722. Stories to Fill the Hope Gap: Lead With the Solution: Storytelling That Turns Crisis Into Action — Dr. Lisa Hunter Romanelli, The REACH Institute
Stories That Fill the Hope Gap is a 10-part limited series bringing you eight extraordinary changemakers who are using story to cut through noise, build connection, shift culture, and move people to action.
From Sesame Workshop storytelling around the globe to a hyper-local hip-hop therapy program helping kids navigate mental health in the Bronx to the Center for Countering Digital Hate taking on the most haunting issues of our time, every single conversation left us feeling more hopeful. That is the invitation.
New episodes drop every Wednesday. Share your own story at weareforgood.com/hopegap.
Episode 7: Lead With the Solution: Storytelling That Turns Crisis Into Action
Meet Lisa: The Psychologist Who Decided to Train the Doctors Instead
Dr. Lisa Hunter Romanelli is a child psychologist and the CEO of The REACH Institute, where she has worked since its founding 19 years ago as its very first employee. Her path began in high school, when her mother experienced a major episode of depression, and Lisa taught herself about it the only way she could before Google — at the library. That curiosity became a PhD in psychology and, eventually, a realization that as a single clinician she could only ever help so many kids.
At Columbia's child psychiatry department, she met Dr. Peter Jensen, who would go on to found The REACH Institute on a simple, scalable premise: train the primary care providers families already trust, and you reach hundreds of children for every clinician you teach.
What You'll Learn in This Episode
Why "you can't just admire the problem" — and how leading with the solution changes the way donors and partners respond to your cause
The research-to-practice gap: Why it takes ~15 years for proven mental health care to reach providers, and what closing it makes possible
The multiplier model in action: How training one pediatrician extends evidence-based care to hundreds of kids each year
How a REACH-trained pediatrician in Oklahoma City — a place with almost no child psychiatrists — recognized a teenager's severe anxiety and got her the treatment that changed her life
Episode Transcript
Powerful Quotes
"We can't just admire the problem. We have to have a solution." — Lisa
"As one psychologist, I can only help so many kids. I was trying to figure out a way of having a bigger impact." — Lisa
"Every day that goes by when a kid with a mental health concern doesn't get treatment, that's taking away from their life, from their future." — Lisa
"What you do for one, you do for many." — Lisa
"You can empty the dishwasher mindfully. It's a good way to stay grounded." — Lisa
Resources Mentioned
The REACH Institute — national 501(c)(3) (founded 2006) that trains primary care providers, therapists, and health systems in evidence-based children's mental health care; 8,000 providers trained to date, targeting 16,000 by 2027
Patient-Centered Mental Health in Pediatric Primary Care (PPP) — REACH's flagship training program for pediatric primary care providers
Dr. Peter S. Jensen, MD— child psychiatrist, REACH founder, and Lisa's former colleague at Columbia
Columbia University, Department of Child Psychiatry — where Lisa worked on bridging the research-to-practice gap before REACH
The Elevate Prize Foundation — Lisa is a 2025 honoree; source of the "whole leader" self-care concept she shares
Connect with The REACH Institute
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