Mental Health America award recipients

Trained as a journalist, Antoine wrote for several local and national publications. He graduated from Bernard Baruch College of the City University of New York, and in 2008 he earned awards from the New York Association of Black Journalists. He produced the documentary “You Are Not Alone” (www.yana-thefilm.com) and facilitates discussion fora on depression in Black gay men. He presented a poster exhibition “Examining Depression and HIV in Black gay men” at the 2012 International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC, and in 2013 founded DBGM, Inc. (www.dbgm.org) a non-profit organization committed to raising awareness of the underlying factors contributing to depression and suicidal ideation in Black gay men. Antoine presented workshops on the convergence of HIV and mental health, and as a keynote speaker at several national and international conferences. He provides training in LGBT peoples of color cultural competency, mental health and HIV, for the Washington DC Court System and lectures in this subject to medical students attending Touro College of Osteopathy. He is a certified National Mental Health First Aid Instructor.

Christine Herman is a journalist with more than a decade of experience covering issues such as mental health, access to health care, and science for both broadcast and digital audiences. She’s the managing editor of Side Effects Public Media, a regional health reporting collaboration based at WFYI in Indianapolis and involving NPR stations across the Midwest. In her prior role as a health reporter at Illinois Public Media, Christine reported extensively on children’s mental health, access to health care for vulnerable populations and other public health issues, reaching national audiences as a contributor to NPR and KFF Health News.

In 2023, Christine’s story for the Center for Public Integrity illuminated a heartbreaking issue, showing how a lack of access to comprehensive children’s mental health services literally tears families apart. The solutions-focused piece served as the flagship story for the Carter Center Mental Health Parity Collaborative in its inaugural year. Christine serves on the board of the Association of Health Care Journalists and is a 2018-19 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism fellow. She earned her Ph.D. in chemistry and master’s in journalism from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Christine lives in Champaign, Illinois, with her husband and three children.

Diana Anzaldua, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Trauma-Resilient Therapist in Austin, Texas. She is the founder of the award winning health and wellness centers; Austin Trauma Therapy Center & Contigo Wellness. Diana is a social change activist and influential leader in community organized mental health equity and reform in historically marginalized communities. Her vision of decolonized healing and anti-oppressive trauma-informed leadership create safe spaces for other survivors to grow, embrace their resilience, and heal; in-community with others. Diana and her clinical expertise have been featured in a number of magazines like: Allure, The BBC, and The Atlantic Journal. Diana serves on several local and national non-profit boards and has received numerous awards for her work in community healing, public service and leadership. Diana is a graduate of the School of Social Work at the University of Texas in Austin and is professionally licensed in North Carolina, Nevada, and Texas.

Founded in 1933, Mental Health America (MHA) of Central Carolinas has been the voice of hope for those impacted by mental illness in the greater Charlotte area since 1933 and is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year.

MHA provides family support services to parents of children with behavioral, emotional or mental health needs; peer support for adults living with chronic mental illnesses; and mental health education and preventative trainings to the broader community. MHA’s programs bring together mental health consumers, parents, advocates and service providers to address systemic issues impacting mental health.

Much of MHA’s work is guided by its Before Stage 4 (B4Stage4) philosophy – that mental health conditions should be treated long before they reach the most critical points in the disease process. When thinking about cancer, heart disease, or diabetes, individuals don’t wait years to treat them. At MHA, we strongly believe mental health conditions should be treated early in order to improve quality of life for those living with a mental health diagnosis.

Mental Health America of Ohio conducts the POEM (Perinatal Outreach & Encouragement for Moms) program, which closes gaps in care for pregnant and early parenting people with mental health complications. Through care navigation layered with certified peer support, POEM serves as a single-entry point of care, providing mental and emotional care through the prenatal period. The entire program staff are comprised of peers, which supports a trauma-informed model grounded in connection and lived experience. POEM focuses on providing support to those who face the greatest barriers in access. Relationships with participants and community partners help to identify barriers to treatment faced by those seeking mental health services and provide access to important resources. In recognition of both the significance of Black care professionals, and the space to acknowledge that racism and discrimination are drivers of mental and overall health, POEM’s Rise branch provides all program services exclusively by and for Black and African American mothers/birthing persons.

Moe Keller was Director of Advocacy for Mental Health Colorado for 12 years until her retirement in 2022. Before her work with Mental Health Colorado, Moe served for six years on Wheat Ridge City Council, eight years in the Colorado House of Representatives and eight years in the Colorado Senate, where she concentrated on legislation and policy for individuals who have mental health conditions and for individuals with developmental disabilities. Moe successfully sponsored two mental health parity bills, legislation restricting the use of seclusion and restraint and created the Children’s Mental Health Treatment Act in state law. She also successfully sponsored Expedited Permanency Planning for children in the Child Welfare system.

Moe created psychiatric advance directives in state law and ensured the implementation of advance directives by creating a broad stakeholder group. In 2018, Moe worked with the Kennedy Forum to pass a mental health parity compliance bill in the state legislature which is considered model language for mental health treatment compliance in the country.

In 2021 Moe implemented her bill establishing 988 as the new suicide prevention hotline number in the state of Colorado. This became active in July of 2022. Prior to her work in the legislature, Moe was a special education teacher for deaf and hearing impaired children for 25 years. Moe has been married to Stephen Keller for 51 years and has two adult children.

Morra Aarons-Mele knows that taking your mental health seriously is a leadership strength. She launched and hosts The Anxious Achiever podcast for LinkedIn Presents, which was a 2020 Webby Awards Honoree, and is a top 10 management podcast and top 50 business podcast. She’s passionate about helping people rethink the relationship between their mental health and their success. Her book, The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears into Your Leadership Superpower, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in April 2023. Morra speaks to and consults frequently with Fortune 500 companies, startups, and U.S Government agencies. She is a 2022 LinkedIn “Top 10 Voice” in mental health.

Morra Aarons-Mele is an entrepreneur and communications executive. In addition to her work in workplace mental health, Aarons-Mele founded the award-winning social impact agency Women Online and created its database of female influencers, the Mission List, which she sold in 2021. Morra was named 2020 Entrepreneur of the Year at the Iris Awards, created to recognize excellence among digital content creators. Before starting her own business, Morra worked in digital marketing and politics, helping Hillary Clinton log on for her first online chat and founding the digital public affairs team at Edelman, where she worked with Fortune 50 clients.

Renee Shaw is the Director of Public Affairs and Moderator at KET, currently serving as host of KET’s weeknight public affairs program Kentucky Edition, the signature public policy discussion series Kentucky Tonight, the weekly interview series Connections, Election coverage and KET Forums. Since 2001, Renee has been the producing force behind KET’s legislative coverage that has been recognized by the Kentucky Associated Press and the National Educational Telecommunications Association. Under her leadership, KET has expanded its portfolio of public affairs content to include a daily news and information program, Kentucky Supreme Court coverage, townhall-style forums, and multi-platform program initiatives around issues such as opioid addiction and youth mental health.

As an award-winning journalist, Renee has earned top awards from the Ohio Valley Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, with three regional Emmy awards, and Kentucky Associated Press honors for public affairs programming. In 2018, KET earned a national media award from Mental Health America for its multi-dimensional content on the opioid epidemic shepherded by Shaw. That same year, she co-produced and moderated a 6-part series on youth mental health that was awarded first place in educational content by NETA, the National Educational Telecommunications Association.

Mardy Fish and Directors Chapman Way and Maclain Way and Executive Producers Chapman Way, Maclain Way, Ben Silverman, Howard T. Owens, Isabel San Vargas, Ryan Duffy, Miguel Tamayo, and Jaymee Messler for Netflix’s Untold: Breaking Point.

The story of Mardy Fish’s foray into tennis chronicles his training at the famed Saddlebrook Academy as a teen, his brotherhood and constant competition with comrade Andy Roddick, and his inability to find major success like his predecessors, the American tennis icons of the 80s and 90s: John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, and Andre Agassi. In 2010, Fish got himself into the best shape of his life and emerged on the ATP tour as a force to be reckoned with, scaling the heights of the World Tour Finals in 2011 as the top seeded American player. Soon after, his anxiety began to swell and Fish tried to push through the mental strain at the 2012 US Open quarterfinals against Roger Federer. But an encroaching sense of dread and anguish was worsening by the day and everything came to a crashing halt. Fish bowed out of the match and was later diagnosed with a severe anxiety disorder. As the number one ranked American male tennis player, he shockingly quit tennis and over the course of the next few years he largely disappeared from the public, staying in his house for months at a time. After seeking professional help, he worked through his trauma and went public with his struggles to help destigmatize anxiety and provide other athletes a model to follow when dealing with their own mental health issues. Fish has since become the US Davis Cup coach and describes his anxiety as, “A daily battle, but I win every day.”