NAMI San Diego CEO Shannon Jaccard: Aspen Fellow

From success to significance. The Aspen Global Leadership Network was launched with the Henry Crown Fellowship Program in 1997, designed to mentor the next generation of community-spirited leaders to make a greater mark.

The network is comprised of more than 2,100 fellows, who were chosen because of a track record of success, their entrepreneurial mindset, their focus on integrity and high-impact and their willingness to engage in a lifelong partnership with other leaders. Candidates must be between the ages of 35 and 48, and at a career inflection point, ready to consider their next level of contribution.

Aspen fellows include top leaders of Fortune 500 companies, including in 2015 the President of #27, Boeing, and a General Manager of #8, General Electric. However, the goal is a rich mosaic that includes different sectors and backgrounds. For example, the 2014 class included Grammy-award winning rapper and record producer Lupe Fiasco (his stage name).

In July, the Aspen Institute introduced its first health innovators class, and selected 20 leaders, including National Alliance on Mental Illness San Diego’s CEO Shannon Jaccard. Members of the inaugural class also include Johnson and Johnson’s VP of Global Health Policy and the Department of Homeland Security’s Senior Medical Advisor. There are 11 MD’s in the group, and other sectors represented include pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, health care venture capital, and veterans’ health.

Over the next two years Shannon will participate in over a month of focused teamwork on leadership development, core values and action planning. Each fellow develops a stretch plan that includes a proposal for a community initiative that will create a lasting legacy. The Aspen Institute fully intends to impact the US healthcare ecosystem through the efforts of these accomplished leaders.

Shannon recently described to me the energizing and fast-paced first week experience, with 15 hour work days (7 am to 10 pm). Cell phones are left at the entrance, and the visioning begins immediately. Moderated leadership discussions catapult ideas from pre-homework readings, including The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas and Martin Luther King’s Letters from a Birmingham Jail.

The focus is on action. What do you need? And, the global network of leaders will help you. We can make it happen!

Shannon already has a resume of significant accomplishment and vision for the future. NAMI San Diego’s innovative programming and tech café have been nationally recognized. In addition to her CEO role and serving on the boards of directors for both RI International and Meeting Place Clubhouse, Shannon founded Compeer San Diego, a nonprofit organization to provide friendship and support to individuals with a mental illness.

With both an MBA and an intensely personal commitment to advocacy for persons with mental illness, it will be exciting to learn what develops next from the inspiration, connections and support the Aspen Health Innovators Fellowship offers. Stay tuned. I’m confident the world will be a better place because of these leaders’ deliberate efforts and impact.

About NAMI San Diego: An affiliate of NAMI California and the national grass roots, non-profit founded in 1979 by family members, NAMI San Diego is the community’s voice on mental illness. Its threefold mission is to support, educate and advocate. They offer a Helpline, support groups, educational meetings, newsletters, a lending library and classes at various locations throughout the county to end the stigma associated with mental illness.

Posted on December 17, 2015 by davidwcovington

http://davidwcovington.com/2015/12/17/aspen-fellow-shannon-jaccard-in-inaugural-health-innovators-class/

2016-12-28T22:45:20+00:00

“For me, support groups have never been the best source of support. But I knew about the free 12 week course Family-to-Family through NAMI San Diego and decided to take the time out of my busy schedule to take the first class. I finally put a pause to my busy life and quickly realized that the reasons why I had put off taking the class were all of a sudden no longer important. Each class was jam packed with information and I was picking up things like a sponge. It gave me a different perspective on what my dad was going through and different ways to approach him.”

“Mental illness affect me because it runs in my family. NAMI San Diego has made a difference in my life by making support groups available to me. By providing resources and support classes that enabled me to do school work and achieving my goals.”

“I feel so lucky to have found Hope and light thru my darkness – only when I was at my weakest point I found someone who cared through the Helpline. They were willing to listen and seemed to accept me for who I am. I found resources and guidance to the peer support NAMI office. So a big thanks to NAMI but especially the Helpline!!”

“Survivor of suicide loss – Two years ago, I lost my father to suicide. His struggle with addiction and depression opened my eyes to the stigma of mental illness and the trauma of loss. I began volunteering with NAMI the summer after my father died and I feel incredibly grateful for every opportunity to provide hope and support to all those affected by mental illness.”

“My personal journey with mental illness began 7-8 years ago. After getting diagnosed, recognizing what approach to take, taking responsibility towards acceptance, learning tools and skills, then applying those tools and skills. NAMI San Diego makes a difference in my life by opening me up to learn new aspects of helping, volunteering, sharing, listening to many different views and perspectives of changes and new improvements.”

“The most important resources and advocates I have found in one word … NAMI. Thank heaven I found this organization. I was lost, didn’t know who to talk to, didn’t know who had been through the same experiences I had, could find no information that was helpful or if I found it, it was so scary that I couldn’t read it. One day I heard about this organization. I called … and what I got was a sanity saver.”

“I think because of my mental illness I’ve become a very accepting person. I have made many friends with mental illnesses along the way and we have helped each other to get through difficult times. My fiancé has a mental illness as well. We met each other at a support group almost 8 years ago and we are still together and very supportive of each other. Even today I am very lucky to have so many family and friend who are so accepting of my despite my diagnosis.”

“I grew up with a dad as a combat vet with PTSD and a sister who lives with schizophrenia. I went to combat a couple times and PTSD/GAD are a part of me now. Many of my vet friends are also living with PTSD, GAD, TBI, etc. NAMI allowed me to be myself without being ashamed about it. NAMI gives me the support and environment needed to continue living in recovery without fear of prejudice whenever I have sporadic flashbacks.”

“Several of my family members possibly have paranoid schizophrenia. My personal journey with this disease began when I was 5 yrs. old, with my father. He had years of relapses and hospitalizations before he passed. Now my youngest son suffers from the same disease. NAMI SD has helped me throughout this process.”

“My personal journey with mental illness began in 2011 after being deployed to Iraq for a year. As the medical support, I was exposed to levels of human trauma rarely seen by others. It changed how I see people and how fragile and how much of a gift life really is. NAMI makes a difference in my life by changing how accepted I feel in the conversations I have with my peers. Also how motivated people are to not only get better but stay better and encourage others to be the absolute best they can be.”

[mental illness] “Prevents me from participating in the world of employment. NAMI San Diego has helped me by boosting my confidence in the world of technology. This knowledge will assist me one day in the employment community.”

”I never heard the term mental illness until I came to NAMI. Even my psychiatrists only said depression or bipolar. When I took the In Our Own Voice training and I heard I had a brain disorder, an illness like any other, it was such a relief.”

NAMI San Diego CEO Shannon Jaccard: Aspen Fellow

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