Dr. Nina Vasan | |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | Nina Vasan (1984-01-27)January 27, 1984 (age 41) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Residence | Palo Alto, CA |
| Alma mater | Harvard University Harvard Medical School Stanford Graduate School of Business |
| Website | http://www.ninavasan.com |
Nina Vasan (born January 27, 1984) is an Americanpsychiatrist and author[1] of theAmazon #1 best-selling[2] bookDo Good Well: Your Guide to Leadership, Action and Innovation.[3] She is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences atStanford University School of Medicine. She is currently the Founder and Executive Director ofBrainstorm: The Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation atStanford University.[4] She won the 2002 IntelInternational Science and Engineering Fair.[5]
Vasan was born inWashington, DC, spent her childhood inVienna, West Virginia, and attendedParkersburg High School. At age 16, she started a local group inWood County to engage teenagers in theAmerican Cancer Society that grew into a nationwide network of teen volunteers leading efforts in education, advocacy, and service.[6] For this work, Vasan was honored as Prudential Spirit of Community Awards National Honoree,[7] anOlympic torchbearer, and aUSA Today All-USA Academic First Team member.[8]
Vasan was active in theGirl Scouts since age 7 and received the highest honor in Girl Scouting, theGold Award Young Woman of Distinction,[9] from JusticeSandra Day O'Connor in 2002.[10] She also participated in theAmerica's Junior Miss pageant asWest Virginia's Junior Miss.[11]
In 2002, Vasan won the $50,000Intel Foundation Young Scientist award, the top Grand Prize award at theIntel International Science and Engineering Fair, for her work withHarvard Medical School professor Jeremy Wolfe on visual learning, which she conducted at theResearch Science Institute.[12] She also received theSeaborg (nowDudley Herschbach)SIYSS Award, which led to her presenting her research during the 2002Nobel Prize ceremonies inStockholm.[13]
Vasan enteredHarvard College and graduated with anA.B. in Government in 2006. She was named one of the "Top 10 College Women" in the US byGlamour Magazine.[14] She earned anM.D. fromHarvard Medical School and was voted by classmates as a student commencement speaker.[15] She completed her residency training atStanford University School of Medicine, where she was aChief Resident inPsychiatry.[16] While in residency, she completed anMBA at theStanford Graduate School of Business.
During the2008 Presidential Election, Vasan served as a Co-Leader of Battleground State Outreach[17] for theObama presidential campaign's Health Policy Advisory Committee.[18] She also interned for a summer in the Office of Director-General Dr.Margaret Chan at theWorld Health Organization inGeneva.[citation needed]
After graduating fromHarvard Medical School in 2013, she enteredresidency training inPsychiatry atStanford University Hospital inStanford, California. In 2015, Vasan launchedThe Psychiatry Innovation Lab[19] at the Annual Meeting of theAmerican Psychiatric Association, the world's largest psychiatric organization. The PIL is an incubator that catalyzes the formation of innovative ventures to transform mental healthcare.[20] MedTech Boston named her a "40 Under 40 Healthcare Innovator" in 2016.[21]
In 2016, she launchedBrainstorm: The Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation, the world's first academic laboratory dedicated to transforming mental health through technology and entrepreneurship.[16] She started the first college course on mental health entrepreneurship[22] and the firstvirtual reality andaugmented reality innovation lab for brain and behavioral health.[23] In 2017, Vasan was named to the shortlist for theFinancial Times andMcKinseyBracken Bower Prize, awarded to the best business book proposal by an author aged under 35.[24]
In 2019, Vasan and Brainstorm colleagues worked withPinterest to launch a "Compassionate Search" feature. The new tool provides evidence-based mental health and stress relief tools to users searching for topics like "anxiety" and "stress".[25] Compassionate Search is designed to make mental health tools more accessible to users with difficulty accessing mental health services, while changing the experience of how mental health is addressed online towards a more open and honest experience free from stigma.[26] They also addressed issues of suicide, safety, and self-harm that led to changes in thePinterest platform, including creating a set of exercises for improving user's emotional outcomes,[27] as well asAI, which Pinterest said achieved an 88% reduction in reports of self-harm content by users and ability to remove such content 3 times faster.[28] This work was named byFast Company as one of the Best Designs for Social Good[29] and Most Innovative Wellness Projects[30] of 2020.
Vasan's experience as a young civic entrepreneur led to her co-authoring the #1Amazon best-selling book[2]Do Good Well: Your Guide to Leadership, Action and Innovation[3] on how to maximize impact[31] in solving social problems.[32]Nobel Peace Prize LaureateMuhammad Yunus called the book "the primer for social innovation."[33]
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