and 100 countries. In part due to this work, Sejal was one of nine public health leaders appointed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's independent advisory group on women’s & children’s health, charged with evaluating and reporting global progress on Millennium Development Goals 4 & 5. More recently, she served as a health policy advisor to Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign. She currently sits on the boards of Arena, and the Indian-American advocacy organization, Indiaspora. Sejal received her M.D. and M.B.A. from Stanford University, where she studied as a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow and a Harry S. Truman Scholar; and her B.S. with honors from Yale University, where she was also a Global Health Fellow. She has spoken at the United Nations, the World Health Assembly, TED and TEDx, among other settings; and been named to the Forbes 30 under 30, Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards, Newsweek's "150 Women Who Shake the World," World Economic Forum Global Shapers, and United States Presidential Scholars for her work.

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.

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.

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.

Dr. Benjamin F. Miller, PsyD is the Chief Strategy Officer for Well Being Trust, a national foundation committed to advancing the mental, social, and spiritual health of the nation. Miller is a national expert in the area of mental health, policy, and ways to integrate mental health into both clinical and community settings. 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.

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.

Bill Smith is Founder of Inseparable, and founding partner of Civitas Public Affairs Group, a values-based firm working on some of the most pressing societal challenges of our day. Bill has built his career advancing significant public policy initiatives and winning elections. He has over two decades of experience in campaign management, messaging research and communications, and movement building. Prior to founding Civitas, Bill was the national political director at Gill Action where his guidance and advice helped win nearly 200 successful state elections across the country. He led the development of innovative strategies to pass, block, and protect key policy outcomes, while advising a network of donors that strategically invested into targeted campaigns to win the freedom to marry and advance LGBTQ+ equality. Bill has worked extensively as a general consultant, and has built winning campaigns for elected officials, political groups, and non-profit organizations across the country. Bill began his career working as a political operative for Karl Rove + Company and Wilson Grand Communications. He currently serves on the boards of End Citizens United, Faith in Public Life Action Fund, and the Reconciling Ministries Network. A native of Alabama, Bill resides in Washington, D.C.

Ashwin Vasan, M.D., PhD, is the recently-appointed President and CEO of Fountain House, an internationally recognized nonprofit that addresses the devastating impact of mental illness and social isolation through a pioneering community-based social therapeutic and social services model, and that has inspired the creation of hundreds of similar programs in 34 countries that serve more than 100,000 people annually.

Dr. Vasan’s expertise in public health policy and political and social advocacy on a local and global level will advance Fountain House’s work at the intersection of public health, mental illness, homelessness, criminal justice, healthcare, and social welfare for marginalized people and communities.

A practicing primary care physician, academic, and public servant committed to improving the lives of vulnerable people, Dr. Vasan holds concurrent positions as an Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons, and has taught graduate students and trainees in general medicine, population health, and implementation science.

Early in his career, Dr. Vasan worked at the nonprofit, Partners In Health, and at the World Health Organization (WHO) to increase access to HIV/AIDS treatment in the global South. He spent time in Rwanda and Lesotho during his tenure with Partners In Health, focusing on HIV, health systems and strengthening primary care delivery. He then led the multi-country health systems implementation and research program ARCHeS, based at Columbia Mailman, and most recently, as the founding Executive Director of the Health Access Equity Unit at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, he built the first municipal health department program focused explicitly on the intersection of health, clinical systems, and the social welfare needs of marginalized populations, including people living with mental illness involved in the justice system.

Dr. Vasan holds a Master of Science degree in Epidemiology from Harvard, his MD from the University of Michigan, and his PhD in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and in mainstream media outlets including Huffington Post and The Marshall Project.

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.