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FORTUNE.COM // MAY.1.1 9
Three blocks from the
McAllen bus station
sits Sister Norma
Pimentel’s Humanitar-
ian Respite Center.
Here, the “Mother
Teresa of South Texas”
gives migrant families
a chance to catch their
breath, along with a
shower, meal, change
of clothes, and travel
assistance. Motivated
by faith, not politics,
the center has helped
more than 100,000
people since 2014.Peele continued his
emergence as a direc-
tor of heady horror with
Us, which shattered
the domestic box of-
fice record for original
horror movies with a
$70 million opening
weekend in March.
Peele is also helping
filmmakers from all
backgrounds get past
Hollywood gatekeep-
ers. Peele’s production
company, Monkeypaw,
accepted open script
submissions this year,
a rare move for an en-
terprise as hot as his.Agler is leading an
international effort to
eliminate a problem
that shouldn’t exist: ne-
glected tropical disease
(NTD). Her organiza-
tion has taken aim at
five debilitating and
sometimes fatal afflic-
tions—including river
blindness and intestinal
worms—that are fully
preventable and treat-
able but still affect
more than 1.5 billion
people worldwide. NTD
is a bit of a misnomer,
Agler notes. It’s not the
diseases that are ne-
glected, but the people
who suffer from them.
The End Fund works
with NGOs, govern-
ments, and private
philanthropists to
direct resources and
coordinate their ef-
forts. This approach
has worked wonders:
Between 2012 and
2018, it resulted in
more than 724 million
treatments and the
training of 1.8 million
health workers.
In April, the End
Fund received more
than $50 million from
donors as part of the
Audacious Project, a
philanthropic initiative
that backs organiza-
tions tackling the
world’s most pressing
problems. The money
will help accelerate the
eradication of intestinal
worms in eight African
countries. That will give
vulnerable populations,
who miss out on school,
work, and other life
events when they suffer
from worms, a chance
to thrive.
NOT LONG AGO, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN considered a terrible move
for anyone on the business fast track to talk openly about
their struggles with mental health. Now CEOs are urging
employees to do it. After Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins sent
a companywide email with the subject “Making Mental
Health a Priority,” encouraging employees to “talk openly
and extend compassion,” his inbox was flooded with re-
sponses from over 100 employees, many of whom shared
deeply personal experiences with mental health.
One in five Americans suffers from some sort of mental
health condition, and 56% of them receive no treatment.
The ripple effects in the workplace are significant: Ac-
cording to a 2015 study, depression alone costs the U.S.
economy an estimated $210 billion a year through work
absenteeism, low productivity, and concurrent conditions
that often accompany poor mental health. That means
that legitimizing and prioritizing emotional health in the
workplace is financially prudent as well as humane.
Corporate America is catching on. In March, more than
40 top executives, including Johnson & Johnson CEO
Alex Gorsky and Bank of America Merrill Lynch chief Brian
Moynihan, attended the American Heart Association CEO
Roundtable to discuss an
action plan designed to
help build a mental health–
friendly workplace. The
strategies they discussed
included reducing stigma
around mental health issues
through open discussion and
employee feedback; offering
digital behavioral technol-
ogy (for example, apps that
can connect employees to
counselors) as a part of in-
surance plans; and integrat-
ing evidence-based mental
health policies in existing
practices.
The upshot of this activity:
People who once remained
tight-lipped to avoid being
shunned or even fired over
mental health issues are
beginning to feel they can
turn to their employers for
support. An equally impor-
tant message, for anyone
struggling: We aren’t as
alone as we once thought.
—Carson KesslerIn 2011, eight months
after becoming CEO,
Horta-Osório stepped
away to seek help for
stress. Today he’s giv-
ing his colleagues tools
to help themselves
while openly talking
about his own crisis
(and deftly navigating
Brexit). Lloyds provides
senior staff with
mindfulness tools and
psychological analysis
so they can better
process anxiety; it will
soon roll out similar
help for all employees.jordan peele
Director/Producerellen agler
CEO, The End Fund mental health at worksister norma pimentel
Executive Director,
Catholic Charities of the
Rio Grande ValleyantÓnio horta-osÓrio
CEO, Lloyds Banking Group