Event Description: Actress, Producer & Mental Health Advocate Dakota Johnson to Accept 2023 Hope Award for Depression Advocacy at Annual HOPE Luncheon Seminar

17th Annual Hope for Depression Research Foundation Lunch Seminar to Focus on “Resilience: Emerging Stronger From Life’s Greatest Challenges” with keynote speaker Dr. Dennis Charney, MD


The country’s leading non-profit dedicated to advanced depression research, Hope for Depression Research Foundation (HDRF), has announced the honorees for the 17th Annual HOPE luncheon seminar taking place at The Plaza Hotel on November 14. They are acclaimed actress and producer Dakota Johnson, and biopharmaceutical company Sage Therapeutics, Inc.

The seminar, led by Master of Ceremonies Chuck Scarborough, will focus on “Resilience: Emerging Stronger From Life’s Greatest Challenges” with top scientists and psychiatrists taking the stage to raise awareness about how to build psychological resilience. Resilience refers to the ability to “bounce back” after encountering difficulty. Scientists believe that resilience is an active process – something that the brain can acquire. The seminar will identify ten “resilience factors” that survivors of great trauma use to cope and will show how individuals learn to become stronger and more resilient themselves.
Dr. Dennis Charney, the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs for the Mount Sinai Health System, will serve as this year’s keynote Medical Speaker. Dr. Charney is an expert in neurobiology who has made significant contributions to the understanding of human anxiety, fear, depression, and resilience. His research with colleagues at Yale, the National Institute of Mental Health, and Mount Sinai has led to more rapid treatments for treatment resistant depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Rapid treatment for opioid withdrawal, rapid treatment of panic disorder, and the first digital treatment for depression. Dr. Charney has written or co-authored more than 800 publications, including groundbreaking scientific papers, chapters, and books. His studies on human resilience identifies ten key resilience factors for building strength to bounce back from stress and trauma and are exemplified in Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges (3rd ed.) that he co-authored with Co-authored with Steven Southwick and Jonathan DePierro.
Dakota Johnson will accept the 2023 Hope Award for Depression Advocacy. Johnson is a BAFTA-nominated and award-winning actress and producer. Most recently she was seen starring in Daddio, a film she produced via her production company TeaTime Pictures, which premiered at this year’s Telluride Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival and will be released sometime next year. She will next be seen in the much-anticipated Madame Web.

Johnson has spoken candidly about experiencing struggles with depression and anxiety since her teenage years and more recently on how isolation during the pandemic caused her increased negative thinking. She is an active philanthropist and an advocate for Global Citizen’s She Is Equal campaign and used her voice along with others to target world leaders demanding them to strongly invest in women by providing critical funding for female health and family planning.  Johnson also actively supports Action in Africa, a nonprofit organization that strives to educate, inspire and empower people in Uganda by focusing on education and community development.  She launched The Left Ear podcast featuring stories of assault, abuse, and harassment from survivors around the globe.  

Previous recipients of the Hope Award for Depression Advocacy include Aly Raisman, Michael Phelps, LeAnn Rimes, Ashley Judd, Brooke Shields, Taraji P. Henson, Richard Dreyfuss and Terry Bradshaw.
This year also marks the tenth anniversary of HDRF’s acclaimed Depression Task Force, an international collaboration of top neuroscientists from different universities who are compiling data and expertise to accelerate research. Dr. Eric Nestler, Chair of the HDRF Depression Task Force and Director of the Friedman Brain Institute at Mount Sinai, will announce major new research discoveries that will accelerate the next generation of depression treatments. The Task Force was convened by HDRF Founding Chair Audrey Gruss and began it strategic research plan in 2013; today it is conducting the most advanced depression research in the country.

Sage Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company on a mission to deliver potentially life-changing brain health medicines, will receive the 2023 HOPE Corporate Visionary Award at the event. The recent landmark FDA approval of Sage’s new medicine for postpartum depression (PPD )the first and only oral treatment option for adults with PPD, is an important advancement in treatment. Mental health conditions are the leading cause of maternal mortality with PPD being among the most common complications during and after pregnancy. Sage is committed to addressing maternal mental health, a critical women’s health issue, and is currently the only company with two FDA-approved medicines for the treatment of PPD. For more information about Sage, please visit http://www.sagerx.com.
The event will also honor philanthropist and HDRF supporter Michael Dudgeon with the 2023 Hope Community Award, for his unwavering commitment to mental health research.

This year’s Event Co-Chairs include Susan Gutfreund, Maru Hagerty, Gillian Hearst, Kim Heirston, Tania Higgins, Eleanora Kennedy, Kristen Maltese Krusen, Susan R. McCaw, Kitty and Bill McKnight, Peter S. Paine III Barbara and Randall Smith and Scott Snyder.
This year’s Hope luncheon and seminar will celebrate the foundation’s leadership in depression research for 17 years. Each year, the luncheon is attended by over 300 top New York philanthropists, asset managers, business and media professionals, socialites and celebrities who gather to raise awareness about depression and its related mood disorders and to raise funds for continued research.

To purchase tables and tickets for the HOPE luncheon, please visit www.HopeForDepression.org/events