Join us on Thursday, June 11, 2026 from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm ET for One Mind at Work’s Second Annual Southwest Pennsylvania Workplace Mental Health Summit.

View the full program agenda below and register today!

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Program Agenda:

12:00 – 1:00 PM | Lunch & Networking

1:00 – 1:15 PM | Welcome & Introduction to the Regional Initiative

1:15 – 2:00 PM | Navigating Workplace Mental Health in Times of Change 

2:00 – 2:15 PM l Facilitated Q&A 

2:15 – 2:45 PM l Fireside Chat: Working Towards Mental Health in SWPA

2:15 – 3:00 PM l One Mind, CredibleMind & The Mental Health Index

2:45 – 3:00 PM | Break

3:00 – 3:45 PM | Strategy, Support, and Solutions: How to Build a Workforce Mental Health Program with Real Impact

3:45 – 4:15 PM | Roundtable Collaborative Learning

4:15 – 4:30 PM | Report Outs

4:45 – 5:00 PM | Closing Reflections & Call To Action

Speaker Biographies:


David W. Ballard, PsyD, MBA serves as the Vice President of One Mind at Work, where he leads the program in its mission to translate science into employer best practices that measurably impact workforce mental health and organizational performance. He partners with One Mind at Work’s global coalition of organizations and senior leaders who are committed to developing and implementing best-in-class workplace mental health programs. 

As a psychologist and non-profit executive with more than two decades of experience, Dr. Ballard’s work focuses on organizational effectiveness, occupational health promotion, workforce mental health, program design and evaluation, and systems-level workplace interventions. He has provided research, consultation, and training services to government agencies, industry groups, corporations, private equity firms, medical schools, and universities.

Prior to joining One Mind, Dr. Ballard was at the American Psychological Association, where he led the association’s Office of Applied Psychology, Center for Organizational Excellence, and Psychologically Healthy Workplace Program. He received his doctorate in clinical psychology and his MBA in healthcare administration from Widener University, where he completed concentrations in organizational and forensic psychology.

Kathy Carlton serves as the Director of Business Development at CredibleMind, where she leads partnerships that expand access to innovative, digitally integrated mental health solutions. CredibleMind’s platform combines evidence-based self-care resources with guided pathways to clinical support, helping employers, health plans, and communities improve engagement and outcomes across populations.

With more than two decades of experience in behavioral health, Kathy has held leadership roles spanning commercial strategy, population health, and employer solutions. Prior to joining CredibleMind, she served in senior sales leadership roles within the behavioral health industry, helping organizations implement programs that improve access, quality, and cost-effectiveness of care.

Kathy is deeply committed to advancing workplace mental health through scalable, collaborative approaches that build healthier, more resilient workforces.

Karen Hacker, MD, MPH is the former Director of the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the CDC  where she served from 2019 to 2025. The Center housed 9 divisions, a staff of 1000 and a budget of $1.4B of which almost 80% funded chronic disease prevention in the field.  During her tenure, she spearheaded groundbreaking social determinants of health activities, expanded maternal mortality programming nationwide, oversaw a continued decrease in cigarette smoking, and shepherded the Center through the COVID-19 pandemic.

With over two decades of progressive leadership, Dr. Hacker’s expertise spans healthcare systems, academia, chronic disease prevention, adolescent health, and health equity.  Prior to CDC, she was the Director of the Allegheny County Health Department in PA where she achieved national accreditation, addressed the opioid epidemic, reduced air pollution, and launched the Live Well Allegheny initiative. Dr. Hacker uniquely bridges critical community needs with national health policy. She is recognized for her practical, solutions-focused approach to complex challenges, consistently delivering real-world impact through strategic vision and collaborative action. She is also widely published with over 100 peer-reviewed articles and an expert in community-based participatory research.

Dr. Hacker received her Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Yale University, her medical degree (MD) from Northwestern University School of Medicine, and a Master of Public Health (MPH) with Honors from Boston University School of Public Health. She completed her internship and residency in primary care internal medicine at Boston City Hospital, followed by an adolescent medicine fellowship at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, and is board-certified in internal medicine. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Emory School of Medicine and Morehouse School of Medicine.

Stephanie Romero, Ed.D. is the founder and Executive Director of Awaken Pittsburgh, works to bring mindfulness practices to those who are experiencing high levels of stress and secondary trauma throughout Western PA. Dr. Romero has 20+ years of experience teaching elementary, middle school, high school, and college students. She is a certified Meditation and Mindfulness Instructor, 200RYT Antiracist Raja Yoga teacher and has been a meditator and mindfulness practitioner since the early 2000s. 

Finding that her meditation practice profoundly influenced both her personal and professional lives, Dr. Romero explored the integration of mindfulness into her classroom space through her dissertation, culminating three years of research into mindfulness in education. She is grateful to be able to bring these life-changing practices to individuals and systems every day.

Kenneth Thompson, MD serves as the Chief Medical Officer of the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Leadership Council, a unique state-level education, policy and advocacy organization he helped found. He practices in and oversees the mental health program at the Squirrel Hill Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center. Dr. Thompson also provides psychiatric services at Milestone Community Mental Health Center, where he is the Medical Director, the Duquesne University Psychology Clinic and the Center for Aviation Medicine. He was the PI of a recent Robert Wood Johnson Grant linking Pittsburgh and Glasgow, Scotland to develop programs and policies in pursuit of achieving health equity and sustainability. He is a Soros Physician Advocate Fellow. He is the Executive Director of Visible Hands Collaborative, a non-profit focused on promoting a public health approach to mental health by importing Integrative Community Therapy and the concept of solidarity care from Brazil to the anglophone world. Throughout his career he has focused on social medicine and community psychiatry. He has written extensively and consults and lectures globally on issues pertaining to public service, leadership and advocacy, disaster response, personal and community recovery and resiliency, whole person primary health services and mental health policy, public health and the struggle for health equity, democracy and human rights.Dr. Thompson graduated from Kenyon College and Boston University School of Medicine. He is a National Health Service Corps Scholar. After his psychiatric residency at the Einstein College of Medicine and postdoctoral fellowship in mental health services research at Yale he served as faculty at Yale and the University of Pittsburgh where he was the Director of the Institute for Public Health and Psychiatry. He has served as the Chief Medical Officer of Harrisburg State Hospital and the Director for Medical Affairs at the Center for Mental Health Services in SAMHSA.

Jessica Whalen is the Director of Learning and Performance from the Pittsburgh Penguins.