Former Girls Scouts CEO Sylvia Acevedo to Deliver ‘Enlightened Voices’ Plenary

Sylvia Acevedo is a technology executive, board leader, and author who will address attendees at the 2026 Annual Meeting during the “Enlightened Voices: Shared Futures Plenary” on Monday morning. Afterward, she will be joined onstage by APA President Theresa M. Miskimen Rivera, M.D., for a discussion.

As CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA, Acevedo led the organization’s most significant modernization in its history, launching more than 140 new programs and expanding STEM education across the country. Earlier in her career, as a White House education commissioner, she helped shape federal education initiatives that reached millions of families. Acevedo has also held senior executive roles at Apple, Autodesk, Dell, and IBM.

Today, she serves on the boards of Qualcomm and Credo Technology, helping guide companies at the forefront of AI infrastructure, advanced connectivity, and high-performance computing. Avecedo is the author of “Path to the Stars: My Journey From Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist” and “The Trailblazer’s Playbook: Practical Tactics to Rise Against the Odds and Achieve Excellence,” blending personal experience with practical leadership advice.

In comments to Psychiatric News, she talked about her experience and the message she hopes to deliver at the Annual Meeting.

Psychiatric News: Can you give us a peek into what message you would like to bring to APA meeting attendees?

Sylvia Acevedo: Your life will not be defined by your circumstances. It will be defined by your decisions. I grew up on a dirt road in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in a monolingual Spanish-speaking home. Before that, we lived with relatives, because we were living paycheck to paycheck when my father lost his job. He eventually found another job, and we moved to a house on a dirt street when a family health crisis hit, and everything became uncertain.

But here’s what I’ve learned: What determines your trajectory is not what happens to you. It’s what you decide to do next—and your mindset. Because even when things are going well, something can turn your world upside-down. At that point, you have to make a decision: Are you going to carry what hurt you, or are you going to move forward? A decision that the past will not define the rest of your life.

And this is where mental health matters. Strength is not pretending everything is fine. It’s having the awareness and the discipline to deal with what’s real. Sometimes that means leaning on others. Sometimes it means getting professional help.

PN: How does corporate culture relate to mental health among an organization’s leaders and staff?

Acevedo: Culture is not what a company says. It’s how people show up for you when your life falls apart. I learned that in a very real way at IBM. I was a young professional working at IBM Palo Alto when I tragically lost my parents. I was not okay. I was barely functioning. And what mattered in that moment was not policy, it was people.

My colleagues stepped in quietly. They raised money so that I could cover funeral expenses. They removed the pressure so I could focus on grieving and taking care of my family. My boss did something even more important. He didn’t push me. He didn’t set expectations I couldn’t meet. He said, “Take the time you need. We’re here when you’re ready.” That gave me permission to stop pretending.

That’s culture. It’s not lowering the bar. It’s understanding when someone is carrying something heavy and responding with both humanity and standards.

If you want to build a strong culture, it comes down to this: Show up when it matters. Give people space when they need it. Remind them of who they are when they’ve forgotten. And make sure support—including professional help—is real, accessible, and used.

PN: Have there been specific initiatives relevant to mental health that you undertook as CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA or during your work with the White House?

Acevedo: Yes, and it was very intentional. At Girl Scouts, I focused on building what I believe are foundations of mental strength: leadership, courage, confidence, persistence and resilience.

Mental health is not just about support when things break. It’s about having the strength and preparation to handle what’s coming. That’s why we introduced 146 new badges, 126 of them in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and 20 in entrepreneurship, civics and the great outdoors.

This wasn’t just about skills. I wanted girls to learn how to create opportunity, not wait for it. Because when you know how to create opportunity, you build courage. I wanted them to learn how to hear “no” and keep going, because resilience is built through persistence. I wanted them to learn how to find common ground, work through problems, and lead.

As education commissioner, the focus was on preparing students. I led the change in federal policy to support early-childhood bilingual curriculum, so students could learn English faster by building on their native language. Instead of asking students to start over, we built on what they already had and turned it into a strength.

Being bilingual is a workforce-ready skill. It increases opportunity, expands thinking, and creates real economic value. That changes how people see themselves. They’re not catching up. They’re moving forward with an edge. That connects directly to mental strength, because confidence comes from capability—from knowing you can operate, compete, and succeed in different environments.

In both roles, the goal was the same: build capability early, build confidence through action, and give people the foundation to handle challenge—and create opportunity for themselves and others over time.

PN: The mental health of all children and teens has been in crisis, certainly since the pandemic. What are the most important factors that mental health professionals should pay attention to?

Acevedo: What I see is a gap between how young people are spending their time and the skills they need to build. While I worked hard at Girl Scouts to ensure girls were not just users of technology but inventors, designers, and creators, I was equally intentional about something else: Not everything should be on a screen.

We are human beings, not human doings. Young people need time away from the screen to build what actually sustains them. Communication. Friendships. Learning how to work through differences. Learning how to collaborate and lead in real environments. Those are not secondary skills. They are foundational.

If too much time is spent in environments that don’t require real interaction, real problem-solving, or real feedback, those skills don’t fully develop. And that shows up in mental health, because confidence doesn’t come from consumption. It comes from engagement, doing hard things, navigating relationships, learning how to recover when something doesn’t go your way.

That’s why this issue deserves attention, not just from a clinical perspective but from a developmental one. We need to make sure young people are building the full set of skills they need: the ability to think, connect, and handle challenge. Those are the skills that allow them not just to succeed but to sustain that success over time. ■