Stanley P. Mayers Endowed Lecture

28th Annual Stanley P. Mayers Endowed Lecture

Breaking the Stigma: Mental Health in the Modern World

Tuesday, April 7 | 6-7 p.m. | Hintz Family Alumni Center

Kevin Lynch, founder and chief executive officer, The Quell Foundation

The 28th Annual Stanley P. Mayers Endowed Lecture will take place on April 7, 2026, at the Hintz Family Alumni Center at Penn State University Park.

About the speaker

Kevin Lynch is the founder and CEO of the Quell Foundation. Created in 2015, the Quell Foundation's mission is to reduce the number of suicides, overdoses, and the incarceration of people living with mental health illness. Lynch has made Quell a nationally acclaimed mental health organization known for turning advocacy into statistical change through his prestigious scholarship program and educational documentary series. In this role, Lynch has distributed $2.6m to students in all 50 states across 480 universities.

Prior to his not-for-profit work, Lynch spent 17 years with HCA Healthcare as a member of senior management teams in their South Florida Division. Lynch began his career in the United States Navy, serving from 1983 to 1995 as a member of the elite U.S. Submarine Force. Over his twelve-year military career, Lynch served on board several nuclear-powered vessels, completing multiple long-term deployments in support of our nation’s defense strategy.

In 2016, Lynch spoke at the White House during the “Making Health Care Better” speakers’ series on mental health, and in 2020, he received the Mental Health America Media Award for his documentary, Portraits of Life with Mental Illness. Lynch holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Lynn University and a Master of Health Administration from Penn State.

About the Stanley P. Mayers Endowed Lecture

The Stanley P. Mayers Endowed Lecture is regularly conducted each Spring. The late Stanley P. Mayers, Jr. M.D., co-founded the Penn State undergraduate program in the Department of Health Policy and Administration. He was a member of the Mount Nittany Society, the University’s highest donor-recognition group, and gave his own personal resources to support outstanding students in the College of Health and Human Development. In honor of his late wife, he established the Virginia L. Mayers Memorial Scholarship Endowment in 1992.

HPA faculty members, staff, and alumni are committed to enlarging the endowment and have unanimously supported the initiative with their own private contributions. The fund enhances the education of students and expertise of faculty members in areas that continue to honor Dr. Mayers’ contributions as a professor, administrator and philanthropist. Today, the principal challenge for HPA is to stay abreast of changes in the industry while continuing to serve the public interest.

The endowment provides funds to enrich the department’s outreach activities, examples include: creating a public lecture series, enhancing field-based professional development for faculty members, and acquiring health care-specific teaching materials. Established as an endowment, the fund will provide income for the HPA department in perpetuity.

The Health Policy and Administration department aims to accomplish its mission of developing leaders and knowledge to improve health and health care.

Past speakers:

2025: Devon Trolley, Executive Director, Pennie
2024: Alison Beam, Senior Vice President and Chief Government Affairs Officer, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
2023: Dr. Ala Stanford, Region III Director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
2022: Kevin Frick, professor, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
2021: Elena Hung, co-founder and executive director, Little Lobbyists
2019: Elisabeth Rosenthal, MD, editor-in-chief, Kaiser Health News
2018: David Nash, founding dean, Jefferson College of Population Health,
2017: Maureen Bisogano, president emerita and senior fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
2016: Sorrel King, co--founder, Josie King Foundation
2015: Eugene A. Woods, president and chief operation officer, CHRISTUS Health
2014: James Kevin Stoller, MD, chairman of Education Institute at the Cleveland Clinic
2013: Mary Naylor, professor, Gerontology, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
2012: David Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP, founding director, Yale University Prevention Research Center
2011: Craig Hillemeier, retired CEO, Penn State Health; E. Eugene Marsh, senior associate dean, Penn State college of Medicine; Alan Zuckerman, president, Health Strategies & Soluations, Inc.
2010: David Nash, MD, MBA, Professor, health policy and medicine, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University
2009: Bruce Bagley, MD, medical director for quality improvement, American Academy of Family Physicians
2008: Diane E. Meier, MD, FACP, director, Center to Advance Palliative Care
2007: Albert Wu, MD, MPH, professor, health policy and management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2006: Carolyn Clancy, MD, director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Department of Health and Human Services
2005: Fitzhugh Mullan, MD, clinical professor, George Washington University
2004: William W. Sage, MD, JD, professor of law, Columbia University
2003: David Leach, MD, executive director, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
2002: Bruce R. Korf, MD, Ph.D., medical director, Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics
2001: Peter A. Ubel, MD, associate professor of medicine, University of Michigan
2000: Douglas L. Mayers, MD, division head, Henry Ford Hospital
1999: John M. Esienberg, MD, administrator, Agency for Health Care Policy Research
1998: Stanley P. Mayers Jr., MD, professor emeritus, health policy and administration, Penn State