Sean Mayberry is a former diplomat and social marketer who believes that treating depression in women in Africa is the most simple and cost-effective way to address systemic poverty. Sean implemented successful HIV/AIDS and malaria programs in Africa for years, and saw firsthand how undetected, untreated depression negatively affected people’s lives. As a result, in 2013, Sean founded StrongMinds, a social enterprise with the mission of improving the mental health of women in Africa.
Sean has served as a SOCAP Fellow, a Rainer Arnhold Fellow, a Cordes Foundation Fellow, and a GLG Fellow. In addition to that, in 2020 he won the Humanitarian Award from the Group Foundation for Advancing Mental Health. Sean has been interviewed about his work with StrongMinds in the Fall 2018 edition of the Stanford Social Innovation Review and Forbes. StrongMinds’ work has been covered by The Guardian, the BBC, and The New York Times. His EAGXNordics talk on StrongMinds and mental health has been viewed over 650 times. His TEDx Talk “Solving the Depression Epidemic in Africa” has been viewed over 3,000 times.
Prior to founding StrongMinds, Sean was the CEO for FXB International, an anti-poverty team active in Africa, and the COO for VisionSpring, which provides eyeglasses to low-income populations. Sean also worked for Population Services International as their Country Director in India and the Congo. Previously, he worked in the corporate sector for the Intel Corporation and for the US Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer. Sean holds a degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Emory University.