The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (BSPH) and The Luv u Project Collaborate Annually to Recognize Exemplary Mental Health in the Workplace

BALTIMORE, MD, UNITED STATES, September 23, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (BSPH) and The Luv u Project announced today the 2026 winners of the Carolyn C. Mattingly Award for Mental Health in the Workplace (Mattingly Workplace Award).

This year’s Award Winner is Higginbotham, a full-service insurance and financial services firm founded in 1948 and headquartered in Fort Worth, TX, that is employee-owned and customer-inspired. At the core of Higginbotham’s success is a people-first philosophy. Their Healthy HIGG wellness program has a mission “to promote, protect, and enhance the quality of life for our family of employees through leadership, accountability, and support.” Higginbotham has intentionally built a comprehensive, stigma-reducing workplace mental health strategy designed to support both individual well-being and a resilient organizational culture. Through this program, Higginbotham encourages self-awareness and promotes an environment where mental well-being is openly discussed and supported.

Five organizations received Honorable Mention this year:

Baltimore City Police, established in 1784, is the primary law enforcement agency serving the City of Baltimore, Maryland.

Harris Health is a community-owned, public academic healthcare system and the designated safety-net provider for residents of Harris County, Texas.

McGohan Brabender is a visionary benefits broker dedicated to revolutionizing employee benefits, with home offices in Dayton, OH.

Norton Healthcare is a leading not-for-profit hospital and health care system serving patients across Greater Louisville, Southern Indiana, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and beyond.

Union Bank & Trust is a locally owned Midwestern bank that takes a personal approach to providing a breadth of services.

“The companies represented here take an active role in ensuring they are well informed of their workforce's mental health issues and take strategic action to resolve them,” said K. Andrew Crighton, MD, CPE, the Award Committee Chair.

“Building a well-being culture at work not only benefits employees, but it also benefits the economics of the business. In a 2023 study by the University of Oxford and Harvard University, investigators looked at employees of 1,600 companies listed on the stock exchange. They found that employee well-being was positively associated with company profitability as well as stock market performance,” added Ron Goetzel, PhD, Senior Scientist at BSPH, and Director of the Institute for Health and Productivity Studies at BSPH, who serves as one of the Committee Co-Chairs of the Award program.

The Awards will be presented at The Luv u Project’s annual event, An Evening of Luv, held at the Bethesda Country Club in Maryland, on November 19, 2026.

“We congratulate Higginbotham and each of the honorable mentions for their leadership, responsible actions, and measurable achievements in making worker mental health a priority,” said C. Richard Mattingly, Founder and President of The Luv Project.

The Mattingly Workplace Award was established by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and The Luv u Project in 2022. Housed at the NIOSH-funded Johns Hopkins P.O.E. Total Worker Health^® Center in Mental Health, the award recognizes and celebrates exemplary organizations that advance the mental health and well-being of their workers, thus serving as role models for other employers.

More information about the Carolyn C. Mattingly Award for Mental Health in the Workplace is available here.

For questions, please contact:
BSPH: Ron Goetzel at 202-768-6236 or rgoetze1@jhu.edu
The Luv u Project: Rich Mattingly at 240-614-7766 or crichmatt@theluvuproject.org

C Richard Mattingly
The Luv u Project
+1 240-614-7766
crichmatt@theluvuproject.org
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