Mental Health & Wellbeing
Publications of the Mental Health & Wellbeing Task Force express the findings, results, and views of members of the Mental Health & Wellbeing Task Force. They do not reflect the findings, results, and views of Commissioners not engaged on the Task Force or of the Lancet family of journals or other publication outlets unless explicitly specified. The Mental Health & Wellbeing Task Force does not contribute to other publications or statements issued by the Lancet COVID-19 Commission or the Task Forces or to other publications in the Lancet family of journals or other publication outlets, unless explicitly specified.
Task Force members serve in their individual capacities, on an honorary basis. The Secretariat of the Mental Health & Wellbeing Task Force is hosted by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Center for Sustainable Development (CSD), Columbia University.
Task Force Publications:
Dr. Lara Aknin (Chair) Distinguished University Professor
Simon Fraser University (Canada)
Dr. Lara Aknin is a Distinguished Associate Professor of Psychology at Simon Fraser University, former Fellow with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and a co-associate editor of the World Happiness Report. MORE
Dr. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve Associate Professor of Economics, University of Oxford (UK)
Dr. De Neve, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School and the Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre. Dr. De Neve’s research interests are in behavioural economics, public policy and human wellbeing. MORE
Dr. Elizabeth Dunn Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia (Canada)
Dr. Elizabeth Dunn is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Dunn conducts experimental research examining how time, money, and technology shape human happiness. MORE
Dr. Daisy Fancourt Associate Professor, Behavioural Science and Health, Institute of Epidemiology & Health, UCL (UK)
Dr. Daisy Fancourt is Associate Professor of Psychobuilogy & Epidemiology and Wellcome Research Fellow in the Psychobiology Group, Department of Behavioarl Science & Health at UCL. Her research focuses on the effects of social factors on health. MORE
Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg Clinical Professor, Department of Neurology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine (USA)
Dr. Goldberg, Ph.D., ABPP is a cognitive neuroscientist, a practicing neuropsychologist, and an educator who lectures worldwide. He is Director of Luria Neuroscience Institute, Clinical Professor of Neurology at NYU School of Medicine, and Diplomate of The American Board of Professional Psychology in Clinical Neuropsychology. MORE
Prof. Rafael Goldszmidt Assistant Professor at FGV-EBAPE (Brazil)
Rafael Goldszmidt is an Assistant Professor at FGV-EBAPE (Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration of the Getulio Vargas Foundation), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His research is focused on behavioural change, especially related to health - including ways to foster blood donation and improve eating habits of children and adolescents, as well as COVID-19 protective behaviour and responses to non-pharmaceutical interventions. MORE
Dr. John Helliwell Professor Emeritus, Vancouver School of Economics, The University of British Columbia (Canada)
John F. Helliwell is Professor Emeritus in the Vancouver School of Economics at the Univeristy of British Columbia, and Distinguished Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. From 2006 to 2017 he directed (with George Akerlof) CIFAR’s progam in Social Interaction, Identity and Well-Being. MORE
Ms. Sarah Jones Faculty of Medicine, Department of Surgery & Cancer (UK)
Sarah P. Jones is the co-creator of CovidDataHub.com, the strategic data intelligence platform for the largest continuous COVID health behaviour study in the world with real time, open access data. Contributors and users of the research platform include the World Health Organization, the IMF, the UN SDSN, the Bank of England, the UK Cabinet Office, the European Central Bank and China CDC. MORE
Dr. Elie Karam Psychiatrist, St. George Hospital University Medical Center (Lebanon)
Dr. Karam has worked at the American University of Beirut since 1980, and in parallel founded the Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology at St. George Hospital Medical Center, Balamand University, Faculty of Medicine in Lebanon, of which he is currently Professor and Head since 2001. MORE
Lord Richard Layard Programme Co-Director, Center for Economic Performance, London School of Economics (UK)
Lord Layard is a labour economist who has worked for most of his life on how to reduce unemployment and inequality. He was one of the first economists to work on happiness, and his main current interest is how better mental health could improve our social and economic life. MORE
Prof. Anna Petherick Associate Professor in Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University (UK)
Anna Petherick is an Associate Professor in Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University, and co-Principal Investigator of the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) project. MORE
Mr. Andrew Rzepa Partner, Gallup (UK)
Mr. Rzepa is a partner in Gallup’s London office and leads Gallup’s public sector division in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He is responsible for Gallup’s global research programs in the region, partnering with charities, governments, and Europe-based UN entities to address global data gaps. MORE
Dr. Shekhar Saxena Professor of the Practice of Global Mental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (USA)
Dr. Saxena is Professor of the Practice of Global Mental Health at the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. A psychiatrist by training, he served in the World Health Organization (WHO) since 1998. MORE
Dr. Tyler VanderWeele John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (USA)
Dr. VanderWeele, Ph.D., is the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Director of the Human Flourishing Program and Co-Director of the Initiative on Health, Religion and Spirituality at Harvard University. MORE
Dr. Ashley Whillans Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School in Negotiations, Organizations, and Markets (USA)
Dr. Whillans is an assistant professor in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School. Broadly, she studies how people navigate trade-offs between time and money. Her ongoing research investigates whether and how intangible incentives, such as experiential and time-saving rewards, affect employee motivation and well-being. MORE
Dr. Jamil Zaki Associate Professor of Psychology, Stanford University (USA)
Dr. Zaki is an assistant professor of psychology at Stanford University. His research focuses on the cognitive and neural bases of social behavior, and in particular on how people respond to each other's emotions (empathy), why they conform to each other (social influence), and why they choose to help each other (prosociality). MORE