Six Organizations Honored for Shaping the First Decade of Workplace Mental Health Care

Spring Health's inaugural Pioneer Award honors Adobe, BASF, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Johnson & Johnson, Koch, and Nielsen for their leadership in advancing workplace mental health care

NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- In celebration of its tenth anniversary, Spring Health, a global mental health company built on one AI-native platform, named six organizations as the inaugural recipients of its Pioneer Award, honoring their leadership in advancing how employers deliver mental health benefits. At a time when workplace mental health care was still new and untested, Adobe, BASF, Cincinnati Children's, Johnson & Johnson, Koch, and Nielsen chose to invest early in a different way of caring for their people. HR and benefits leaders across these six organizations pushed for broader access, better outcomes for complex cases, and proof that the model could work at scale across a global workforce.

Together, the six honorees represent more than 536,000 covered lives and over 90,000 lifetime appointments through Spring Health.

"Being recognized as a Pioneer Award recipient highlights the investment in new technologies and better access to care that Koch has made for employees," said David Cheung, Senior Benefits Vendor Manager at Koch. "Our partnership with Spring Health has helped our members obtain timely, high-quality mental health resources in a format that fits their needs. We know that speed to care and therapeutic fit are vital pieces to helping people get better, faster."

"Spring Health has been an essential partner in helping us reimagine what comprehensive workforce well‑being can look like in a healthcare environment," said Peter Adebi, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Cincinnati Children's. "By co‑creating an integrated care model that includes on-site presence, we've expanded access, strengthened coordination, and supported our teams through some of their most challenging moments. The Pioneer Award reflects not only what we've achieved together, but what's possible when two organizations align around innovation, compassion, and long‑term impact."

"Prioritizing employee well-being is at the core of who we are," said Kelly Hallac, Senior Director of Benefits & Wellbeing at Nielsen. "Through our partnership with Spring Health, we're proud to see high engagement and real clinical improvements in depression and anxiety, delivering meaningful, measurable support to our global workforce and their families."

Across six different organizations, one thing holds constant: individual leaders who refused to accept mental health care as it was and pushed for something better on their employees' behalf.

"These organizations helped us see where care still broke down for their people: the wait for a first appointment, the mismatch with a first provider, and no way to know whether it worked," said Gijo Mathew, Chief Product Officer at Spring Health. "We built Spring Health on AI from day one, so instead of explaining those gaps away, we fixed them: matching people to the right care faster, and finally proving whether it worked. Partnering on problems that hard is the standard these six set, and the one we still build against."

Founded in 2016 by April Koh and Adam Chekroud, Spring Health has spent the past decade building a single platform that connects people to personalized care and measures whether it is working. In a 2025 OJPHI study of 52,929 members, 92% reliably improved or recovered from depression or anxiety. The Validation Institute has independently validated Spring Health's savings. Spring Health is the first mental health solution to guarantee net ROI, and every single customer has achieved it.

The Pioneer Award recognizes the customers who helped turn Spring Health's ambitious mission to eliminate every barrier to mental health into measurable care. As Spring Health enters its second decade, it will keep building alongside customers, with the goal of care that stays continuous, personal, and effective as people's lives change.

About Spring Health

Spring Health is a global mental health company built on one AI-native platform so care follows individuals across every job, move, health plan, and life stage. In a 2025 OJPHI study, 92% of Spring Health members reliably improved or recovered from depression or anxiety. JAMA Network Open research found members recover 5.9 weeks faster than the leading competitor. Over two years, the Validation Institute found 21% net savings in mental health costs and 25% lower physical health spending versus matched controls. More than 170 million people worldwide have access to Spring Health through leading employers and health plans, including Highmark, Target, The Coca-Cola Company, BlackRock, Microsoft, Pfizer, and Wawa.

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SOURCE Spring Health