Caring for Minds, Caring for the Planet: How Vildan Soguktas is Advocating for Change Now

For Vildan Soguktas, leadership is a present responsibility, not a future goal. A junior at Mountain View High School in Stafford, Virginia, Vildan is a youth leader working at the intersection of planetary health, brain health, and mental well-being. Through global organizing, advocacy, and interdisciplinary collaboration, she is helping to reframe environmental crises as deeply human challenges that directly shape mental health, equity, and resilience.

Vildan is the founder of Young Women for Planetary Health (YWPH), an international initiative of approximately 60 young women and men dedicated to strengthening young women’s leadership in planetary health, with a particular focus on the mental health impacts of the global planetary crisis. Over the past two years, she has organized and led biweekly training sessions and meetings for the YWPH team, in collaboration with Women Leaders for Planetary Health and the Planetary Health Alliance. The initiative supports youth-led education, mentorship, and action across countries, emphasizing that planetary health solutions must include gender equity and youth leadership.

She is also the founder of EcoRelief, an initiative exploring the connections between environmental change, brain health, and human mental well-being. EcoRelief reflects Vildan’s belief that climate and ecological crises cannot be addressed without understanding how they affect stress, cognition, and emotional health, especially for young people navigating an increasingly unstable world.

Alongside her environmental work, Vildan is a committed youth mental health advocate. She currently serves as Chair of the Advocacy Committee for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Virginia Youth Advisory Board, where she leads statewide efforts to elevate youth voices and advocate for stronger, more youth-centered mental health policies. Her advocacy addresses challenges such as climate anxiety, social pressure, and gaps in prevention-focused support systems.

Vildan’s work extends into global research and policy spaces. She is a member of the International Neuro Climate Working Group, collaborating with scientists, clinicians, and policy experts to examine links between neuroscience, biomedicine, and climate change. In May 2025, she co-moderated a United Nations Science, Technology, and Innovation Forum side event titled “The Nexus Between Planetary Crises and Youth Mental Health,” bringing together international women leaders to discuss how environmental instability affects young people and how leadership and policy can respond.

She also serves as a Project Coordinator and Podcast Host for Ecopsychepedia, helping make conversations about environmental psychology and mental health accessible to broader audiences. Her additional involvement includes membership in the American Public Health Association’s Children’s Environmental Health Committee and Chapter Zero, grounding her advocacy in public health frameworks. She has also interned at Albany Medical Center, gaining exposure to healthcare systems that inform her approach to prevention and equity.

Across all her work, Vildan Soguktas emphasizes one central idea: caring for the planet and caring for human minds are inseparable. Her leadership reflects a generation unwilling to wait for change, one determined to shape healthier systems for both people and the planet, now.