Day 1 | Monday, October 19th

• 12:00 – 2:00 PM | Registration & Light Fare

• 2:00 – 2:15 PM | Welcome Remarks

  • Mindful Philanthropy’s Chief Executive Officer, Alyson Niemann, will welcome guests to Activate 2026 and introduce event emcee Thuy Vu.

• 2:15 – 2:45 PM | Opening Conversation: The Power of Mattering

  • Jennifer Wallace will join Alyson Niemann to unpack one of the most fundamental conditions for human well-being: the experience of mattering, knowing that we are valued by others and have value to contribute. Drawing on research and stories about the role mattering plays in young people’s development and well-being, Jennifer will examine how a sense of worth is shaped by the relationships, adults, and environments surrounding young people. The conversation will invite funders to consider what we might build and fund differently if helping young people feel valued is treated as essential to flourishing.

• 2:45 – 3:30 PM | Defining Our Why: The Science of Meaningful Experience

  • Susan Magsamen will demonstrate how the brain and body encode meaningful experiences, drawing on the science of neuroaesthetics to illuminate why art and creative expression matter. Drawing on new research with youth, she will examine how creative expression can help young people make meaning, process emotion, connect with others, and strengthen protective factors for well-being. Building on these insights, Susan will guide attendees through Activate’s signature exercise: “Defining Your Why.” Activate newcomers will reflect on what first drew them to mental health and well-being, while returning attendees will revisit how their “why” has evolved and set an intention for their time together.

• 3:30 – 4:00 PM | Break - Refreshments will be available in the Gallery

• 4:00 – 4:40 PM | Building the Conditions Young People Need to Flourish

  • Together, Yoelle Gulko, Dr. Sidney Hankerson, Dr. Lisa Mennet, and Julie Veldman Harris will explore the protective conditions that help young people flourish, including strong relationships, belonging and connection, emotional regulation, healthy environments, and early access to support. By examining how families, communities, and systems can more consistently create these conditions, the conversation will highlight how philanthropy can help strengthen the environments and supports that promote well-being earlier and at greater scale.

• 4:40 - 5:00 PM | Rethinking Connection in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

  • Julia Freeland Fisher will examine how relationships shape opportunity and well-being for young people, and how artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to alter the ways they seek guidance, affirmation, mentorship, and support. Drawing on her research on social capital, she will examine both the potential for AI to expand access to connection and the risks of simulated relationships substituting for human ones. The session will invite funders to consider how philanthropy can support technologies and systems that expand young people’s networks, strengthen trusted relationships, and preserve the human experience of being known and cared for.

• 5:00 – 6:30 PM | Break

• 6:30 – 9:00 PM | Cocktails & Dinner - Location: Gallery Patio

Day 2 | Tuesday, October 20th

• 7:00 – 7:45 AM | Optional Morning Wellness

• 8:00 – 9:00 AM | Breakfast - Location: The Gallery

  • 8:00 AM: Optional Breakfast Roundtable: Spirituality and Faith as Protective Factors for Mental Health

• 9:00 - 9:30 AM | Morning Grounding: Mind-Body Practice 

  • Dr. James Gordon, founder and CEO of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, will briefly introduce the principles of mind-body medicine before guiding attendees through an experiential meditation and mindfulness practice. The session will offer a grounding start to the day, creating space to settle, focus, and be fully present for the conversations ahead. 

• 9:30 - 10:10 AM | Building Mental Health Capacity: Lessons Across Borders

  • Following the morning’s experiential grounding, Dr. Gordon and Annika Sten Pärson, in conversation with Sheila Sarma, will draw on their global experience to explore what it takes to build mental health capacity beyond traditional clinical care. Through examples from different cultural, institutional, and funding contexts, they will examine how community-based practices, local leadership, cross-sector partnerships, and different forms of capital can help effective approaches take root and scale. The conversation will invite funders to consider which principles can translate across settings, what requires local adaptation, and how philanthropy can take thoughtful risks and strengthen the infrastructure needed for lasting change.

• 10:10 – 10:30 AM | The Protective Power of Spirituality

  • Dr. Lisa Miller will reflect on the growing science of spirituality as a protective factor in mental health and a foundational dimension of human flourishing. She will consider what it means to recognize spiritual health alongside physical and mental health, and how schools, communities, and other institutions can create environments that support young people’s spiritual development, whether within or outside of a particular faith tradition. Drawing on examples from the field, she will showcase what this can look like in practice and invite funders to consider the role philanthropy can play in creating environments that foster spiritually grounded meaning, connection, and purpose.

• 10:30 – 10:50 AM | Break - Refreshments will be available in the Gallery

• 10:50 - 11:25 AM | Designing a More Preventive System of Care

  • Dr. Sarah Wood and Dr. Dustin Brown, in conversation with Joe Pyle, will explore what it takes to recognize emerging needs and connect people to meaningful support before challenges escalate into crisis. Drawing on experience across health care, community institutions, and youth development, they will examine how prevention depends on stronger connections across the places where people live, learn, gather, and seek support. The conversation will consider how trusted entry points, navigation, workforce capacity, sustainable financing, and shared responsibility can create a more responsive ecosystem of care, and where philanthropy can strengthen the infrastructure and partnerships needed to reach people earlier.

• 11:25 AM – 11:45 AM | Funder Story: The Liz Blake Giving Fund

  • Liz Blake will reflect on how her funding has evolved around a focused commitment to improving outcomes for mothers, young children, and families. Drawing on investments across maternal and child mental health, early childhood development, and economic mobility, she will share how relationships, targeted capital, and a two-generation perspective have helped identify gaps and support new approaches across Atlanta. Her story will invite attendees to consider how clarity of focus, proximity, and partnership can help funders of different sizes contribute to lasting systems change.

• 11:45 AM - 12:00 PM | Nutrition as a Foundation for Well-Being

  • To ground the afternoon’s hands-on exploration of nutrition, nature, and connection, Dr. Uma Naidoo will highlight how food influences mood, stress, cognition, and brain health, drawing on her work in nutritional psychiatry. Bringing together perspectives from psychiatry and the culinary arts, she will invite funders to think more expansively about how nutrition is an important and often overlooked foundation for mental health and healthy development.

• 12:00 – 1:30 PM | Lunch - Location: The Gallery

• 1:30 - 3:00 PM | A Walk Through Natirar's Grounds, Farm, and Kitchen - Location: Farm Entrance

  • Attendees will move beyond the meeting room to explore how everyday environments and experiences shape mental health and well-being. Through an interactive experience across Natirar’s farm, attendees will engage with sustainable agriculture, nutrition, nature, and connection while learning about how the farm integrates wellness into its practices. The session invites funders to reflect on how these everyday foundations of flourishing can be treated as essential, rather than peripheral, to mental health and well-being. 

• 3:00 - 3:30 PM | Break - Refreshments will be available in the Gallery

• 3:30 - 5:30 PM | Solution Symposium: Breakthrough Opportunities at the Frontier

  • Mindful Philanthropy is introducing Breakthrough Opportunity program areas across three youth focus areas: Strong Start to Life, Play & Grow, and Digital Well-Being. Within each, practitioners, researchers, and field builders will highlight promising approaches with the potential to address critical gaps and contribute to systems-level change in youth mental health and well-being. Following the presentations, attendees will engage in small-group discussions to investigate the opportunities in greater depth and consider how they fit within a more aligned and cohesive strategy for transformation. The session will invite funders to consider how philanthropic support can advance these program areas, strengthen the surrounding field, and create the conditions for greater impact over time.

• 5:30 – 6:30 PM | Break

• 6:30 – 9:00 PM | Cocktails & Dinner - Location: Ladd’s Tavern

Day 3 | Wednesday, October 21

• 7:00 – 7:45 AM | Optional Morning Wellness

• 8:00 – 9:00 AM | Breakfast - Location: The Gallery

• 9:00 - 9:40 AM | Designing for Human Connection in the Age of AI

  • Michelle Culver will guide attendees through an interactive session exploring how AI may strengthen, reshape, or erode human connection. Through real-world scenarios, attendees will examine the values, assumptions, and tradeoffs shaping how we engage with emerging technologies. The session will invite funders to consider what principles should guide their engagement with AI and how philanthropy can help shape a digital future that supports human connection and healthy development.

• 9:40 – 10:15 AM | AI and the Future of Mental Health Care

  • Moderated by Dr. Kathy Pike, Dr. Alissa Fogg and Dr. Michael Heinz will turn the conversation toward how AI is reshaping mental health care, from consumer-facing support and workforce extension to clinical decision-making, earlier identification, and new approaches to treatment. Panelists will discuss where AI holds genuine promise, where important tensions remain, and which decisions being made now could shape the future of care. The session will help funders understand where evidence, safeguards, and human judgment may not be keeping pace with adoption, and consider how philanthropy can engage responsibly amid rapid change and uncertainty. 

• 10:15 - 10:40 AM | Systems Readiness: Preparing the Field for Psychedelic-Assisted Care

  • As psychedelic-assisted care moves closer to broader adoption, the field will need stronger infrastructure to support safe, equitable, and effective implementation. Joanne Maislin will join Rick Kellar to draw on the Office of Systems Catalyst’s work to examine the systems required across clinical care, workforce development, data, and reimbursement. She will highlight where important gaps remain, how philanthropy is already helping to build the field, and where funders can play a distinctive role in strengthening the conditions needed for responsible scale. 

• 10:40 – 10:55 AM | Break - Refreshments will be available in the Gallery

• 10:55 - 11:30 AM | Sustaining Youth Mental Health Funding in a New Era of Public Investment

  • Elizabeth Gaines and Amy Taylor, in conversation with Deb Mahan,  will explore how philanthropy can help sustain youth mental health efforts as public funding comes under increasing pressure. Drawing on lessons from tobacco, opioid, and vaping settlements, speakers will examine how major pools of public capital have been structured and protected, and what those lessons may mean for how philanthropy engages early around emerging social media settlement dollars. The conversation will also consider broader approaches to sustainability, including blended financing, public-private partnerships, and policy strategies, inviting funders to look beyond reimbursement alone and consider how philanthropy can help shape the ways public and private capital work together to support long-term impact.

• 11:30 AM - 12:00 PM | What This Moment Requires of Philanthropy

  • In this closing session, Alyson Niemann will ground attendees in the current state of mental health philanthropy, drawing on findings from Mindful Philanthropy's U.S. Funding Landscape report to highlight where the field needs greater alignment, coordination, and investment. With that landscape in view, attendees will reflect on where they are uniquely positioned to lead, collaborate, or act, building on the opportunities and relationships developed throughout Activate. Alyson will close by inviting attendees to carry the relationships and momentum from Activate into the decisions they make going forward, and share how Mindful will continue to support learning, connection, and collective action across the community.

• 12:00 – 1:30 PM | Lunch & Departures - Location: The Gallery