Clinical psychologist and disaster recovery innovator recognized for combining trauma science, survivor experience, and technology to advance long-term climate resilience
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The After Collective today announced that co-founder and executive director Adrienne Heinz, PhD, has been named to the TIME100 Climate 2026, TIME's annual list of the 100 most influential leaders in climate. A clinical research psychologist at Stanford University School of Medicine, Heinz brings clinical science, digital mental health innovation, and lived experience of wildfire disasters to her work expanding access to sustained recovery support.
Heinz's work builds on 15 years at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, including the National Center for PTSD, where she helped develop and evaluate free, evidence-informed digital mental health tools for Veterans and the public. Her background reflects an ongoing focus on using technology to build durable public resources that expand access to trauma support. Today, Heinz is leveraging this foundation to build tools with the capacity to strengthen disaster recovery around the world.
"Technology is an incredible resource that can expand what's possible in how we respond to some of our most pressing human challenges," said Heinz. "At The After Collective, we're putting that potential to work, harnessing responsible AI to address critical gaps in mental health support for survivors as climate disasters accelerate."
The After Collective is developing free, trauma-informed tools to support survivors navigating the long and complicated path to recovery. Co-founded by Heinz and healthcare technology innovator Abhi Jha, the tech-for-good nonprofit's first tool is the Disaster Recovery Coach. The SMS-based coach combines psychological science with AI-enabled guidance to address the emotional and practical demands of rebuilding, from managing distress to navigating insurance, housing, financial assistance, and paperwork. The Coach is currently in beta, with a public launch planned soon.
"Adrienne is a rare climate leader pioneering a new field—climate mental health—by combining her lived experience of disaster with her training as a clinical psychologist to innovate new solutions to the long and arduous journey of disaster recovery," said Britt Wray, PhD, Director of CIRCLE at Stanford Psychiatry, part of Stanford University School of Medicine, with which The After Collective collaborates on research. "That combination of visionary ability, deep expertise, and boundless compassion makes her exactly the kind of climate trailblazer that the world needs more of."
For The After Collective, Heinz's TIME recognition brings visibility to a central challenge of climate resilience: psychological well-being is integral to navigating the practical demands of recovery. Trauma and cognitive exhaustion can make complex recovery tasks harder to manage precisely when survivors must make consequential decisions.
Heinz brings clinical expertise, firsthand experience of repeated wildfires in her Northern California community, and field work with disaster-impacted communities in Los Angeles, Lahaina, and Spokane to her understanding of these demands. Those experiences inform The After Collective's commitment to co-design, centering survivor and stakeholder voices and needs in the development of its recovery tools.
That commitment includes research collaborations with community partners such as Altadena Girls, a youth organization whose feedback is helping inform the design of the Disaster Recovery Coach. Support from Direct Relief, an OpenAI mental health grant, and pro bono legal services from Orrick has helped advance this work.
Heinz brings this focus on the human experience of climate disasters to COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye this week, where she will attend the TIME100 Climate honoree gathering and help convene a discussion about disaster mental health. The discussion will examine the role of psychological well-being in climate resilience and the barriers to making recovery support more widely available.
View the full TIME100 Climate 2026 list at TIME.com. Learn more about The After Collective.
About The After Collective
The After Collective is a nonprofit advancing the future of disaster recovery through free, ethically responsible AI-enabled tools that help communities move from crisis to long-term resilience and healing. Co-founded by clinical research psychologist Adrienne Heinz, PhD, and healthcare technology innovator Abhi Jha, the organization combines clinical science, survivor insight, and technology to make trauma-informed recovery support more accessible. Its vision is to responsibly integrate sustained recovery tools into disaster response systems, helping communities recover more rapidly, equitably, and resiliently. Learn more at https://www.theaftercollective.org/.
Media Contact
Courtney Cochran, The After Collective, 1 (707) 395-5148, [email protected]
SOURCE The After Collective
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