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Innovation Hub @Thrive Center<\/p>\n
Innovation Hub @Thrive Center<\/p>\n
For years, children\u2019s mental health sat in the shadows. Too stigmatized to name. Too easy for systems to deprioritize. Too underfunded to reach the families who needed it most.<\/p>\n
Dr. Matthew Biel, MD, MSc, has spent his career inside that reality.<\/p>\n
Biel is a child psychiatrist who has worked in kids\u2019 mental health for more than two decades. When he entered the field, he says, \u201cthe world was very different in terms of the way people thought about and talked about mental health.\u201d Mental health was often \u201cignored by health care,\u201d pushed aside, and treated as something separate from society\u2019s overall well-being.<\/p>\n
Today, the shift is undeniable. \u201cThere\u2019s no health without mental health,\u201d Biel says. But he\u2019s equally clear that awareness is only the first step. The harder question is what happens next, especially because \u201cthe rubber really hits the road around mental health\u2026 and it really hits the road starting in childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
That belief helped shape the Thrive Center for Children, Families, and Communitie<\/a>s at Georgetown University, launched in 2024 to turn growing urgency into support that actually reaches families.<\/p>\n Four focus areas shaping Thrive\u2019s work<\/p>\n The Thrive Center is built around four priorities.<\/p>\n The first is child and family mental health, because \u201ckids grow up in families,\u201d and care has to reflect that. The second is disability across the lifespan, focused on how systems can support \u201cfull and rich lives.\u201d The third is early childhood, when so much development begins. And the fourth is digital health, since technology shapes daily life and the challenge is making it \u201cmore health-promoting.\u201d<\/p>\n Why Thrive starts with families<\/p>\n Biel believes many efforts still make a basic mistake by focusing only on the child, without fully accounting for the environment the child is growing up in.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t narrowly focus on whatever the issue might be,\u201d he says, whether it\u2019s depression, anxiety, trauma, or autism, \u201cwithout understanding the relationship the child has in their family.\u201d Stress and mental health move through families in both directions, and support needs to match that reality.<\/p>\n \u201cOftentimes,\u201d Biel says, \u201cstrengthening and supporting families is the best thing we can do to support kids.\u201d<\/p>\n Matthew Biel, MD, MSc Director, Thrive Center for Children, Families, and Communities<\/p>\n Gary Landsman 2019The Innovation Hub built for real-world impact<\/p>\n The pandemic years triggered an explosion of interest in mental health innovation. Telehealth expanded rapidly. Digital products and platforms multiplied. Investment followed. The promise was compelling: use new tools to remove barriers tied to geography, cost, and access.<\/p>\n Biel sees that period clearly. There were real \u201csuccess stories,\u201d but also \u201ccautionary tales,\u201d especially during the intense cycle between 2020 and 2023. Some solutions grew quickly but couldn\u2019t sustain engagement. Others struggled to prove outcomes. And in a space as personal and culturally specific as mental health, the pressure to scale can easily outrun the evidence.<\/p>\n So Thrive created the Innovation Hub<\/a>, a fellowship model designed to support a different kind of growth. Their first partner and funder was Luminary Impact Fund<\/a>, a new venture capital philanthropy focused exclusively on family mental health.<\/p>\n The Hub brings early-stage organizations, both nonprofit and for-profit, into three-month cohorts and pairs them with Georgetown experts across psychiatry, psychology, pediatrics, public health, social work, and developmental science. The goal isn\u2019t to celebrate novelty. It\u2019s to make innovation sturdier by pressure-testing what matters most: clear theory of change, stronger use of data, better alignment with the evidence base.<\/p>\n Biel wanted this work grounded in \u201cstrongly evidence-based practices\u201d and \u201cstrongly grounded in co-design,\u201d building alongside families and young people rather than designing in isolation. He also believes no single model can serve everyone.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s oftentimes not one size that fits all,\u201d he says. \u201cThere needs to be an innovation ecosystem where many flowers can bloom.\u201d<\/p>\n AI is powerful but relationship is the differentiator<\/p>\n Biel is optimistic about AI\u2019s potential to personalize support, and he sees the demand clearly. \u201cPeople are telling us what they want,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople are struggling a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n But he\u2019s careful not to confuse convenience with real change. \u201cA lot of what we need to do to make improvements in our lives psychologically is actually to be uncomfortable,\u201d he says. The most promising models, in his view, combine technology with human connection. \u201cThere\u2019s something that stirs in our souls when we are in relationship with another human being,\u201d he says, \u201cthat just isn\u2019t going to be captured by AI.\u201d<\/p>\n Who the Hub is supporting<\/p>\n The Innovation Hub has supported two cohorts so far.<\/p>\n Spring 2025 Fellows<\/a> included Clayful <\/a>led by Maria Barrera, Hand in Hand Parenting<\/a> led by Maya Coleman, Happypillar<\/a> led by Samantha Gardner and Chloe Picot-Jacobs, Pediatrics Northwest<\/a> led by Rachel Lettieri and Mary Ann Woodruff, Peers.net <\/a>led by Kim Newell Green and Obi Felten, and Psyche Care<\/a> led by Mallika Pajjuri.<\/p>\n Spring Cohort 2025: Top row (left to right): Maria Barrera \u2014 CEO, Clayful | Maya Coleman \u2014 Executive Director, Hand in Hand Parenting | Samantha Gardner \u2014 CEO & Founder, Happypillar | Rachel Lettieri \u2014 Director of Care Transformation, Pediatrics Northwest ; Bottom row (left to right): Mary Ann Woodruff, MD, FAAP \u2014 Medical Director of Care Transformation, Pediatrics Northwest | Kim Newell Green \u2014 Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer, Peers.net | Obi Felten \u2014 Co-Founder & CEO, Peers.net | Mallika Pajjuri \u2014 Founder & CEO, Psyche Care<\/p>\n Georgetown\u2019s Thrive Center<\/p>\n Fall 2025 Fellows<\/a> included Bounceback <\/a>led by Dorothy Morelli and Caroline Hendren, Easy Bites App<\/a> led by Natalia Stasenko and Kevyn Eva Norton, Flock<\/a> led by Madeline Kerner, Jess Ogilvie and Jasanna Britton, Northwest Center<\/a> led by Sara Circelli and Tiffany Elliott, Special Olympics<\/a> represented by Rebecca Ralston and Cassandra Ryan, and Wide Therapy<\/a> led by Rinat Hitelman.<\/p>\n Top row (left to right): Dorothy Morelli \u2014 CEO, Bounceback | Caroline Hendren \u2014 Director of Partnerships, Bounceback | Natalia Stasenko \u2014 Founder, Easy Bites App | Kevyn Eva Norton \u2014 Product Lead, Easy Bites App; Middle row (left to right): Madeline Kerner \u2014 Founder, Flock | Jess Ogilvie \u2014 Co-Founder, Flock | Jasanna Britton \u2014 Co-Founder, Flock | Sara Circelli \u2014 Change Manager & Family Resource Coordinator, Northwest Center; Bottom row (left to right): Tiffany Elliott \u2014 Change Specialist & Speech-Language Pathologist, Northwest Center | Rebecca Ralston \u2014 Senior Director, Early Childhood & Prevention, Special Olympics | Cassandra Ryan \u2014 Early Childhood Project Manager, Special Olympics | Rinat Hitelman \u2014 Co-Founder & CEO, Wide Therapy<\/p>\n Georgetown\u2019s Thrive CenterThe human layer technology can\u2019t replace<\/p>\n