Alex Stavros, MBA ’11, is a board member and the former CEO of Embark. | Chloe Cushman
The Problem: The youth mental health crisis
The Solution: Treatment that helps teens find purpose and joy
Cyberbullying. Sexting. Eating disorders. Anxiety about global warming, political unrest, violent storms, and endangered species. Could there be a more challenging time to be a young person — or to lead a company that provides mental health treatment programs for young people?
Editor’s Note
In this ongoing series, we highlight work by alumni and executive program participants to solve contemporary problems.
Yet Alex Stavros, MBA ’11, says he is optimistic about how the current generation of teens is coping and will ultimately fare. Stavros, who recently finished a 13-year run as the CEO of Embark Behavioral Health, notes that young people are increasingly comfortable speaking up about mental health concerns and advocating for their needs, both of which help destigmatize youth depression and anxiety. “It’s difficult being a teenager, but they’re rising to the challenge by being open, talking about it with themselves and being willing to talk about it with others,” says Stavros, now a member of the company’s board. “We see it in our programs all the time: them doing the hard work.”
That hard work includes everything from participating in intensive therapy sessions to committing to residential treatment programs for eating disorders and substance abuse. Embark provides them and more, casting an ever-wider net to do so. It operates 36 programs — including intensive outpatient, therapeutic day treatment, and residential treatment programs — in 16 states. Embark estimates it has served more than 12,500 children, young adults, and families since 2011.
At the heart of these programs, Stavros says, is Embark’s mission of creating joy. “The root of this youth mental health crisis is an absence of joy,” he says. “Joy comes from the product of a shared experience by putting others first, by finding purpose and meaning in pain and suffering. You can only experience it first by having humility, which leads to gratitude and then generosity. Generosity is about serving others and thinking about others and helping others. And through that, we find purpose and meaning in life, even in times of pain and suffering.”
If that perspective carries spiritual overtones, it’s because Stavros’ childhood was steeped in faith and service. Born in suburban Minneapolis, he was 6 when his parents moved the family to Costa Rica then Peru to minister to the residents of Lima’s sprawling Flores de Villa slum. Stavros remembers “a tumultuous time” in the 1980s as guerrillas affiliated with the Shining Path, the far-left communist rebels, bombed the electrical grid, throwing Lima into darkness. The windows of the family’s home shattered when a car bomb detonated nearby. Yet despite the crushing poverty he witnessed, Stavros recalled his poorest playmates as joyful due in no small part to their connection to their families and community. Although the U.S. government evacuated many Americans from Peru, Stavros’ family stayed. He returned to the U.S. in the late 1990s to attend college.
Stavros studied economic theory and international relations at American University, convinced that private capital and entrepreneurialism could conquer poverty. He spent six years at Cambridge Associates, the world’s largest global investment advisory firm for not-for-profit groups, before enrolling at Stanford Graduate School of Business. There, he explored how social entrepreneurship could further good works. He was also drawn to the school’s emphasis on building and growing relationships.
After Stanford, Stavros founded and managed a social investment search fund — supported by 18 individual investors — with the goal of acquiring and then growing, as a force for good, one mission-driven company. In 2011 the fund acquired a Missouri-based residential treatment program called Calo that specializes in serving families who have adopted children struggling with issues of adoption, trauma, and attachment. The Phoenix-based company that became Embark evolved to add programs to address the growing youth mental health crisis, including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, substance use disorders, suicidality, and other high-risk behaviors.
Stavros pins the youth mental health crisis on a toxic brew of loneliness, isolation, social media, and depressing global news, which exacerbated feelings of alienation and sadness even before COVID, which only heightened those troubles. The percentage of high school girls who reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness increased from 36% in 2011 to 57% in 2021. For boys, the percentage climbed from 21% to 29%. Simultaneously, Stavros says, American culture’s obsession with happiness and avoidance of pain discounts the existence of discomfort and the fact that we build resilience by confronting and overcoming challenges. The pandemic’s silver linings, however, were its spotlight on mental wellbeing and the widespread use of telehealth therapy sessions to give everyone access to a therapist, regardless of their location.
Speaking before he left his CEO position in August 2024, Stavros says his role is to create “clarity around who we are, why we exist, what we’re trying to accomplish, where we’re going, and how we’re going to get there.” It’s challenging work, he says, adding, “But I think that if this wasn’t hard, it wouldn’t be as meaningful. There’s something about the challenge in and of itself. The frustrations are what inherently creates the drive.” Another motivator is his deep faith as a follower of Jesus, which he says is his “No. 1 personal value” and helps him remain committed to his mission.
Embark’s website says its “big hairy audacious goal” is to be a leader in lowering young adult anxiety, depression, and suicide from today’s highs to new lows by 2028. Getting there, Stavros says, requires earlier intervention before problems become debilitating and educating parents that seeking help is a sign of strength. “Eventually, there’s going to become a tipping point, but we can’t really address the awareness and stigma issues completely until we create the services for people to see and experience,” he says. “And it’s hard to create the services and experiences when the demand isn’t there because there’s still awareness and stigma issues.” Mental health treatment for kids, teens and young adults “is not about fixing a child,” Stavros says. “It’s about [remembering] that they’re humans who naturally will figure out ways to thrive and flourish if they’re in the right environment.”
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