Dr. Jessi Gold Chief Wellness Officer, Acclaimed Psychiatrist, Mental Health Advocate, and Author
About the Author
Dr. Jessi Gold serves as the inaugural Chief Wellness Officer for the University of Tennessee (UT) System and holds the position of associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC). Her clinical practice as an outpatient psychiatrist primarily focuses on the mental health needs of students, faculty, and healthcare professionals.
Dr. Gold’s forthcoming debut book, How Do You Feel?: One Doctor’s Search for Humanity in Medicine (out October 8, 2024), is a poignant memoir that explores the unseen emotional tolls experienced by healthcare providers. Through intimate portraits of her healthcare worker patients—a diverse group grappling with burnout, perfectionism, and empathy—she navigates her own vulnerabilities in the demanding healthcare landscape. Expertly weaving research with unforgettable stories and raw emotion, How Do You Feel? demonstrates the unbridled capacity that we as humans have for connecting, learning, and growing.
Her work has been featured in esteemed industry publications such as JAMA and the American Journal of Psychiatry and she was recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of the “Top 14 Chief Wellness Officers to Get to Know in 2024.” Dr. Gold is also celebrated for her thought-provoking articles in mainstream media outlets including The Washington Post, The New York Times, Forbes, SELF, and InStyle.
Dr. Gold has a significant social media presence, surpassing 50,000 followers across all platforms and she was recently recognized as one of MedPageToday’s “Top 10 Psychiatrists Taking Over Social Media.” She actively lends her expertise to various external projects such as the Mental Health Media Guide which she co-authored with MTV/Paramount. Currently, she sits on the Rare Beauty Mental Health Council and serves as a storytelling consultant within the entertainment industry.
A seasoned speaker, Dr. Gold has delivered compelling presentations at prominent national and international events spanning academia, corporations, healthcare institutions, and the entertainment industry. Known for blending personal narratives with research, she’s an expert at translating complex mental health issues into accessible insights that resonate widely.
Dr. Gold holds a B.A. and M.S. in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her medical degree from the Yale School of Medicine and completed residency training in Adult Psychiatry at Stanford University, where she served as chief resident from 2017-2018. Throughout her career, Dr. Gold has received numerous accolades, including the Dean’s Impact Award for her exceptional contributions during the COVID-19 pandemic at Washington University’s School of Medicine in St. Louis. Her dedication to advancing mental health awareness and support continues to inspire both within and beyond the medical community.
Suggested Topics
- How Do You Feel? One Doctor’s Search for Humanity in Medicine: How we’re not simply “fine”; the cultural conversation around emotions (in medicine, for women, in the workplace, and more), and how to change it all for the better
- Workplace mental health: Wellness, moral injury, and burnout, particularly among healthcare workers, university faculty, journalists, and people in the entertainment industry
- College mental health: Interventions for culture change and wellbeing on campuses; The mental health crisis on campus
- Mental health advocacy and reporting: Using writing for the popular press and other forms of media, including social media; mental health in journalism, including suicide safety guidelines
- Social media and mental health: Exploring social media’s impact on our mental health and how to mindfully use it
- Telling your own mental health story: Using vulnerability and storytelling (including her own) to change culture, decrease stigma, and normalize help seeking, especially for popular figures, leaders, and celebrities
- Taking care of ourselves while taking care of others: Self-care and creating a culture of caring, including how to talk to a child/friend/coworker about their mental health
- What is [insert mental health condition here] and how to manage it: Recognizing signs and symptoms and identifying coping strategies and other treatments for stress, burnout, and other mental health conditions
Raves and Reviews
If you’ve ever said “I’m fine” when you weren’t. If you’ve ever been so many things to so many people that you became unavailable to yourself. If you’ve ever believed you were too much, not nearly enough, or somehow, inexplicably, both at once. This book is for you. For us. Jessi Gold’s How Do You Feel? is one of the most human, most reassuring books I’ve ever read about the intersection of mental health, work, medicine, and culture. What a gift.”
—Maggie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful
A psychiatrist shines a much-needed light on the mental health challenges that healthcare workers face. With clarity and compassion, Jessi Gold reveals how we can do a better job caring for caregivers.”
—Adam Grant, PHD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Potential and Think Again, and host of the podcast WorkLife
This is an important book…for healthcare workers, especially physicians, to read and understand that their messy internal lives are normal…and because Dr. Gold’s, dare I say, Jessi’s humanity, and by extension, the humanity of healthcare workers everywhere, is apparent, relatable, and just so likeable. This book pierces the armor of the white coat to the very human heart beating within.”
—Stef Simmons, MD, CMO, Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation
How Do You Feel? is a thought-provoking exploration of healing and compassion in the face of adversity. Guided by Dr. Gold’s keen insight and sharp writing, we are afforded a rare glimpse into psychiatry’s inner sanctum. Dr. Gold has an extraordinary understanding of the human condition, and her empathy emanates from the pages. A must-read.”
—Jen Gunter, MD, New York Times bestselling author of The Menopause Manifesto and The Vagina Bible
In How Do You Feel? Jessi Gold, M.D., opens a compassionate, intelligent portal into the lives of the healthcare workers struggling with their own mental health. Gold’s deep-dive into the human psyches of those who serve others in the healthcare industry illuminates how difficult it is for the helpers among us to get help for themselves. With the perfect blend of stories from her practice, science, and personal narrative, Gold sheds light on the price healthcare workers pay for neglecting themselves and breaks through the stigma that keeps so many of them silent. This book is a salve for anyone facing burnout in any field, and Gold is the best kind of guide: warm, witty, and genuinely invested in other people’s lives.”
—Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author of Group
How Do You Feel? is a compelling, courageous, and portrait of a psychiatrist. I’ve never read such an open-hearted and honest account of what it takes to work in mental health care today. This is an ode to the art of clinical care—a paean to empathy. Jessi Gold is a true healer and this book is a gift.”
—Susannah Cahalan, New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire
In this honest, wise, and heart-filled memoir, Jessi Gold reveals what it takes to retain the humanity that medicine so often forces doctors to set aside, and what it means to help yourself while helping others. I loved this book, both as a journalist who has tried to provide a similar kind of service and as a patient who has sought help from therapy.”
—Ed Yong, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of An Immense World
This book will make you laugh, marvel, reflect and grow. Most of all, it will make you feel seen. Whether you’re a healthcare worker, someone who loves one, someone who sees one, or someone who is struggling, Dr. Jessi Gold’s words — and the many intimate stories here, including her own — will be a balm and a guide.”
—Lucy Kalanithi, MD, Clinical associate Professor of medicine, Stanford university, and widow of Dr. Paul Kalanithi, author of When Breath Becomes Air
In How Do You Feel, Dr. Gold manages the seemingly impossible. She gently brings healthcare workers into conversation with our sometimes-complicated inner worlds, and does this with wisdom, humor and candor. She lovingly nudges us to awareness and acknowledgement of the immense emotional load we’ve carried and holds space for our collective reflection. Ultimately, she calls on us to do the most radical thing imaginable: to care for ourselves even as we care for others. A true game-changer, moving conversations about caregiver mental health into an exciting, new and generative space.”
—Rana Awdish, MS, MD, Author of In Shock
In the Media
“Inside Out 2 and how we think about our feelings”
June 20, 2024
“Most doctors are anxious and burnt out. What can we do?”
December 1, 2022
“Getting off Adderall and reducing antidepressants”
November 2, 2022
August 20, 2023
“There’s a Name for the Constant Helplessness You Feel When You Work in Mental Health Care”
February 13, 2023
“Why you feel anxious socializing (and what to do about it)”
May 24, 2023
“New survey sheds light on college students’ mental health concerns”
March 23, 2023
“Self-Confidence Is Just Telling Yourself the Right Stories”
February 15, 2023
“Your Therapist is Not Your Friend, Take it From a Psychiatrist”
May 12, 2022
“I’m a Psychiatrist, and Women Aren’t Being Honest About Their Sex Lives”
February 17, 2022
“Doctors Can’t Outrun Trauma Either”
January 13, 2023
“6 Less Obvious Signs of Burnout You Should Definitely Pay Attention To”
October 11, 2022
“Here’s Why Pandemic Fatigue is (Still) So Draining”
March 9, 2022
“Colleges are Getting Ready to Blame Their Students”
July 21, 2020
“No, These Medicines Cannot Cure Coronavirus”
March 26, 2020
“Taylor Swift, The Leader We Need Now”
March 17, 2020
“Could COVID-19 Finally Destigmatize Mental Illness?”
May 13, 2020
“It’s Time to Get Serious About End-of-Life Care for High Risk Coronavirus Patients”
March 30, 2020
“The Dangers of Linking Gun Violence and Mental Illness”
August 7, 2019