Richard is the full-time CEO of HBGI.

Mental health has run as a theme through much of his work of the last 23 years, striving to enable socially excluded people to secure and sustain independence and healthy lives. He uses contracting and performance management to connect spending better with delivery, in order to give the service users a better, more individual and locally relevant, outcomes-focused response.

At HBGI he is bringing together an exciting, performance-focused, global team to challenge the tired delivery (and wasted funding) of so many national and international systems and institutions, to deliver more meaningful outcomes for more vulnerable people limited by poor mental health (and social exclusion).

Richard spent two years as a Senior Advisor for the Global Fund (HIV, TB and malaria). He mobilized a number of projects, including: incentivizing informal medicine vendors to extend malaria testing and treatment in rural areas of Nigeria; introducing incentives to increase TB reporting by private pharmacies in the Philippines, and; linking the payments of community health workers to their performance to increase HIV treatment adherence in Niger.

He worked for nearly ten years as a Senior Consultant for the World Bank. Until the resurgence of the Taliban, he was supporting the Ministry of Public Health in Afghanistan with the management of contracted health services in which service provider payments were tied to the delivery of key health interventions. Other projects, across a number of countries, have included: linking refugees with jobs in Ethiopia, and; designing and mobilising outcomes-based job intermediation for long-term unemployed people in Saudi Arabia. 

He continues to oversee and advise on the delivery of social impact programs. He is Chair of a youth employment Development Impact Bond in Palestine and a similar Social Impact Bond in South Africa. He has previously chaired nine Social Impact Bonds in the UK, which targeted homelessness, care for carers and refugees.

Previously, Richard set up and ran a series of high-performing private employment service providers in the UK under contract with the government there – paid on the basis of outcomes. His last contract was worth £750 million over seven years, assisting long-term unemployed people, many of whom had poor mental health, to find employment.

Previously Richard had established one of the first Employment Zones – the first large scale outcome-based contracts in the UK – in an area of chronically high deprivation. He worked as an advisor to service providers in Australia, assisting people with disabilities to secure jobs. He was a Specialist Advisor to the UK government’s Work and Pensions Select Committee.

Richard had an early career in international education (in Sudan, Northern Cyprus, Greece and the UK). He studied Philosophy and Psychology at Oxford University and Applied Linguistics at Exeter University.

Dr. Jonathan Sherin is a longtime health and wellbeing activist who has worked “Heart Forward” and spoken truth to power on behalf of vulnerable populations throughout his career at local, state and national levels. He has worked as a clinician, teacher, researcher and administrative leader to help others connect to a brighter future and stays busy as a father, writer, cook and surfer to stay connected himself.

Prior to joining the HBGI team as Chief Medical Advisor, Dr. Sherin served as Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, the largest public mental health system in the United States. In this post, he pushed for wholesale systems transformation by insisting on a bottom up culture wherein “grass-roots guide grass-tops”, advocating fiercely for behavioral health parity as well as outcomes-oriented payment reform, and focusing relentlessly on building out community-based (as opposed to institutional) programs, policies and practices.

Before his LA County tenure, Dr. Sherin served as Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President for Volunteers of America (national), a community-based safety net provider steeped in tradition that reaches and impacts disenfranchised populations in almost every state across the country. In addition, he spent over a decade working in the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), serving in his last post as Chief of Mental Health for the Miami VA and Vice-Chairman for the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami.

Dr. Sherin has functioned in many other capacities throughout his career and takes special pride in his work helping to design a reintegration community for homeless veterans at the Greater Los Angeles VA medical campus. This work, prompted by an ACLU lawsuit successfully levied against the federal government, resulted in a master plan for the campus, currently under construction.

In addition to his body of work in the health and human services sector, Dr. Sherin is an accomplished scientist who is published in the fields of neurobiology and psychiatry. He has received international acclaim for his research identifying a core sleep-circuit in mammals (the “sleep switch”, featured in Science magazine) and received a prestigious Kempf Award from the American Psychiatric Association for his conceptual model of the psychotic process.

Dr. Sherin completed his undergraduate study at Brown University, his graduate work at the University of Chicago and Harvard, and his psychiatry residency training at UCLA. He currently serves as volunteer clinical professor at both UCLA and USC.

Andrew started on the front-line of public service as a firefighter/paramedic in the greater Detroit area. Seeking greater impact, responsibility, and leadership opportunities, Andrew took a position in operations with MSF/Doctors Without Borders. Quickly rising to the role of Field Project Manager, he led emergency and non-emergency interventions throughout Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean.

In that role, Andrew learned the biggest gaps in the public, humanitarian, and development sectors were in resource, operations, and strategic management. Thus, he decided to pursue an MBA at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. He capped that experience working for a boutique management consulting firm specializing in implementation with the client, always being paid for results. In one year, he established himself well enough to become an independent consultant.

Since 2021, Andrew’s primary client has been the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, where he advises the design and implementation of a change management strategy shifting to performance-based contracting.

Anna began her career as an Economist in the UK Civil Service, having always been motivated by policymaking and improving outcomes. She first worked at the Ministry of Justice and then at the Department for Business. She had early interest in performance management, focusing her MSc thesis on incentives in the contract design of new prisons. However, seeking a faster pace and wanting to develop her leadership skills, after several years in the Civil Service, Anna moved into consumer goods. Here she undertook an assortment of roles across finance, sales & strategy, honing her commercial & enterprise strategy skills. She carved out her leadership footprint, known for her agility, collaborative nature, and ability to drive her team and projects forward. Passionate about mental health and wanting to bring her skills to a truly impactful organisation, Anna is delighted to bring her passion and energy to HBGI as Chief of Staff.

Anna is a graduate of UCL (MSc Economics) and the University of Oxford (MA Economics & Management).

Outside of work Anna loves almost anything active, reading and spending time with her friends and family, including two small children.

Sally Carruthers has spent over 25 years working in the charitable sector to optimise performance, philanthropy and create organisations which offer donors and team members the best experience, whilst maximising impact, professionalism and outcomes for all.

Sally began her life in newspaper and magazine publishing, working globally in international syndication. Her first role in the charitable sector was as the development manager at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Wolfson College, University of Oxford. After this she has filled senior roles in house – at the Story Museum Oxford, as the Campaign Director for OnSide Youth Zones, raising £40 million in 2 years for children and young people nationwide in areas of multiple deprivation,championing inclusion and social justice, to her latest role as Director of the Poetry School, an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation and the world’s largest provider of poetry tuition, both online and in person. Whilst there she created the Laurel Prize for Ecopoetry with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, to which he gives his Laureate’s Stipend and the Ginkgo Prize for ecopoetry – both global they are the largest prizes of this nature in the world.

Sally has acted as a development consultant for a variety of charities over the years including The Royal Armouries, Roald Dahl Museum and the Poetry Archive, to name but a few. Her experience of working with ultra high net worth individuals, trusts and foundations, corporate partnerships with organisations such as Client Earth, Global Witness, L’Ecologiste, Cartier, Jo Malone, Selfridges and Fortnum and Mason have all given her a unique insight into providing donors and charities what they need to achieve their goals. She acts as a mentor and has considerable experience building exceptional, happy teams and nurturing talent.

Sally speaks fluent French, is finishing her first novel, enjoys sailing, skiing, woodland preservation and holds an MA in English Language and Literature from the University of Oxford. She is thrilled to be supporting the critical work of HBGI which holds great personal as well as professional meaning for her.

Joining from CIFF, as director for sexual and reproductive health investments within the Girl Capital Africa portfolio, Julia brings over 15 years international development experience and a phenomenal track record in program fundraising, delivery, and performance. She also led on the development, negotiation and management of two development impact bonds, including the world’s first bond for adolescent reproductive health.

After many years of delivering high impact work to improve the reproductive health of adolescents, her own experience of life-threatening post-partum depression following the birth of her daughter has inspired her to work at the nexus of reproductive health and mental health.

Julia lives in Nairobi with her husband, two daughters and an exceptionally elderly dog. She loves motorcycling, dungeons and dragons, crochet and making quilts.

Stacey Ann Pillay has recently been appointed as the Contract & Performance Manager at the Healthy Brains Global Initiative. Stacey will be responsible for ensuring the high performance of contracted service providers, initially on a project to integrate mental health care into maternal care and childhood immunizations in South Africa and beyond.

Stacey has 14 years of experience in the social impact sphere and is committed to improving access to healthcare and education. Stacey has recently been a partner at an organisation that aimed to help small businesses scale through culture change programmes. Stacey’s experience in start-ups extends to her role as Chief Operating Officer at a medical technology organisation that connected health workers and enabled them to send and receive referrals.

In the preceding three years, Stacey was the Academic Executive at a leading private higher education provider in South Africa, where she led seven academic programmes as well as conferencing and learnerships. Stacey continues to teach and assess part-time on post graduate leadership courses. Stacey was previously the CEO of an organisation that placed health workers where they were needed in Africa and capacitated them and their colleagues to serve patients and the health system. Stacey advanced in her career at the organisation from administrative assistant over a 10-year period. Stacey has supported hundreds of doctors in their transition to serving in underserved areas in Africa and made education accessible to over 100,000 thousand people across the continent.

In 2015, Stacey was one of 25 participants from six African countries selected by the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Development Policy and Practice for the ‘Leading in Public Life’ Programme. Stacey was also selected as a fellow by the Vedica Scholars Programme for the Global Programme for Women’s Leadership in 2019. In her various roles Stacey managed relationships with a range of key stakeholders including existing and potential donors, government and healthcare regulators. Stacey has led diverse projects and continues to mobilise stakeholders around a social mission.

Erin has over 15 years of experience addressing complex mental health challenges through frontline service delivery, clinical supervision, program design and development, and clinic operations management. A Licensed Clinical Social Worker, she recently earned her Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, with a concentration in Population Mental Health. Erin has worked with health systems across the United States and internationally. She began her career in Chicago, Seattle, and El Paso, where she contributed to various crisis mental health systems, focusing on high-acuity, complex mental health needs for both adults and children.

Before pursuing her doctoral studies, Erin served as a Clinical Supervisor overseeing multiple behavioral health programs at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in southern New Mexico and as the Director of Prevention and Outreach at the Children’s Advocacy Center in Washington, DC. Her recent work focuses on applying a systems leadership approach to drive sustainable change and improve population health outcomes.

Erin holds a BA in Psychology and a BA in Political Science from The University of Chicago and completed dual MPH/MSW degrees at Saint Louis University.

Searra’s work has spanned the individual to the global. Her career began providing direct behavioral health services to diverse populations in San Diego, California. For 5 years, she supported individuals with substance use disorders, mental illness, and developmental disabilities as a counselor and case manager. In these roles, she found creative ways to support her clients’ unique needs and used data to make meaningful decisions for client care. 

Seeking a broader impact, Searra transitioned to a project management position for a national healthcare non-profit re-design project. In this role, she developed necessary skills for effective data, stakeholder, and change management. Her efforts resulted in improved patient care, health equity, and streamlined operations through implementing new technology. 

In 2024, she completed her Master’s in International and Development studies at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Her thesis research focused on mitigation strategies for tech-facilitated gender-based violence in a global context. As a part of her program, she also had the opportunity to complete a research project for IOM. Her team developed best-practices for scaling art-based mental health interventions in conflict-affected communities.

Searra holds a BA in Psychology from San Diego State University. She currently lives in Colorado where she can be found rock climbing, wandering through art galleries, or searching for the perfect latte. 

Cindy brings over 16 years of nonprofit leadership experience with a can-do spirit to the Healthy Brains Global Initiative (HBGI). As former Operations & Finance Director for leading brain health nonprofit, One Mind, Cindy supported the initial launch and fiscal sponsorship of HBGI as well as the 501c3 establishment of the US organization and continues to manage the bookkeeping and financial compliance as Head of Accounts.

Cindy’s nonprofit work has ranged from most recently with a live music wish-granting organization, Do It For The Love, to the NC Winegrowers Association at the start. Highlights of her 14-years with One Mind include: production of the Music Festival for Brain Health at Staglin Family Vineyard, one of the most successful brain health fundraising and convening events featuring entertainment such as One Republic, Jennifer Hudson, and Tim McGraw; granting of 40 Rising Star Research Awards; fiscal sponsorship of eight other non-profit programs at their launch; and financial accounts management of five divisions. She was awarded the One Mind 2022 Mobius Award for Courageous Leadership for the Mental Health Cause.

Cindy graduated from DePauw University in her home state of Indiana and has completed coursework in nonprofit finance at San Francisco State and the Kellogg Center for Nonprofit Management. She lives in Santa Rosa, California with her husband, Matt, and spends free time supporting Matt’s private chef catering and going to concerts, hiking, skiing, or traveling to visit family and friends.

Aneta Wierzynska is an attorney and risk management expert who specializes in design of results based contracting modalities and in redesign of internal processes and systems to achieve efficient performance management. Aneta started her career in anti-corruption, as a fraud investigator for the World Bank and Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, and as Senior Policy Director for Transparency International-USA. Observing that accountability is best aligned when driven by incentives, quality performance management, and efficient internal controls, Aneta shifted to operational risk management and grant oversight roles, targeting under-performing and under-absorbing portfolios which also presented high fiduciary risk. Aneta pioneered the use of risk assessment methodology to facilitate responsibly and efficiently designed results based contracts in health.

Aneta now works as the Senior Specialist for Anti-Corruption and Impact at the Global Fund, and she is a Fellow of Practice at the Oxford Government Outcomes Laboratory in the Blavatnik School of Government. She works with HBGI in an Advisory Capacity.