Project Healthy Minds has set the lineups for two New York City events focusing on mental health, with TV producer Bill Lawrence, New York Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns and actor Terry Crews due to appear.
The non-profit organization advocating for expanded access to mental health services across the U.S. said its fourth annual World Mental Health Day Gala on October 8 will honor Lawrence. The TV veteran known for series like Scrubs is executive producer of current series Shrinking, Ted Lasso, Rooster and Bad Monkey. will receive the group’s Storyteller of the Year Award.
Carson Daly, the co-anchor of Today and a producer of The Voice who also sits on the Project Healthy Minds board of directors, will host the gala.
The companion World Mental Health Day Festival on October 10 will feature appearances by Towns, one of the key players during the Knicks championship run last season. He will be speaking with Boardroom co-founder and CEO Rich Kleiman on a panel titled “Turning Tragedy Into Triumph: New York Knicks Star & NBA Champion Karl-Anthony Towns on Grief, Loss, and High Performance.” Towns has been outspoken about the motivation he felt during the Knicks’ title run from the presence he felt of his late mother, Jacqueline Cruz-Towns, who died in 2020 from Covid.
Crews will speak on a panel titled “Who Am I Now: Getting Ready for Change.”
More speakers and sessions at the festival will be announced at a later date. The fifth annual edition of the event is free to the public.
The festival and gala will both be held at Spring Studios in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood.
Beyond the celebrity and sports dimensions of the event, both the gala and the festival will include participation from experts in psychology, fitness, fashion, mindfulness and many other areas.
“Mental health is not one issue among many facing modern culture. It’s the thread running through every other question we’re asking about who we are and where we’re going,” Phillip Schermer, Project Healthy Minds Founder and CEO, said in a statement. “You cannot understand this century through its technology, politics, or economics alone. You have to understand its mindset.”
Daly said the two annual fall events remind him “why I keep showing up for this work. The festival and gala have grown into something bigger than an event. They’re proof that when people talk openly about mental health, real change follows.”
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