Ken Zimmerman is the CEO of Fountain House, a national mental health nonprofit that empowers people living with serious mental illness through direct services, practice innovation, and policy change.

Prior to Fountain House, Ken founded and co-directed the Mental Health Strategic Impact Initiative (S2i), a think-and-do tank that uses a social justice lens to catalyze change in mental health policy and practice. Ken was previously the Director of U.S. Programs for the Open Society Foundations, where he led initiatives involving over $100 million in grant-making to advance equality, democracy, and justice. He has also served in senior policy positions in the Obama and Clinton administrations, including as Senior Advisor to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. 

Following the death of his son Jared in 2016 as a result of his mental illness, Ken has focused on the nation’s broken approach to mental health—specifically calling on, and aiding, mainstream philanthropy to take advantage of the immense opportunities to transform mental health that now exist. Previously, Ken was a litigation partner for the pro bono practice group at Lowenstein Sandler, Chief Counsel to New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, and founding Executive Director of the New Jersey Institute of Social Justice.

 A graduate of Yale and Harvard Law School, Ken is a Distinguished Fellow at NYU’s Furman Center and teaches at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He lives with his wife Jackie in Montclair, New Jersey, and is the proud father, not only of Jared but his twins, Brianna and Gabriel.