The Q3 2026 class. People moving mental health forward.
The people behind progress
A better system starts with people.
Finding care should be easier. Getting care should cost less. The people building that future deserve to be known.
Impact Leaders recognizes people advancing mental health through care, research, education, and community. Read their work. Follow their ideas. Share someone worth knowing.
Behavioral Health Tech’s 2026 conference convenes the care community in Nashville. As its founder and CEO, Tibebu leads the organization behind this meeting of providers, payors, government leaders, and innovators. The event runs September 22–24; this edition was reviewed while it was underway.
Built Behavioral Health Tech as a convening platform for providers, payors, government leaders, and innovators. Previously served as founding fund director of the Upswing Fund for Adolescent Mental Health.
Her official biography reports that her Upswing team awarded grants to more than 100 community organizations. The contribution recognized here is building industry collaboration and directing resources to community mental health programs.
Eleanor Health’s August recap highlights Harrison’s interview about addiction, biology, and her book Un-Addiction. Her public education addresses stigma, compassionate boundaries, and how families can respond when someone needs help.
A physician executive with training in adult psychiatry and addiction medicine, Harrison co-founded Eleanor Health and leads its medical work.
Eleanor combines medication, counseling, and peer support in its addiction care services. We recognize Harrison’s role in building that care model and her professional advocacy for reducing stigma.
Hazelden Betty Ford announced two new trustees, Ronan Harty and Gregg Eskenazi. Lee welcomed their expertise and service as part of the foundation’s work to improve its services and support recovery. This is a governance contribution, not a newly measured treatment outcome.
Lee leads Hazelden Betty Ford and brings experience in adult psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, and addiction medicine.
His documented work includes treatment leadership, professional education, and the family guide Recovering My Kid. We recognize the connection between operating a care organization and helping families understand treatment.
Taking addiction research into overlooked settings
Boulder Care announced a $1.8 million NIH grant to study telehealth addiction care in underserved settings, including reentry, pregnancy and postpartum care, and Tribal healthcare. The announcement describes funded research and planned evaluation, with Strong speaking as founder and CEO.
Strong founded Boulder Care in 2017 after work in healthcare investing, strategy, and operations. Boulder is a digital clinic for substance use care.
Her company’s published work connects long-term treatment with peer recovery support. Her own articles address telehealth access and treatment delivery. We recognize building a service model designed around continuity and access.
Letting patients describe what recovery gives back
For Recovery Month, Ophelia shared patient reflections on what treatment had returned to their lives. Its downloadable postcards invite people to write to their future selves. This team-led contribution makes room for the everyday experiences behind recovery.
Gray co-founded Ophelia, a telehealth business focused on opioid addiction treatment. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School and previously worked in business growth.
Ophelia offers medication-based treatment through its telehealth model. We recognize Gray’s work building a practical route to treatment outside a residential setting, with medical care delivered by clinicians.
Headspace named Charlie Health as a new specialty-care partner, opening a referral pathway to its virtual intensive outpatient programs. The contribution is a connection between services for people who need more support than weekly therapy. Partner care may require additional payment.
Barnhart co-founded and leads Charlie Health, which provides virtual intensive outpatient behavioral health treatment.
Charlie Health’s care model combines group, individual, and family treatment. We recognize building an operating organization around access to structured care from home. This selection does not assert that virtual treatment is suitable for every patient.
Connecting more families with eating disorder care
Headspace announced Equip as a specialty-care partner for virtual eating disorder treatment. The referral pathway connects members with multidisciplinary support when clinically appropriate. This is a team and organization contribution; partner services may require additional payment.
Saffran co-founded Equip and previously co-founded Project HEAL. Her work spans a treatment business and a nonprofit focused on barriers to eating disorder care.
Equip describes a multidisciplinary virtual program with therapists, dietitians, medical providers, and mentors. We recognize building treatment access and support around patients and families.
Behavioral Health Tech lists Smith, NOCD’s cofounder and CEO, among its 2026 conference speakers. The listing documents planned participation in the September gathering. It does not establish that a particular talk was delivered or that new clinical results were reported.
Smith co-founded NOCD after experiencing barriers to specialist treatment. The company grew from tools for therapy exercises into a treatment and community platform.
NOCD delivers exposure and response prevention therapy and support between sessions. We recognize building access to specialist care, alongside education that helps people better understand OCD.
Spring Health announced its inaugural Pioneer Awards, recognizing six organizations for their work in workplace mental health. The Q3 contribution is the recognition initiative and the examples it highlights, rather than a claim that a decade of reported activity occurred this quarter.
Koh co-founded Spring Health, which connects people with mental health services through employers and other partners.
Spring Health has published research and external validation concerning its mental health benefit model. We recognize building care delivery with an emphasis on measuring results; eligibility for benefits is not the same as receiving treatment.
Headspace expanded its specialty-care referral network with Charlie Health, Cortica, Prosper, and Equip. Its announcement describes referral coordination and warm handoffs for complex needs. This recognizes the organization’s work, not Singh’s sole authorship; partner treatment can carry additional costs.
Headspace lists Singh as its chief operating officer. The organization brings together self-guided resources and human-delivered mental health services.
Headspace offers coaching and therapy, with additional services through its organizational programs. We recognize operating leadership in a business connecting multiple levels of support. Company research does not establish an individual executive’s causal impact.
Therapy for Black Girls published Bradford’s podcast episode “The Lessons We Weren’t Taught About Love.” This dated addition to her public education work creates another entry point for conversations about relationships and emotional life.
Bradford is a psychologist and founder whose work includes Therapy for Black Girls and the Holding Space Foundation.
The platform combines a therapist directory with public mental health education. Her foundation provides group spaces, professional training, and community education. We recognize those concrete services and the organizations built to deliver them.
Tawwab’s official calendar listed a conversation at Charlotte’s Black Girl Book Fair about The Balancing Act, boundaries, and well-being. The source documents the scheduled community event, rather than confirming its delivery or attendance.
Tawwab is a therapist and the founder and owner of Kaleidoscope Counseling, a group therapy practice. She is also the author of Set Boundaries, Find Peace.
Her work combines practice ownership with books, newsletters, and public education about relationships and boundaries. We recognize sustained clinical business leadership and accessible educational work, without treating audience size as a health outcome.
Taking mental health conversations beyond the clinic
Behavioral Health Network reported Breland-Noble’s return to Audacy’s I’m Listening initiative, scheduled across radio and digital platforms for September 8–13. Her named role brings a psychologist’s perspective to a public mental health awareness campaign.
Breland-Noble founded The AAKOMA Project, a research and outreach nonprofit, after an academic career that included Duke and Georgetown psychiatry.
AAKOMA publishes research and resources about youth mental health needs and access barriers. We recognize building an organization that translates research into material for young people, caregivers, and service providers.
Ongoing work · Q3 item unverified · Reviewed September 23, 2026
A broader contribution worth recognizing
The sources below document this leader’s broader work. We have not verified a specific contribution dated July 1–September 23, 2026, so we are not presenting earlier work as a new Q3 achievement.
Psychiatrist, private-practice founder, and author of Real Self-Care (2023). Her work connects individual mental health with the conditions that shape everyday life.
Her professional record connects direct patient care with education about burnout, boundaries, and mental health. We recognize a clinical business and a body of practical educational work. Gemma is described as a historical contribution, not an assumed current business.
Ongoing work · Q3 item unverified · Reviewed September 23, 2026
A broader contribution worth recognizing
The sources below document this leader’s broader work. We have not verified a specific contribution dated July 1–September 23, 2026, so we are not presenting earlier work as a new Q3 achievement.
Insel is a psychiatrist and former director of the National Institute of Mental Health. One Mind’s biography identifies him as a co-founder and executive chair of Vanna Health.
Vanna’s work focuses on helping people with serious mental illness engage in psychosocial support. His contributions also include the book Healing and co-founding MindSite News. We recognize organization building and practical attention to gaps in care.
Care delivery · Access · Research · Education · Community
A colleague. A clinician. A founder. Someone whose work is advancing mental health.
Send a name, the work, and a public source. Submissions are reviewed for the next edition. Recognition is free.
Submit someone for Q4
Reading the pulse
Different work. Different signals.
Each filled dot marks one contribution area documented in this edition: care delivery, access, research, education, or community. The count runs from one to five; a focused contribution can be as valuable as a broad one.
An editorial reading of the linked records, not a ranking of leaders or a measure of clinical outcomes. Agent admirers are creative associations with Rehab.ai’s fictional personas, not personal relationships or endorsements.
The selection standard
Recognized for the work.
Care delivered. Access expanded. Knowledge shared. The work comes first.
01
Build care
Create services. Lead teams. Help people get treatment.
02
Expand access
Reduce the barriers between someone who needs care and someone who can provide it.
03
Share knowledge
Publish research. Teach others. Give people information they can use.
What does not determine inclusion
Race, sex, gender, age, appearance, and other personal characteristics are not selection criteria. Follower counts, personal popularity, company valuations, and payment do not determine inclusion.
This is an unranked editorial selection. Organizations of different sizes and business models are assessed on the work documented, not against demographic targets. Public communication is relevant when it provides useful education, not as a popularity score.
The editorial record
About this edition
Q3 2026 · Reviewed September 23
Scope & timing
U.S.-focused editorial selection. Q3 updates cover July 1–September 23, 2026; broader career work is labeled separately. The quarter is still in progress. Dated updates distinguish personal contributions, organization announcements, and scheduled participation. Two profiles retain broader recognition without a verified Q3 item. Records reviewed September 23, 2026.
Evidence & limitations
Biographies and service descriptions are primarily organizational or professional sources, which may be self-reported. They establish the documented work, not an independent audit of every claim. We do not infer that a leader personally caused a clinical outcome, that service availability equals patients treated, or that educational reach proves improved health.
Independent recognition
Recognition is Rehab.ai’s editorial judgment, not a clinical recommendation, certification, partnership, or endorsement by the people featured. Inclusion is free and is not offered for sale.
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