This month, in honor of the newly named Health Workforce Well-Being Day on March 18th, commemorating the day the President signed the Lorna Breen Act into law in 2022, I’m thrilled to feature conversations with three brilliant national leaders who are transforming health worker well-being: Corey Feist, JD, MBA, CEO and co-founder of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation, founded in 2020 to address the systemic drivers of health worker ill health and honoring Dr Lorna Breen, a frontline emergency room doctor and Corey’s sister-in-law, who died by suicide. The work of the Foundation was recogni ..read more

Here’s a conversation with the wonderful Dr Jessi Gold — on workplace mental health, how to achieve a prevention focus over doling out interventions, and reflections on her own mental health journey — including recently uncovering and shedding self-stigma she didn’t realize she carried. Jessi Gold, MD, is the first Chief Wellness Officer for the University of Tennessee System and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. (This conversation was recorded before she started these roles.) Dr Gold is an internationally recognized speaker, media advo ..read more

Welcome to Season 2 of Spread the light with Dr Devika B. Here, we know that stigma festers in the dark and it scatters in the light. And this season will take that even further. We’ll dive into the ways that stigma shows up in culture, in norms, in policies, and in institutions — and how we can disrupt and rewrite that. To kick us off: In this powerful interview with perinatal psychiatrists Dr Nancy Byatt and Dr Crystal Clark, hear about what breastfeeding guidelines miss about the potential mental health risks for new mothers and families. Read more on this pivotal topic in a piece I wrote f ..read more

Dr Jessi Gold is the first Chief Wellness Officer for the University of Tennessee System and serves as an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. (This conversation was recorded before she starting these roles.) Dr Gold is an internationally recognized speaker, media advocate, author, and mental health consultant with a special focus on college students, healthcare workers, and the entertainment industry. She has been spreading the light for decades with her critical work, and I’m thrilled to be sharing her wisdom about optimizing well-being with ..read more

Welcome to Season 2 of Spread the light with Dr Devika B. Here, we know that stigma festers in the dark and it scatters in the light. And this season will take that even further. We’ll dive into the ways that stigma shows up in culture, in norms, in policies, and in institutions — and how we can disrupt and rewrite that. To kick us off: In this powerful interview with perinatal psychiatrists Dr Nancy Byatt and Dr Crystal Clark, hear about what breastfeeding guidelines miss about the potential mental health risks for new mothers and families. More to come on this pivotal topic next week in a pi ..read more

Lara Burmeister, MBA, is a first-generation German-American who has spent most of her career working in roles to combat climate change. She lives with depression. Hear about what Lara challenged herself to do to get through her darkest moments, her well-time and red flag toolkits, how depression changed her, and rebuilding her identity in its wake. Trigger warning: In this interview, we talk about passive suicidal ideation and depression. — * Join our well-being newsletter community that examines evidence-based trends in health, innovation, and culture, and destigmatizes mental illness — ce ..read more

Andrew Barr is a founding partner of GreyMatter, a mental health-focused venture capital firm. Previously, he advised a range of mental health startups and non-profits. Before his work in the mental field, he was a co-founder of Prefer, a Benchmark-backed startup and a venture capitalist at Institutional Venture Partners. He has lived experience with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Trigger warning: In this interview, we talk about anxiety and OCD. SPREAD THE LIGHT WITH DR DEVIKA B: First-person accounts of living with mental illness that aim to dispel stigma and stereotypes and instead, sprea ..read more

Justin Bullock, MD, MPH, is a fellow in Nephrology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr Bullock is a passionate medical educator and an identity safety researcher. He is outspoken about his lived experience as a gay, Black, bipolar physician. Dr Bullock's work and story have been featured in the New England Journal of Medicine, Vox, and Forbes, among others. Trigger warning: In this episode, we talk about suicidality, depression, hypomania, family violence, imprisonment, and police violence. — * Join our well-being newsletter community that examines evidence-based trends in ..read more

Dr Jake Goodman is a psychiatry resident physician and global mental health activist with more than 2.1 million followers on social media. He is a two-time TEDx Speaker, member of the University of Georgia Alumni Association's 40 under 40, and a participant in the Healthcare Leaders in Social Media Roundtable Series for the White House. Dr Jake uses his platform to fight stigma and discrimination, and to empower those experiencing mental health challenges to seek help. His advocacy work has been featured in Good Morning America, Men’s Health, Yahoo News and more. In 2023, he was named 1 of 60 ..read more

Dr Ahmed Hankir is a Lebanese-British-Irish psychiatrist with expertise by lived experience. He serves as the Lead for Public Engagement and Education at the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Mental Health and Human Rights, Institute of Mental Health, Nottingham University, UK. Dr Hankir is passionate about empowering and dignifying people living with mental health conditions and is the creator of the mental health-focused performing arts piece, The Wounded Healer. Trigger warning: In this interview, we talk about war, suicidality, depression, witnessing violence and ho ..read more