Zoe is one of the founders of This Can Happen. She is also the founder of Employees Matter, the largest provider of employee engagement seminars and webinars in the UK.
Kathryn oversees This Can Happen's new initiative - Research & Insights, which is helping companies to measure and benchmark the success of their mental health strategies.
12:20 - 12:50 ET
How to create a sustainable mental health strategy
Amy Small is the EVP, Creative at Media Cause, a digital marketing agency for nonprofits. Throughout her 20 year career, she's developed campaigns and experiences for everything from coffee brands to educational justice orgs. However, she’s most proud of her work developing and leading Wholebeing—Media Cause’s employee wellbeing program, which was awarded 2023 Bell Seal Certification by Mental Health America, and named "Best New Workplace Approach to Mental Wellbeing" by This Can Happen Global. As part of her efforts to create healthier company cultures, Amy has studied Organizational Leadership, Positive Psychology, and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction; received certifications from the Center for Compassionate Leadership and SIYLI; and is a Certified Empathy Decathlon Facilitator.
Polish/American, Business Professional, Trained and Certified Mindfulness Supervisor and Teacher, Mental Health First Aider, Design Thinking Coach and Agile Thought Leader, Assistant Teacher at Oxford Mindfulness Foundation. I lead the mindfulness practice/program at Kyndryl, an information technology multinational where I am also an Associate Director in the Global Well-Being Team, and part of the leadership board for our Coaching Community.
David Stone is Managing Partner at inQUEST, a global consultancy committed to strengthening team and organizational cultures through the lens of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. David’s broad experience as an attorney, consultant, mediator, trainer, and facilitator enables his clients to connect authentically, align strategically, and move forward together towards improved performance. At the core of David’s approach is the commitment to engage in the hard work of deeply understanding ourselves and one another and then to use this knowledge to change behaviours and enhance practices, processes, strategies, and structures within organisations.
In addition to his unique professional perspective, David is sought-after for workshops and dialogue sessions specifically for his engaging style, which emphasizes empathy and intellectual rigor, coupled with a good amount of levity and humor. He has the recognition of being the Trainer of the Year for his work with the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago, where he also founded and served as the executive vice-president of the Chicago Jewish Day School.
12:55 - 13:15 ET
Mental Health Champions: Who they are and how they help
Named a
“Mover and Shaker” in workplace wellbeing, Laura is a skilled mental health
educator working with companies and organizations throughout the globe through
her company LDC Wellbeing. She
built the wellbeing program for Expedia Group from a grassroots level and now
consults with companies that value the importance of a holistic wellbeing
strategy.
I started with Mars as a part-time contractor in 2016. Earned the role of Plant Administrator in 2018; became a Mars Associate in 2019.
My husband, Jeff and I have been married 20 years. We have a 19-year daughter, April, who is graduating college this Fall. Our son David is 16-year-old and in 10th grade.
My personal passion is mental health and connecting people to mental health resources. My guilty pleasure is watching Chinese period dramas.
When I began my career in 2011 as a cardiac nurse, I never would have dreamt where this nursing journey would lead me. I loved my patients, coworkers, and the joy I felt from helping someone in a hospital setting, but something was missing. I took the hard leap out of the hospital and found my home in Occupational health. As an OHN my patients are also my colleagues. I get to walk with them through the ups and downs of life. I get to help them when they are hurting. I get to advise them when they need resources. Ten years later I am still in love with occupational health and all the opportunities it has provided me.
I have been a Wellbeing Practitioner for Mars Corporate for 5 years supporting a variety of our sites across the country, spanning multiple segments. I live in Columbus Ohio and site at a Mars Petcare site. Our team is responsible for implementing prevention programs and leveraging key stakeholders to provide healthier workplaces. The role of the Champion is crucial for our teams success.
13:20 - 13:50 ET
Understanding the benefits of hiring a wellbeing lead
Michael Herman is General Counsel and a Toronto-based business law partner at Gowling WLG, an international law firm.
Michael is a strong advocate for mental health and wellness at Gowling WLG and within the broader legal community. Through his ongoing work to raise awareness and eliminate stigma, he hopes to make it easier for anyone experiencing mental illness to come forward and seek help without fear of judgment.
As a mental health champion, Michael has spoken extensively and worked collaboratively with various organizations over the past several years. These include CivicAction, the Canadian Bar Association, Made of Millions Foundation, the Mental Health Commission of Canada, the Canadian Mental Health Association, the Conference Board of Canada, Toronto Law Association Wellbeing at Work and This Can Happen. Michael is a contributing author to The Right Not to Remain Silent: The Truth About Mental Health in The Legal Profession, published in 2024. Michael is also on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Institute for Advancements in Mental Health, a solutions-oriented charitable organization that supports, innovates and drives change for better mental health.
Monika is European Head of Health and Wellbeing at Mars. She is experienced in setting workplace wellbeing and mental health strategies and leading global teams to operationalise these. She has over a decade of experience in delivering change programs globally at team and individual levels and has more recently in supporting managers to create a positive environment for their people to thrive.
She started her medical career as a General Practitioner and subsequently became a specialist in Occupational Medicine, which she has practiced both in the public and corporate sectors. She coaches all levels within organisations including executives and is a strong advocate of harnessing the power of mentoring and coaching to enable people to lead more fulfilling lives. She is on the board of the What Works Centre for Wellbeing.
Her interests outside work include practising yoga and mindfulness and supporting the mental health of school aged children.
Michelle Lisee is the Senior Well-Being Specialist at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. Michelle is a National Wellness Institute Certified Wellness Practitioner who has spent over a decade working to better the health and well-being of employees across industries. Along with her colleagues at Cleary, she is responsible for successfully contributing to a work culture where mental and physical well-being are open topics; well-being resources are accessible and stigma-free; and the behavior of all is expected to promote and support general well-being. Michelle and her team work to meet and exceed Cleary’s commitment to the tenets of the American Bar Association Well-Being Pledge through coordinating with global stakeholders, implementing educational trainings and discussions, curating and creating a variety of easily accessible resources and collaborating across teams to embed messages of well-being throughout the firm. Michelle also holds her ACSM/NPAS Physical Activity in Public Health Specialist certification.
13:55 - 14:15 ET
In conversation with…Shannon Snowden, Experian - a year in review
Deidra Jenkins is a Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer-Americas at Northern Trust. She is responsible for the development, execution and leadership of the regional diversity, equity and inclusion strategy for the Americas and collaboration with the Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer – APAC and EMEA. Her primary areas of focus includes collaboration on people representation, talent acquisition, retention, and development; creating, deploying and managing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for employees throughout the Americas region; and ensuring all diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are directly aligned with the core strategic imperatives of the organisation.
Shannon manages both the global ERG Strategy and Wellbeing. She is building programs and processes that support Experian’s culture of belonging which enables employees to speak their truth and feel valued. She collaborates with key stakeholders and functional teams to operationalize the strategy while embedding inclusion and diversity principles into workplace practices and policies.
Prior to joining Experian, Shannon held various roles at Bank of America during her 25-year tenure including: Business Development Manager, Strategy and Design for Financial Centers, Home Loans and finally, Senior Learning Manager, where she managed a team of Learning Consultants who supported both the Corporate Risk and Chief Financial Office teams. Shannon also led the Global Inter-Generational Employee Network which had 33,000 members with 31 chapters, in over 15 countries. During her time as Global Lead, the network experienced over 400% growth in membership, onboarded 16 chapters and established a sound organizational structure which led to both committed volunteers, as well as strong processes and programming. Shannon received 3 Diversity and Inclusion Awards for the work she accomplished as Global Lead.
Shannon is actively involved in her community, a proud graduate of Shorter University and resides in Atlanta, GA with her family.
14:20 - 14:35 ET
Keynote - Cancer, resilience and mental wellbeing at work
Leah Evert is the author of Nourishing Resilience, and the co-founder of The Willow Foundation, which provides funding to researchers that strive to find a connection between diet, exercise, and mindset with improved outcomes for late-stage cancer patients. Leah created The Willow Foundation after her diagnosis of stage four breast cancer in 2017 where her oncology team gave her about two years to live. Six years, more than 100 rounds of chemotherapy, five surgeries, and 19 rounds of radiation, she currently has no evidence of disease.
In her book, Leah shares her story as well as the stories of other thrivers and how they used wellness techniques to create a strategy of resilience to overcome trauma and adversity. Leah believes her formula using nutrition, exercise, mindset, kindness, authenticity, and love has helped her to beat the odds despite initially being given a one to four percent chance of survival.
Leah has spent her career in employee health and wellbeing and currently leads wellbeing strategy for Viatris, a fortune-500 multi-national healthcare company. She’s also been at the helm of employee wellbeing at McCormick & Co. and Marriott International. Leah also served as a Registered Dietitian in the US Army Reserve for nine years where she engaged in humanitarian missions bringing healthcare to low-income communities across the United States.
Leah holds an MBA from The McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, a master’s degree in Sports Nutrition & Exercise Science, and a bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science. She’s a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist and ACSM Certified Exercise Physiologist.
Bhavik (ભાવિક) R. Shah [he/him] is an award-winning activist, speaker, writer, and consultant at the intersections of mental health & DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging). Bhavik offers 16 years of demonstrated success within financial services, charter networks, and non-profit foundations in the US and the UK. He channels his Gujarati South Asian immigrant roots within the AAPI community, bisexual identity within the LGBTQ+ community, and adolescent depression to partner with organizations to prioritize workplace mental health and foster cultures of inclusion. Bhavik's leadership has resulted in various global publications and awards from renowned global platforms, and he is a featured contributor in Harvard Business Review & Fast Company.
Kathryn oversees This Can Happen's new initiative - Research & Insights, which is helping companies to measure and benchmark the success of their mental health strategies.
Trux currently leads R21’s multi-year effort to develop a cancer research integrated informatics system. This web-based solution will accelerate innovative research studies by enabling researchers to visualize and analyze both clinical and non-clinical data from multiple sources including: electronic medical records, tumor registries, clinical trials, social determinants of health and even genomic sequencing reports. His passion for improving the healthcare experience stems from managing his son’s six-year cancer battle across five health systems and four health plans.
He is a results-focused innovator with deep expertise in healthcare transparency and fintech. In addition to 10 years of leading teams and delivering award winning digital health solutions, he brings to bear an MBA, 12 years of product and channel marketing across both B2B and B2C segments and seven years of international disaster relief project management.
In a career spanning over 35 years, Jessica worked in television (notably for ABC's Good Morning America) and for a non-profit health promotion research organization (the American Health Foundation) before embarking on a legal career. After attending the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, she practiced at two global law firms (Baker McKenzie and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where she was a partner). For the past several years, Jessica has worked for Thomson Reuters. Currently a Senior Legal Editor for Practical Law, Jessica writes about executive compensation, workplace culture, professional development, careers, and mental health and well-being.
Lisa Mueller is a shareholder at Casimir Jones. For over twenty-five years, Lisa has provided strategic counsel on complex patent issues to clients in the plant, food, pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemistry sectors. She brings an in-depth knowledge and extensive experience to her work advising clients on the global patent protection, freedom to operate and validity of blockbuster drugs they aim to produce and distribute.
A thought leader on pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical patent law, Lisa speaks frequently to legal and industry groups, and publishes widely. She was the author of an award-winning blog, BRIC Wall, which provides unique insights on patent law developments in the life sciences industry in Brazil, Russia, India and China. Lisa is currently the author of the blog, BRICS & Beyond which provides unique insights on patent law developments in the life sciences industry not only in Brazil, Russia, India and China but in other countries outside of the United States
Wendy is an internationally recognized anxiety expert, mental health and wellness coach, speaker, educator and facilitator. She chronicled her journey to finding freedom from almost 40 years of anxiety, obsessive compulsive and panic disorders in her bestselling book The Box: An Invitation to Freedom from Anxiety. During her time in Big Law, she championed mental health initiatives. She recently left her 24 year legal practice to focus full time on her wellness platform, most notably adding CAVE Club to her suite of services - a global wellness community exclusively for professional women. Wendy has guest lectured at Harvard Law School and been featured by BBC Studios, NBC and Fox News. She is a frequent contributor to Thrive Global, Law360 and National Association of Women Lawyers. Her wellness programs, workshops and speeches are sought after by international firms and organizations, alumni and professional associations and financial and educational institutions. She hosts the Perfectly Pan!cked Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts with her husband and two teenage stepchildren.
Michele Studer, MBA, has over 20 years’ experience in organizational change and development. She currently leads a team of Instructional Designers and E-learning Developers and is the Wellbeing Lead for Fujitsu’s Responsible Business Program. As a certified Mastermind Mindfulness Facilitator, she founded Fujitsu’s Mindfulness Program. With her work in organizational change, she helps people prepare for and learn to embrace business and personal change. She noticed that, while people were generally open to change, making the change was becoming more difficult. Sort of like one foot on the gas and one on the brake. As she began to explore this dynamic, she became curious with how unintegrated trauma and the effect of loneliness can cause this response. This started her journey on creating trauma-informed and compassionate communities to help people achieve their highest purpose.
15:50 ET
Finish
Our proud partners
A&O Shearman
A&O Shearman was formed in 2024 via the merger of two historic firms, Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling. This combination creates a new kind of law firm, one built to achieve unparalleled outcomes for our clients on their most complex, multijurisdictional matters – everywhere in the world.A firm that advises at the forefront of the forces changing the current of global business and that is unrivalled in its global strength.
Beyond
Beyond is a mental health charity which was formed in 2018 by award winning campaigner Jonny Benjamin MBE. It was created to address the growing need for mental health support for young people. 75% of mental health issues begin in adolescence and yet, according to the NHS, three-quarters of young people who experience mental illness are not receiving treatment. Beyond has so far given out various grants to organisations across the UK who support vulnerable youngsters. The charity is currently developing a nationwide mental health festival for schools called Now and Beyond which will take place in February 2021.
GSK
GSK is a fully focused biopharma company. They prioritise innovation in vaccines andspecialty medicines, maximising the increasing opportunities to prevent and treat disease. At the heart of this is their R&D focus on the science of the immune system, human genetics and advanced technologies, and their world-leading capabilities in vaccines and medicines development. GSK is focusing on four therapeutic areas: infectious diseases, HIV, oncology, and immunology.
Haleon
Haleon Plc is a British multinational consumer healthcare company and the largest consumer healthcare business in the world. They are 100% focussed on everyday health with theirleading brands being built on science, innovation and human understanding. Haleion exists to deliver better everyday health with humanity.
Weber Shandwick
Weber Shandwick is a global marketing communications company. They work at the intersection of technology, society, policy and media, adding value to culture — to shape and re-shape it. They do it all – from creative concepting to content development and production, creative technology and user experience design. Their team develop and execute ideas that earn attention and drive business impact.