Depression Grand Challenge

When UCLA introduced an important new health resource this year for its students, Be Well Bruin, which included the STAR program as a key resource, the STAND program reached an important milestone — integration of the program into campus operations.

UCLA Depression Grand Challenge Executive Director Michelle Popowitz co-led a three-hour workshop at the 2023 NORDP ReCON: ForwaRD! national conference this month. The workshop, “Leveraging Campus-Scale Initiatives to Advance RD Goals: The Case Study of Grand Challenges,” featured thought leaders who had been the first to lead campus-wide grand challenge-type programs at their universities.

Timed with the end of her first year in the role, the UCLA Newsroom reported on DGC Co-Director Michelle Craske’s activities as the inaugural Kevin Love Fund Centennial Chair.

Elaine Hsiao, PhD, director of the UCLA Goodman–Luskin Microbiome Center and an expert on the ways in which the gut microbiome influences neurobiology, has been awarded funding by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to lead a new maternal mental health research study.

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge STAND for All program has been featured by the Mental Health Coalition as a top resource for college students in its inaugural College Student Mental Health Toolkit. The MHC designed and launched the toolkit for the start of the 2023 school year to equip college students with reliable resources, services and support needed to thrive as they transition into adult life.

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge appoints clinical psychologist Isabelle Lanser as its dedicated policy analyst to ensure DGC activities are in service of benefitting all.

Leading mental health and computer science researchers, industry experts, advocates and funders who participated in the Digital Sensing Workshop held at UCLA in the winter of 2023 are seeking additional review and input from colleagues and other stakeholders for a shared vision, common standards and recommendations they created to facilitate the use of digital sensing technologies in mental health research.

During Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference this week, Apple cited UCLA Depression Grand Challenge mental health research findings and expertise in demonstrating the importance of caring for your mental health.

The UCLA Alumni Association spotlighted the Depression Grand Challenge at its May Town Hall providing a strategic focus overview and update of the campuswide initiative and insights from the program to the alumni community.