Ashley Kolaya is the founding Executive Director of the Mental Health Storytelling Initiative (MHSI), a coalition of 80+ entertainment, mental health, and philanthropic organizations working to shape how mental health is portrayed in media and culture. MHSI operates as a translation layer between the full ecosystem of social and mental health knowledge — research, clinical practice, community organizations, and people with lived experience — and the storytellers who shape culture. The goal is to ensure that what’s true and hard-won about human experience actually makes it into the stories reaching millions of people.

With more than 15 years of experience at the intersection of storytelling and social impact, she has built initiatives that help creators and institutions better understand, engage, and move their audiences. At TED, she built the global youth voice platform, TED-Ed Student Talks, and served as the founding Director of Curation and Coaching for TED Masterclass, where she coached speakers and developed programs to help leaders communicate ideas that shape culture. Her background is in civic engagement education.