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Abhinav Anne

Youth Advisor
World Health Organization
Plainfield, Illinois

Abhinav Anne is an award-winning global health researcher, youth mental health advocate, and journalist committed to advancing equity in children’s health and education worldwide. At 17 years old, Abhinav is the youngest individual ever appointed as an advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO). He serves on the WHO Youth Council, the WHO Global Technical Advisory Group on Mental Health, Brain Health, and Substance Use, and the WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation. In these roles, he advises the WHO Director-General and senior leadership on critical issues including youth mental health, children’s health, nicotine addiction, and the growing global burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). His work centers on ensuring that policies at the highest levels of global health governance include and reflect the perspectives of young people most affected by these challenges.

In the United States, Abhinav has played a leading role in transforming the mental health policy landscape for children and adolescents. He co-authored and helped advance SB1560, the first law in the nation to require no-cost mental health screenings in schools, reaching more than 1.5 million students. He is also spearheading advocacy efforts for comprehensive mental health education legislation in Illinois, working directly with lawmakers to include mental health curricula in schools. As a research and policy intern with the Illinois Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative, Abhinav contributes to statewide systems reform by helping develop data-driven contracting and procurement strategies that close service gaps and expand equitable access to care.

Abhinav’s influence extends beyond the policy space into global research and academic partnerships. He serves as a Youth Advisor to Harvard University’s Mental Health for All Lab, where he supports the EMPOWER Project, an initiative scaling digital psychosocial training to more than one million frontline health providers worldwide. His research interests span the intersections of child development, behavioral health, and systems-level innovation, with a focus on how evidence-based interventions can be scaled across diverse communities.

A nationally recognized youth voice, Abhinav has been invited to speak at leading forums such as Mental Health America, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the American Public Health Association, and the National Conference on Tobacco or Health. Abhinav’s advocacy and scholarship have been recognized by institutions and organizations, including the United Nations, the World Health Organization, NASA, the Yale Policy Institute, the American Red Cross, the Born This Way Foundation, and former U.S. President Joe Biden.

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