Google has hired former Headspace Chief Strategy and Science Officer Megan Jones Bell to oversee the company’s efforts to address mental and behavioral health, a Google spokesperson said Monday.
As clinical director of consumer and mental health, Jones Bell will lead a team of health experts working on Google’s consumer products. The former Headspace executive previously sat on a panel that advises Google and YouTube about mental health issues.
Jones Bell previously led Headpace’s corporate and technology strategy, clinical research and Headspace Health, the company’s digital health branch—former Ginger CEO Russell Glass took over Headspace Health following the companies' recent $3 billion merger. She ran product development and healthcare business development for Headspace before taking over as the company’s chief strategy and science officer.
Former Headspace executives have been on the move in recent months. Found, a startup aiming to bring the weight management clinic model to the masses, recently hired Headspace’s former vice president of product, Alexandre Linares, as its chief product officer.
Google promised to continue its efforts on health after it announced its plans to unwind its Google Health division in August.
“Health is a growing, company-wide effort, and the Google Health name will continue and encompass our projects that share the common purpose to improve global health outcomes,” a company spokesperson said in August.
Earlier in her career, Jones Bell co-founded Lantern, a digital health company focused on helping people with anxiety, depression and eating disorders. The company raised more than $20 million before shutting down its customer operations in 2018, according to Rock Health, an investor in Lantern.
Jones Bell also served as associate co-director of the Laboratory for the Study of Behavioral Medicine at Stanford Medicine and director of the Healthy Body Image Program, an online screening tool and intervention program for people with or at risk for an eating disorder. The latter was a collaboration between Stanford University and the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The new Google executive received her doctorate in clinical psychology from PGSP-Stanford University before completing fellowships at Yale University and Stanford University School of Medicine.
