My name is Jaclyn Schess (she/her) though most people call me Jackee. I am a PhD student in Health Policy in the Health Economics Track at UC Berkeley. My research interests are in the social and political determinants of mental health and addiction. At Berkeley I am a NIH T32 Trainee in Computational Social Science and am conducting research on the impact of labor force policies on mental health and substance use outcomes. I was previously a trainee on a NIA T32 in Demography.
I am the Founder and CEO of Generation Mental Health, a youth-led nonprofit empowering young people to take action for mental health systems change. You can frequently find me speaking or writing about my lived experience and advocating for the centering of impacted people in research, programs and policy.
In addition, I serve as Co-Chair for the Youth Advisory Group at Being Initiative and previously served as Co-Coordinator for Advocacy and Communications for the Lived Experience Council of the Healthy Brains Global Initiative.
I will be attending the International Health Economics Association World Congress in July. Reach out if you will also be attending and want to connect!