UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Kevin Lynch, founder and chief executive officer of the Quell Foundation, will deliver the 28th Annual Stanley P. Mayers Endowed Lecture, “Breaking the Stigma: Mental Health in the Modern World,” at 6 p.m. on April 7 in Robb Hall in the Hintz Family Alumni Center at Penn State University Park. The lecture, hosted by the Penn State Department of Health Policy and Administration, is free and open to the public.
Prior to Lynch’s talk, finalists from the Marshal Raffel Student Showcase will present research posters, beginning at 5 p.m. A student awards ceremony will be held at 5:30 p.m.
Lynch, who graduated from Penn State in 2014 with a master of health administration degree, founded the Quell Foundation, which works to eliminate the social stigma of mental illness by providing scholarships to students entering the mental health care field and students who have been diagnosed with a mental health illness.
The Quell Foundation also educates communities to help reduce suicides, drug overdoses and incarceration of people with treatable mental illnesses, along with training first responders to recognize signs of mental distress.
About the lecture
Lynch’s lecture will explore the stigma surrounding mental health. The United States continues to grapple with how to address the many issues facing its health care system. Lynch will discuss barriers to effective mental-health care, along with policy changes, access to care and positive personal outcomes.
Lynch will interweave his personal experiences with frontline stories to highlight how stigmas about mental health contribute to delayed help-seeking, criminalization and health inequities. He will also review measurable progress, including parity laws, 988 crisis services and school-based literacy programs.
Attendees will gain an understanding of public, self and structural stigma, evidence of what works to lessen stigma, and actionable steps for students, clinicians and community members to foster compassionate, equitable mental health care.
“Stigma is a removable barrier, and understanding its forms can empower practical action,” Lynch said. “I hope attendees leave with three concrete commitments — change one word, learn one resource, take one advocacy step. My goal is for every attendee to feel empowered and have the confidence to normalize help-seeking in their families, workplaces and communities.”
The lecture will also offer pragmatic tools to support resilience, advocate for policy change and normalize help-seeking, challenging each attendee to become an active participant in dismantling mental health stigma within their spheres of influence.
Lynch said he hopes to leave a durable legacy — culturally relevant, evidence-based education that normalizes help-seeking, trains peers and leaders and strengthens institutional supports so future generations face fewer barriers to care.
“This generation’s fearless commitment to social equity inspires me,” Lynch said. “I look forward to hearing their perspectives and acknowledging the concrete progress they have already made in normalizing mental-health dialogue on campus.”
The annual Mayers Lecture was created in honor of the late Stanley P. Mayers Jr., co-founder of Penn State’s undergraduate program in health planning and administration (today’s health policy and administration), who retired after a distinguished 26-year career at Penn State. Mayers, who passed away in 2023, served as the head of the department for nine years and also in roles as associate dean for undergraduate studies and associate dean for academic studies in the College of Health and Human Development.
See details on the 28th Annual Stanley P. Mayers Endowed Lecture and learn more about the Penn State Department of Health Policy and Administration.