Mental Wellness Keynote Speakers
Mental health keynote speakers who bring science, lived experience, and practical workplace tools to corporate and association audiences.
Mental health is now a mainstream agenda item for corporations and associations, and the right keynote can move it from a policy slide to a conversation people actually have. This roster spans the full range of that conversation. Behavior-change expert Mel Robbins gives audiences simple, research-backed tools for anxiety and self-doubt. Dr. David Cox, founding Chief Medical Officer of Headspace, brings clinical authority to mindfulness at work, while Harvard-trained social scientist Kasley Killam makes the case that connection itself is a health practice. And voices like John O'Leary, who survived severe burns as a child, show rooms what hope looks like in practice. Whether your audience needs hard science, honest lived experience, or practical burnout prevention, the fit between speaker and room decides how a mental health message lands, and that fit is what this page is built around.
Science-Backed Wellbeing Experts
Researchers and clinicians like Dr. David Cox, Kasley Killam, and Mel Robbins turn mental health science into practical everyday tools.
Mel Robbins
Behavior-change expert whose books The 5 Second Rule and The Let Them Theory have sold millions of copies, with one of the most listened-to podcasts in the world. Gives audiences simple, research-backed tools for managing anxiety, stress, and self-doubt that they can use the same day.
Dr. David Cox
Founding Chief Medical Officer of Headspace, the app that brought meditation to millions, and a physician who translates mindfulness research into plain language. Brings clinical credibility to workplace mental health without jargon, showing teams practices that measurably reduce stress and improve focus.
Kasley Killam
Harvard-trained social scientist, founder of Social Health Labs, and author of The Art and Science of Connection. Makes the research case that connection is a pillar of health alongside diet and exercise, and gives organizations practical ways to build the belonging that protects wellbeing.
Jon Acuff
New York Times bestselling author of Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking. Brings humor and research to the thought patterns behind workplace stress and anxiety, teaching audiences to notice repetitive negative soundtracks and replace them with ones that actually help them perform.
Dr. Ivan Joseph
Award-winning performance coach and former athletic director whose TEDx talk on the skill of self-confidence has drawn tens of millions of views. Treats confidence and self-belief as trainable skills, giving leaders and teams concrete ways to build the psychological foundation of mental fitness.
Pandit Dasa
Lived for 15 years as a monk in New York City and now teaches mindfulness to major corporations. Offers calm, secular, immediately usable practices for focus, gratitude, and stress regulation, meeting skeptical business audiences exactly where they are without asking anyone to change beliefs.
Amanda Gore
Speaker Hall of Fame inductee with a clinical background in physiotherapy and decades studying the science of feelings. Shows audiences how joy, gratitude, and connection change brain chemistry and workplace culture, sending rooms home lighter and equipped with wellbeing habits that stick.
Lived Experience Voices
John O'Leary, Joan Lunden, and Inky Johnson share their own stories with honesty and hope, making it safe to talk about struggle.
John O’Leary
Survived severe burns over nearly his entire body at age nine and was given less than a one percent chance to live. National bestselling author of On Fire. John O’Leary's story reframes adversity with warmth and hope, opening honest conversations about struggle without a trace of sensationalism.
Joan Lunden
Co-hosted Good Morning America for nearly two decades and shared her breast cancer journey publicly, becoming a trusted national voice on health. Brings journalistic credibility and personal candor to conversations about wellness, caregiving, and staying mentally strong through illness and change.
Inky Johnson
University of Tennessee defensive back whose NFL dream ended with a paralyzing injury in 2006. Now one of the most requested inspirational voices in sports and business, speaking with rare honesty about identity, loss, and purpose when life changes in an instant.
Allison Massari
Artist and entrepreneur who survived two life-threatening accidents, including a fiery car crash that left her with severe burns. Speaks with warmth and hard-won insight about healing, self-compassion, and resilience, giving audiences permission to acknowledge pain while moving steadily toward hope.
Justin Wren “The Big Pygmy”
Champion MMA fighter who has spoken openly about surviving depression and bullying, and founder of Fight for the Forgotten, a humanitarian effort serving the Pygmy people of the Congo. A powerful, humble voice for normalizing mental health struggles among high performers.
Merril Hoge
Eight-year NFL running back and longtime ESPN analyst who fought through career-ending concussions and beat non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. His Find a Way message speaks plainly about fear, setback, and recovery, resonating with audiences who prize toughness but need permission to ask for help.
Scott Burrows
Paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident at nineteen after competing as a top-ranked kickboxer. Author of Vision, Mindset and Grit. Walks audiences through the psychology of rebuilding a life, turning his recovery into a practical framework teams can apply under pressure.
Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray
Lifelong best friends behind I'll Push You, the story of pushing Justin's wheelchair 500 miles across Spain's Camino de Santiago. Their message on vulnerability, asking for help, and showing up for each other lands squarely on the loneliness and connection gaps behind workplace mental health.
Workplace Mental Fitness and Burnout
Adam Markel, Jess Ekstrom, and Tim Gard tackle burnout, stress, and energy with practical frameworks teams can use the next morning.
Adam Markel
Bestselling author of Change Proof and Pivot who spent nearly two decades as a trial attorney before turning to resilience research. Reframes burnout as a recovery problem rather than a workload problem, and gives organizations practical rituals for recharging through constant change.
Jess Ekstrom
Founded Headbands of Hope in college, donating headbands to children with cancer across US children's hospitals, and wrote Chasing the Bright Side. Speaks on realistic optimism as a workplace skill, showing teams how purpose and perspective protect energy and mental health.
James Lawrence – The Iron Cowboy
Ultra-endurance world champion who completed 50 Ironman-distance triathlons in 50 states in 50 days, then 100 consecutive full-distance triathlons in 100 days. Speaks candidly about the mental systems, recovery, and support networks behind extreme endurance, translating them into sustainable mental fitness for working teams.
Kevin Brown
Bestselling author of The Hero Effect who rose from frontline roles to senior leadership at a national franchise brand. Delivers a caring, service-first message about showing up for people, reminding leaders that everyday attentiveness to their teams is the front line of workplace wellbeing.
Kyle Scheele
Speaker and author known for turning absurd creative projects into viral moments and meaningful lessons. Uses laughter to lower defenses, then lands honest points about self-worth, burnout, and change, making him a disarming way to open a mental health conversation at work.
Tim Gard
Speaker Hall of Fame humorist and former human services professional who teaches Comic Vision, a practical approach to defusing stress with humor. Ideal when an audience needs real stress-reduction tools delivered lightly, especially in high-burnout service, healthcare, and safety-focused industries.
Janet Lapp
Clinical psychologist, author, and longtime authority on leading people through change. Grounds workplace mental health in behavioral science, helping organizations understand why constant change exhausts people and what leaders can practically do to restore energy, focus, and commitment.
The speakers on this page approach mental health from three directions. Scientists and clinicians such as Dr. David Cox, Kasley Killam, and Pandit Dasa translate research on mindfulness, connection, and behavior into daily practice. Lived experience voices including Joan Lunden, Inky Johnson, and Justin Wren speak honestly about illness, injury, and depression, and about the support that carried them through. And workplace mental fitness experts like Adam Markel, Jess Ekstrom, and Tim Gard give teams practical ways to manage stress, protect energy, and prevent burnout.
These programs work as opening or closing keynotes, wellness-focused general sessions, all-hands meetings, sales kickoffs, leadership offsites, and association congresses in healthcare, education, insurance, and beyond. Rave Speakers handles the details end to end, from shortlisting speakers who match your audience and objectives to confirming logistics, so a sensitive topic is handled with the care it deserves.
Call (310) 614-8653 or email [email protected] to check availability and fees.
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