CEO, Human Power Project | Wellness Director, Geffen Academy @ UCLA

Ross Szabo is a social innovator who helped pioneer the youth mental health movement. He is currently a founding faculty member and Wellness Director at Geffen Academy at UCLA, where he created a class that teaches about mental health once a week throughout a student's entire education in grades 6-12. He is also the CEO of Human Power Project, a company that designs mental health curricula for people of all ages. The company's curriculum is being used by over 250,000 students nationwide. 

Ross has spoken to over 2 million people about his story with bipolar disorder and written two books; Behind Happy Faces: Taking Charge of Your Mental Health and A Kids Book About Anxiety, which was named one of Oprah's Favorite Things in 2020. Ross was the Director of Outreach for the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign from 2002-2010. This Campaign was the country's first public health approach to mental health. During his time in the organization he helped create the concept of large scale mental health presentations for school communities and launched the first youth mental health speakers' bureau in the country. He has two decades of experience in youth mental health.