Jackee Schess is a lived experience advocate and mental health researcher from New York, USA. Jackee founded Generation Mental Health after reflecting on her field experiences and the many barriers to entry for young people wanting to make mental health impact. Jackee takes her passion for empowering youth with lived experience to her role setting strategy and implementing programs at Generation Mental Health. You can learn more about her lived experience journey here. 

She enjoys cooking, listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and hanging out with her dog Hudson.  Jackee's current research investigates the impact of labor policy on mental health and substance use outcomes. She received her BA in Economics and Certificate in Global Health Studies from Yale University and MA in Economics from Georgetown University. She is now a PhD student In Health Policy and Health Economics at UC Berkeley School of Public Health.

Jackee is always looking to learn about the efforts of youth to improve the mental health of their communities. Reach out any time! Contact Jackee here:

Lydia is based in the UK and after graduating university,  she decided to merge her interest in finance, with her passion for international development. She hopes to build a career in ESG assurance and reporting, recognising the deep connections between 'big business', the environment and human health and wellbeing around the world. Outside of work, Lydia enjoys running, cooking and walking her beloved dogs, Pickle, Cheddar and Bandit.

Lydia is passionate about GenMH's vision to create accessible opportunities for people of all backgrounds, and is keen to transfer the learnings from her own experiences, to the development of GenMH!

Sonali is a mental health researcher and aspiring clinician living in Mumbai, India. While still an undergraduate in 2013, Sonali experienced the difficulties of mental ill-health, stigma and loss while caring for a close loved one who was unwell. Her experience as a carer motivated her to seek a deeper understanding of the ways in which under-resourced communities respond to mental ill-health, and piqued her interest in global mental health research. Since then, Sonali has worked and volunteered in non-profit settings in the US and India on projects looking at addiction, suicide prevention, stigma, caregiver burden, psychosis and workplace mental health.

Sonali received her B.A. in Psychology and English from Barnard College in 2015 and MSc in Global Mental Health from King’s College London & LSHTM in 2020. She currently works as a Research Associate at the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy in Pune, India.

As co-founder of GenMH, Sonali’s hope is to develop and run programs that empower people to help their communities through knowledge dissemination, advocacy and peer support. Most days, you can find her spending every free moment with her Shih Tzu, Peanut, or setting up in a coffee shop with a book!

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Anju aspires to be a researcher and practitioner in the field of mental health and human development. She has spent 4 years working in education development in India with a focus on children from marginalized communities. She has worked with state governments, non-governmental organizations and foundations on advocacy, design and implementation of effective teaching and learning programs. Over the past few years, she has been associated with Central Square Foundation, Language and Learning Foundation, Stones 2 Milestones and Parikrma Foundation. She is also a Teach For India Fellow (Batch of 2016-18). Her primary focus as a Fellow was to integrate value-based education with Math and English language instruction. Her experiences working with children from low socioeconomic backgrounds led her to realize the critical role that mental health plays in achievement, and has since been on the pathway to pursue a career in mental health and well-being. Anju received her B.E in Chemical Engineering from Ramaiah Institute of Technology in 2016.

She currently works as a Coach while continuing to consult with organizations on education projects. In the long term Anju hopes to work at the intersection of mental health and education to influence policy makers and citizens in recognizing mental health as a key issue area in development. 

Michaella Baker recently graduated from Northwestern’s JD-MBA program to build her expertise as a mental health advocate – combining policy, innovation, and public health epidemiology. While at Northwestern, she focused her time on international human rights and spent her last semester as a CDC Public Health Law Program Fellow.

A graduate of Yale College and Yale School of Public Health, she began her career at Global Health Strategies, an NYC-based global health advocacy and policy firm. She takes pride in building the company’s mental health client portfolio externally, advocating for mental health benefits internally, and scoping out the best NYC lox bagel.

Hannah is a PhD student at the University of Texas Health Science Center whose research centers on lived experiences of psychological distress and psychosocial disability. Hannah primarily uses qualitative methodologies and community based participatory research approaches. She is a passionate mental health advocate and sees data as a critical tool for advocacy work.

Kunle Pelemo also known as K.P is a multi-talented nation- building and knowledge business strategist. He is the CEO of Kuntrol HQ Int’l Ltd. He is an advocate of mental health and suicide prevention in Nigeria and Africa at Large. Having worked in the oil and gas downstream sector of his country for close to a decade, he deemed it fit to quit the sector in order to champion his mental health and suicide prevention cause called Live And Not Die (LAND).  He is currently the chief mental health strategist of Mycarebuddy Limited; a foremost online mental health care service provider in Nigeria. Kunle is a Global Goodwill Ambassador (Humanitarian) in Nigeria  and also Ambassador for Cuenta Conmigo NGOs in Argentina.

Over the years, he has undergone series of courses in reputable institutions such as University of Glasgow, Philanthropy University and Mental Health Academy for the purpose of certification and knowledge acquisition in respect of his advocacy.

In March 2020, Kunle was nominated as 2020 Mental Health Champion by the World Dignity Project after his works have gained recognition by many organizations and individuals within and outside the shores of Africa. He has featured on many programmes on national TVs, radio stations, live casts, etc creating awareness and offering support for people.

Erica is a partnership development and management professional, with experience working in 4 different continents and maintaining partnerships across 20+ countries. She has worked in social impact for Goodwall alongside partners including UNICEF, Generation Unlimited, GIZ and more to develop programmes aimed at improving youth livelihoods around the world. Before working at Goodwall, Erica was the first-full time employee and Senior Partnerships Officer for United for Global Mental Health. There, she helped found the first-ever global mental health advocacy campaign, Speak Your Mind (SYM). Erica uses her background in global mental health to inform her social impact work. She is excited to be Generation Mental Health's Chief Partnerships Officer, working to build and nurture new partnerships to ensure maximum reach and positive impact on youth mental health around the world.

Payal Mehra is a mental health advocate from Brooklyn, New York, inspired to drive change in the mental health field by the struggles of a close family member. After spending almost two years on the marketing team at GenMH, she's excited to take on a new role as Chief People Officer, where she will focus on building and retaining our talented and passionate team of volunteers.

Payal is currently an MBA student at NYU Stern School of Business, where she's focusing her studies on healthcare and strategy. Prior to starting her MBA, she worked as a Digital Strategy Consultant at Gartner, helping clients across the consumer goods, healthcare, and luxury industries improve their digital performance. She  received her undergraduate degree in Economics from New York University in 2017. In her free time, she loves to play guitar and board games, and try to finish the New York Times’ crossword puzzles!

Sarah is an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan studying Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience, as well as Gender, Race, and Nation. Sarah hopes to attend law school in the future, and is very interested in advancing her law and policy knowledge as a Compliance Officer for GenMH. Sarah has served as a Health and Wellness Panhellenic Peer Educator for her campus community and has a passion for mental health advocacy and education. She is very excited to be a part of the GenMH team and to support their mission. In her free time, Sarah enjoys snowboarding, trying new foods, and having movie nights with friends!

Zoe's public health career started when she spent time in Uganda proposing a new pharmaceutical drug tracking system for Mbarara Regional Hospital. In 2017, Zoe led efforts at Drum Major Institute creating programs concentrating on improving voting rights and mitigating senseless gun violence. In 2020, she joined the Columbia Global Mental Health team as a Policy and Research Associate focused on eating disorder policy. Zoe takes her passion for advocacy and legislative change to GenMH to empower youth and mental health advocates to fight for local, state and federal governmental change. She is dedicated to improving democratic rights through grassroots voting reform, and she is excited to take this to GenMH to do the same with mental health reform and advocacy. 

Zoe received her B.S. from New York University where she studied Global Public Health and Applied Psychology. She is currently a MPH Candidate in Health Policy and Management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health studying the intersections of climate, food and health. She enjoys running and baking and can be contacted here at any time to talk about anything from your favorite dessert to mental health reforms. Feel free to connect with her here

Francesca is a hard-working, passionate, and dedicated student at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her major is psychology, and her minors are writing and community action and social change (CASC). Francesca has a strong and innate passion for psychology and hopes to have a career in clinical psychology. Her goal is to work in the research space and eventually work towards a Ph.D.

Esther currently works as a People Operations Professional and a Youth and Mental Health Advocate. She received her BSc in Psychology and Certificate in Global Mental Health from the University of Washington, She is also a Youth Mental Health First Aider, USA and a Member of the Australian & New Zealand Mental Health Association. She is an IREX Community Engagement Exchange Program Fellow and TheirWorld Global Youth Ambassador, a global network of young leaders who advocate for the rights and education of young people.

She is passionate about destigmatizing mental health in African communities, using education, storytelling and evidence-based research and programs as tools to equip young people with the resources they need to live healthy and fulfilling lives.

She loves consuming stories in all forms – books, movies, TV shows – and places.

Stacy is currently pursuing a Masters in Counselling Psychology. She has led a University Campus Program in Nairobi, Kenya for the past few years where she has developed programs, managed leadership and development focused activities and created a thriving environment for growth and learning. It is through this work that Stacy developed an interest and passion in mental health as a core component for people to fully thrive.

Stacy is excited to be part of the team because of the opportunity to reach out to more people who she would not get to through a counselling practice. She hopes to design and execute programs that empower more people on the ground to create spaces for advocacy, peer support and mental health awareness.

Stacy loves a good book as she sips on her cup of chai and with friends, she enjoys board games and having engaging conversations on different life topics.

Gergana got her Bachelor degree in psychology and Master degree in clinical and counselling psychology from Sofia University in her native Bulgaria. She gained experience as therapist and counsellor working with people with diverse psychological needs in the CBT and psychodynamic schools. She also worked as a civil servant in the prison and probation administration of the country, where she specialised in radicalisation and violent extremism. Searching for more equitable and large-scale mental health solutions, she went to obtain her Master degree of Global Mental Health from King's College London & London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2016 and worked from the UK in research of post-conflict population mental health in Northern Sri Lanka, as well as psychosis research in India, Nigeria and Trinidad, before starting her small Globally Minded Foundation in Bulgaria. As a volunteer always enthusiastic for a good cause, she was inspired by the dedication and passion of the Generation Mental Health team and wanted to contribute to their goals.

She runs the GloballyMinded.org website and a newsletter specialized in global mental health and likes to develop ambitious plans, talk to people, discuss ideas and look at the bigger picture from unconventional angles.

Grace is a  Psychology and Peacekeeping student at the University of Nairobi.she is a result oriented  mental health advocate passionate about youth engagement in policy formulation and implementation, community development,human rights and youth leadership .she has 4years experience in providing administrative support to complete projects that involve protection of human rights and provision of better mental health services.she has worked with government institutions, non government institutions, mental health organizations, other youth leaders and schools in mental health and human rights campaigns. She is knowledgeable in disseminating project information to project stakeholders, monitoring the progress of projects, developing and maintaining project deliverables and gathering and inputting data into databases.

She looks forward to engaging with Generation Mental Health in schools and community development initiatives, mobilization,monitoring the progress of mental health  at community level  and implementing community based projects in mental health in a bid to achieve organizational as well as personal development in alignment with the organizations mission and vision.



Daisy Arko-Dadzie (she/her) is an avid mental health advocate who is passionate about addressing and debunking the stigma of mental illness, especially within the Black community. She is originally from Ghana and recently graduated from the University of Toronto with a BSc degree in Human Biology and Neuroscience. She has over 2 years of administrative and marketing experience in non-profit organizations that were geared towards health advocacy and community development in academic institutions. 

Daisy is an aspiring psychologist and hopes to highlight the importance of intersectional mental health care;  by encouraging others to dig deeper, acknowledge the multiple identities of each individual and look at the “big picture”. 

In her spare time, Daisy records episodes for her podcast, The Make It Make Sense Podcast, where she discusses the significance of normalizing conversations regarding mental health issues. She also enjoys cooking and listening to music.

Daisy is excited to join the GenMH team and hopes to help brainstorm new ideas and apply her problem-solving skills to further develop the organization.

Joyce Ngali is a passionate student pursuing International Relations and Diplomacy in Maseno University Kenya, where I am also a citizen. Apart from my  passion in International Relations, I am also passionate about mental health. Having lived an experience with mental health, I decided to pursue more and learn more about mental health and wellness in order to also help the community around me by creating awareness of mental health. For example, I am a campus director of  mental health in our institution under Mental Haven and I am also a trained and certified peer counsellor in my institution.

I am so excited to be part of this team and I hope to combine my skills in International Relations especially under International Law which is one of the units I love most with mental wellness promotion skills in order to add value in the organisation. I will also accompany my skills with hard-work, time-management, responsibility, cooperation, team-work and commitment.

I am hoping to learn a lot from Generation Mental Health in terms of promoting mental health awareness and also in terms of the role of being a compliance officer. I hope to grow not only in knowledge but also in practice. I will be so happy to pass on the good lessons I will acquire from Generation Mental Health to my community.