EP13: Dr. Thomas Insel Confronts People, Place, & Purpose

Joining me for Episode 14 is Dr. Thomas Insel, an american psychiatrist and neuroscientist.  Without question Tom is one of the most influential minds as it comes to mental health in the world today. 

 

Tom is currently a co-founder and adviser to Mindstrong -- a company seeking to transform mental health through innovations in virtual care, data measurement, and data science.  Tom has also recently been named the mental health czar for the state of California by Governor Gavin Newsom.

 

From 2002-2015, Dr. Insel served as Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), advising people like President Barack Obama on mental health policy.  The NIMH is the largest research organization in the world specializing in mental illness with a budget of $1.5 billion dollars.

 

After leaving NIMH, Tom moved to the private sector and from 2015-2017 he led the Mental Health Team at Google Life Sciences, now known as Verily.

 

Humble, honest, reflective, entrepreneurial, and aspirational are the words that come to mind after talking with Tom. 

 

I hope you enjoyed our conversation as much as I did.