We are thrilled to celebrate those individuals and companies who are working to make a difference in youth mental health and suicide prevention. Read more about our JED Gala honorees and presenters below. Please remember to bring proof of vaccination, as it is required at the gala. Thank you!
Presenters
Scott Galloway, Professor and Author
Scott Galloway is a Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business where he teaches Brand Strategy and Digital Marketing to second-year MBA students and is the author of the Digital IQ Index ®, a global ranking of prestige brands’ digital competence. In 2012, Professor Galloway was named “One of the World’s 50 Best Business School Professors” (Poets & Quants). Professor Galloway is also the founder of several firms including L2, a subscription business intelligence firm serving prestige brands; Red Envelope, an e-commerce firm (2007, $100mm revs.); and Prophet, a global brand strategy consultancy with 250+ professionals.
Professor Galloway was elected to the World Economic Forum’s “Global Leaders of Tomorrow,” which recognizes 100 individuals under the age of 40 “whose accomplishments have had impact on a global level.” Professor Galloway has served on the board of directors of Eddie Bauer (Nasdaq: EBHI), The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), Gateway Computer, and Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He received a BA from UCLA and an MBA from UC Berkeley.
John MacPhee, CEO, The Jed Foundation
John MacPhee brings 25 years of leadership and management experience from the business and not-for-profit settings to his role at JED. Passionate about supporting young adults in their transition to adulthood, John advises several organizations including the S. Jay Levy Fellowship for Future Leaders at City College, Trek Medics, Crisis Text Line, the Health Policy and Management Department at the Mailman School of Public Health, and HIV Hero.
Earlier in his career, he served in executive positions for Par Pharmaceutical, Inc. and Forest Laboratories, where he oversaw functions such as business development, alliance management, clinical development, regulatory affairs, sales and marketing. John continues to contribute to the development of novel medications for disorders such as Parkinson’s disease through board roles with Adamas Pharmaceuticals and Blackthorn Therapeutics.
In 2016, John received The Allan Rosenfield Alumni Award for Excellence in the field of public health from the Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. He earned a BA from Columbia College, an MBA from New York University and an MPH from Columbia University.
Phillip Satow, Co-Founder and Chair, JED Board of Directors
Phil Satow is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of JDS Therapeutics, an innovative health care company in the nutritional supplement industry. He was Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of JDS Pharmaceuticals LLC, which developed and marketed branded pharmaceutical products before it was acquired in 2007. Phil is the former president of Forest Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and former Executive Vice President and member of the Board of Directors of Forest Laboratories, Inc., its parent company. In addition to the Forest Laboratories board he was formerly a member of the Board of Directors of three other publicly traded pharmaceutical companies. Phil is also a past president of the Columbia College Alumni Association, a recipient of Columbia’s John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement and the Alexander Hamilton Award, the highest honor paid to a member of the Columbia College community.
He co-founded The Jed Foundation in 2000 (where he currently serves as Chairman of the Board) with his wife Donna after the loss of their son Jed. Phil has subsequently been an active member of the suicide prevention community serving as a Board Member of The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and as a former Co-chairman, with the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, of a suicide task-force, which created, A Prioritized Research Agenda for Suicide Prevention: An Action Plan to Save Lives.
Dr. David A. Thomas, President, Morehouse College
David A. Thomas, PhD, President of Morehouse College, is internationally recognized for his expertise in organizational management and higher education leadership. A noted academic scholar, award-winning author, and business consultant for 100 of the Fortune 500 companies, Dr. Thomas has also served as Dean of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and on the faculty of Harvard Business School and the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. At Morehouse, his fundraising leadership has resulted in approximately $190 million, a still-growing total higher than during any other presidential tenure in the history of the college. Under his strategic direction, Morehouse has extended its reach by launching its first online degree programs and has amplified its positioning as a center of intellectual discourse and social engagement in areas such as global leadership, professional equity, social justice, and innovation. He has written or co-written three books and more than 100 scholarly articles, book chapters, cases, and teaching notes.
Among other honors, Dr. Thomas is the recipient of Washington Business Journal’s “Minority Business Leader of the Year” award and the National Executive Forum’s Beacon Award and was named one of “Atlanta’s 500 Most Powerful Leaders” by Atlanta Magazine. Getting Serious About Diversity: Enough Already with the Business Case, co-written by Dr. Thomas, won the 2020 HBR McKinsey Award as the best Harvard Business Review article of the year. He serves on the boards of DTE Energy, Commonfund, Vanguard, and Yale Corporation. He is also a senior advisor for Grain Management. He earned a PhD in organizational behavior studies and a Master of Philosophy in organizational behavior, both from Yale University, along with a Master of Organizational Psychology from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Administrative Sciences from Yale College.
Dr. Aswin Vasan, Commissioner of NYC Department of Health & Hygiene
Dr. Ashwin Vasan is the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Dr. Vasan is a primary care physician, epidemiologist and public health expert with nearly 20 years of experience working to improve physical and mental health, social welfare and public policy for marginalized populations here in New York City, nationally and globally. Since 2014 he has served on the faculty at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and he continues to see patients as a primary care internist in the Division of General Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
Dr. Vasan most recently served as the President and CEO of Fountain House, a national nonprofit fighting to improve health, increase opportunity, and end social and economic isolation for people most impacted by mental illness. During his tenure, he grew the organization from a New York-based community mental health organization to a national network across eight markets, and grew the budget by nearly $20 million annually. He helped navigate the organization through COVID-19 by driving new telehealth and digital mental health programs while its physical locations closed, as well as developing new community-based outreach and accompaniment programs. Further, Dr. Vasan led the creation of a national policy office in Washington, D.C., working to change national mental health policy on the issues of crisis response services and funding for and quality of community-based mental health services.
Awards
Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children’s Mental Health
JED Corporate Voice of Mental Health Award
The Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children’s Mental Health brings together key leaders in the children’s mental health space and combines the resources and reach of Morgan Stanley and its Foundation with the knowledge and experience of its distinguished nonprofit partner organizations. The Alliance helps strategically address children’s mental health concerns and the far-reaching challenges of stress, anxiety and depression. For more information about the Alliance, visit www.morganstanley.com/
Crystal Widado, Glendora High School
JED Student Voice of Mental Health Awards
Crystal is a rising senior at Glendora High School in Los Angeles, studying journalism and English. She is the writing director of Each Mind, a youth-led mental health non-profit that creates digital magazines and blog posts about teen mental health. Crystal is also the social media facilitator of Mind Out Loud, a California Department of Education-sponsored mental health student representative group that advocates for increased mental health awareness in teens. Crystal is the captain of her school’s debate team where she has received numerous team awards and school awards in tournaments among hundreds of high school debaters.
Joseph Sexton, Vanderbilt University
JED Student Voice of Mental Health Awards
Joseph is a rising senior at Vanderbilt University studying cognitive science, mathematics, and medicine, health, and society. At Vanderbilt, Joseph has vitalized a movement for mental health through his Mental Health Reform Group and the creation of the Vanderbilt Critical Psychiatry Conference, a student-led initiative on the politics of mental health that drew an audience of over 200 clinicians, academics, and activists. Joseph serves on the Policy Committee for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Tennessee chapter and Mental Health America, who recognized him as Volunteer of the Year for the Midsouth region and a member of the selective Young Mental Health Leadership Council.
Partner
Sponsor
Celeste and Wendell Birkhofer; Boston Consulting Group; Karen Ling; Bill and Stephanie Meury; Nancy and Fred Poses
Patron
Eric Blattman; Susan and Jonathan Bram; Alex and Margaret Chi; Hellman & Friedman LLC; J&J Health Care Systems; Karen Ling; Matthew and Melanie Lippman; New England Patriots Foundation; The Pechter Foundation; Mindy and Jesse Rogers; Patty and Douglas Sacks; Michael and Barbara Satow; Sarah Long and David Solomon
Supporter
AbbVie; Amneal Pharmaceuticals; Molly and Lincoln Frank; Lundbeck; Rhonda Mims; Morgan Stanley Technology; Morgan Stanley Investment; Banking – IST; Amir-Aslani,Bergstein, Dotson, Gross, Walsh; Shirley Pechter; Sunovion Pharmaceuticals; UBS
Friend
Aetna; Allianz; Aria Growth Partners; Carlton Hill Foundation; Cowen and Company LLC; Phil Davies; EBA Foundation; Educational Ventures; FINN Partners; Golieb Family Foundation; GradGuard; Joe and Lucinda Gregory; Gucci; Jolene McCaw Family Foundation; Andy Kearns; Peter and Cynthia Kellogg Foundation; National Basketball Association; Marc and Nora Mazur; Major League Soccer; McGraw Hill; Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute; James O’Brien; PLM Foundation; Abby Pogrebin; Viswas Raghavan; Saint Laurent; Katherine Stueland; Leopold Swergold; William Hood & Co; Elizabeth and Richard Witten; Dan Wright
Premier
Alexia Bruce and Ethan Klemperer; Alyssa Dweck; James Giangrande; Audrey and Martin Gruss; Larry and Rita Lieberman; Thomas and Andrea Mendell; Phillipa and Larry Portnoy; Elyssa Sims; Simon Upton; Holly Zimmerman
Contributions
Timothy Balconi; Henry Black; Jeffrey Borer; Evan Bower; William Brodsky; Karen Ignagni and Larry Bartlett; Chubb; Joni Evans and Bob Perkins; Mimi and Ed Fiorentino; Peirre Frechette; Stu Gelband; Jack Gorman; Margaret and Thomas Haughey; Gates Hawn; Carol and Richard Hochman; Andrew Hochman; Janis and Paul Jarosz; Martin Kaplan; Brian Krisberg; Gary Laermer; Patrick LePore; Eric Lipkind; Macks Family Foundation; McFarlane Foundation; Patrick Thomas McKee Foundation; Dorothy and Charles Plohn; Gary Rachelefsky; Cary Renner; Steve Reynolds; Bruce and Avis Richards; Kelley and Marco Rosa; Nancy Roskind; David Russell; Brent Smith; Ryan Sobeck; Shelly Sun; Lou and Lauren Weiss