Rebecca Benghiat, JD
Rebecca (she/her) joined the Meadows Institute with more than 20 years of experience driving mental health initiatives and guiding nonprofit organizations through transformative growth and strategic development.
Before joining the Institute, Rebecca served as president and Chief Operating Officer of The Jed Foundation, where she oversaw a period of substantial expansion, leading the growth of programs, infrastructure, and national campaigns focused on preventing suicide and protecting youth mental health. Rebecca also served as a Senior Advisor to RockHealth.org in support of their digital youth mental health initiatives, exploring the funding landscape and identifying emerging investment opportunities. Earlier in her career, Rebecca held key leadership roles, including Chief Operating and Advancement Officer at The Quad Preparatory School, Executive Director of Facing Addiction with National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc, and strategic advisor to international mental health initiatives such as citiesRISE. She also played a founding and scaling role in national organizations, including the Child Mind Institute, the Seleni Institute, and the New Space for Women’s Health.
In her role at the Meadows Institute, Rebecca collaboratively leads innovative strategies and partnerships designed to address critical challenges in mental health care, fostering and scaling solutions that improve accessibility and outcomes equitably across the field. Specifically, she is focused on pursuing opportunities to align partners in the investor and entrepreneurial communities and strategically align them to systemic mental health challenges.
Rebecca is a licensed attorney and certified mediator with a JD from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and holds a bachelor’s degree in public policy from The University of Chicago. A passionate advocate for community engagement, she serves on several nonprofit boards focused on the arts and mental health. Rebecca and her husband reside in Brooklyn, NY, and have a college-aged daughter and an indoor (but still mostly feral) rescue cat.
