While working as a mental health research intern in Australia in 2018, Jaclyn Schess—now a doctoral student at UC Berkeley School of Public Health—spent an evening out with her colleagues. Over glasses of wine, the conversation turned personal: Several co-workers mentioned their own experiences with mental illness. Schess was among them. She has experienced depression for much of her life, as well as hypomanic episodes.
“So we all work in mental health research and we’ve all struggled with our mental health?’’ she asked. Everybody nodded.
Schess wondered why the young researchers were shy about acknowledging their own mental health challenges—especially when such challenges helped motivate them to work in the field.
Six months later, in 2019, Schess founded Generation Mental Health, a youth-led nonprofit organization empowering young people to take action to improve mental health systems. The group believes that young people and people with lived experience are uniquely well positioned to create change in the mental health of their communities, but frequently face barriers to making an impact.
“Our programs aim to make the dreams of these mental health advocates and innovators a reality,” Schess said.
They do so by offering opportunities for young people with lived experience of mental health problems, distress, or trauma to learn how to lead mental health initiatives, conduct research and become community advocates.
Schess said that Generation Mental Health’s first big boost was securing a $15,000 UC Berkeley School of Public Health Impact Innovators grant in 2024—the first year the grants were awarded. She used the funds to create a mental health advocacy training kit, which includes a virtual course, available for free to young people around the world for asynchronous learning.
The Impact Innovators program is meant to “encourage students to proactively identify public health challenges, engage directly with the communities affected by these issues, and devise sustainable, people-centered solutions that generate positive impact.”
“Jaclyn’s leadership and global vision for Generation Mental Health immediately stood out in the program. She collaborated with youth leaders across the world as she built her initiative, focusing on both immediate impact and long term, sustainable programming to improve youth wellbeing globally,” says Kelly Horan, manager of Social Impact Innovation Programs at Berkeley Public Health.
Generation Mental Health Founder Jaclyn Schess with Kelli Martin, founder of the University of Michigan campus chapter of Schess’ nonprofit.
The grant gave Schess the confidence to apply for and win a major contract with Wellcome, the British charitable foundation, to launch The Possibilities Collective, an ambitious international program designed to promote youth and lived experience leadership and global equity in mental health research. The initiative, which is funded at the equivalent of approximately $650,000 American dollars for two and a half years, will span North America, South Asia, and Africa.
Schess said that the Possibilities Collective will offer a range of programs for young people seeking to conduct lived-experience-led research.
“This contract marks a pivotal moment in our mission to shift power in mental health research,” Schess said. The Collective will equip young people from underrepresented communities with the skills, resources, and networks needed to lead transformative change in their own contexts.”
Schess is now in her third year pursuing a doctoral degree in health policy at UC Berkeley Public Health, and is grateful for the strong support from advisors and peers.
“I had been in a PhD program before, at a different university, and had a really hard time for a number of reasons,” she said. “But I knew in this round, I was looking for a place where I could show up as my whole self.”
“I feel really at home in the department in a way that has been really special. My advisors are just really incredible people.”
She has worked most closely with Will Dow, professor of health policy and management and Rebecca Staiger, assistant professor of health policy and management. With Dow, Schess served as a Graduate Student Researcher on a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation–funded project investigating the impact of state minimum wage increases on mental health and substance use outcomes.
Staiger serves as her faculty mentor for the Mentored Research Award, a Graduate Division Fellowship that Schess was awarded.
While building Generation Mental Health, and developing the Possibilities Collective, Schess is also working on her dissertation, focused on the ways in which poverty and economic well-being intersect with mental health and substance use issues.
“My hope is to be able to think about the economic consequences of alcohol use disorders,” she said.
