A Texas Couple Gives Big for Mental Health, Including in the Wake of Disaster
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Maureen Hackett, Cofounder of The Hackett Center for Mental Health
Since 1996, drawing on wealth derived from a career in the oil and gas industry, Texas couple Maureen and James T. Hackett have channeled funding through their Hackett Family Foundation in support of faith, family, education and health—including mental health.
It’s the big mental health focus in the family’s giving that first caught our eye. Advocates for mental health resources and research have long observed that the field is underfunded by philanthropy. Reasons for this may include the stigma that still surrounds mental health issues and the desire among donors to focus on challenges that seem more tractable. So when we see donors engaged in this space in a meaningful way, we take notice.
Through their foundation and individual donations, the Hacketts have made multimillion-dollar gifts, including a $20 million donation to the Hackett Center for Mental Health at the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute in Texas, which works at the “state, regional, and local levels to help mental health systems improve, share best practices, develop resources, and increase public awareness on the most effective ways to treat mental illness and help people recover.”
The Hackett Center first engaged in work to help communities traumatized by Hurricane Harvey, bringing up one aspect of disaster relief that isn’t always top of mind. Veteran psychologist and Meadows Institute President and CEO Andy Keller says that mental health needs typically begin to increase at 60 to 90 days after natural disasters, and peak at about 18 months. In December of 2017, about 20% of the more than 1,600 Texans in Harvey-affected counties reported worsening mental health, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Episcopal Health Foundation.
But what sparked the couple’s interest in mental health, including such a big gift? And how did the family’s overall giving take shape?
Evolving interests
Houston energy mogul James Hackett was at the helm of Anadarko Petroleum Corp., one of the world’s largest independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies; before that, he was president and COO of Devon Energy Corp. His wife Maureen, a one-time sales representative, now devotes her time to philanthropy.
“I have been philanthropic most of my life,” said Maureen Hackett in our recent conversation. She was raised in a Christian home, and though they were by no means rich, her mother would contribute to their local community.
She and her husband launched their foundation in the 1990s when he was still in business. At the time, he also conducted corporate philanthropy through his businesses, but the Hacketts also wanted to become more engaged personally. Maureen describes a lot of this early giving as “one-off,” supporting their local schools, churches and the arts.
At some point, the Hacketts decided they needed to make a change and refine their giving. “I turned to my husband and said, ‘We need to be more strategic in this. We need to figure out what it is that we’re passionate about,’” Maureen told me. Ultimately, the couple settled on three key areas: education, faith and leadership, and health—specifically cancer and mental health.
In 2015, Maureen Hackett joined the board of Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, rallying state legislators and helping them understand the need for more funding in the mental health space for children. She felt empowered by really digging into policy and actually changing laws, recalling the watershed passage of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act in 2008, which required insurance coverage for mental health conditions, including substance use disorders, to be no more restrictive than insurance coverage for other medical conditions.
Through her work, Hackett is still carrying that torch, making sure benefits packages allow individuals to get the mental healthcare that they need and deserve.
“We are nonpartisan, and we try to educate communities, cities, large cities in our state, local government about the need for funding and access to care for children.… They had all the data. They had all the outcomes of what happens when you do get people access to care,” she explains, affectionately calling Meadows a “Switzerland.”
Unsurprisingly, there’s a personal component to the Hackett family’s passion for mental health. Maureen’s father suffered with mental illness and alcoholism, though she notes that back in those days, they didn’t talk about these issues. One of the couple’s daughters has also dealt with her own mental health struggles.
Mental health during critical times
In the late summer of 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas and Louisiana as a category 4 storm. Maximum sustained winds clocked in at 130 miles per hour as it rolled through the Gulf of Mexico. But when it landed stateside, it was the rain and catastrophic flooding in Houston that wreaked the most havoc—causing about $125 billion in damage, one of the costliest storms of all time.
When it comes to disaster relief, however, the first thought often goes to more obvious and seemingly more immediate needs like food, shelter and first aid. However, the Hacketts set their sights on mental health, particularly the plight of children who were dealing with stress, anxiety and PTSD in the wake of the storm. As a family, the Hacketts came together and made that big $20 million gift to launch the new center, focusing on mental health initiatives—primarily serving children, youth and families—to improve lives in the Texas Gulf Coast region.
The Meadows Institute’s recent work includes the Dallas County Smart Justice Project, aimed at reducing the number of people with mental illness who receive primary treatment in jail or only after encounters with law enforcement. Partnering with W.W. Caruth, Jr. Fund, the organization provided policy guidance to Dallas County during planning and implementation of the project.
Hackett also says the center has stepped up during COVID-19, including supporting telehealth coverage, providing vaccinations, and making sure Texas children and families have the mental, emotional and physical tools to get through these unprecedented times.
Overall, she believes that mental health support needs to be part of our public health response, and is encouraged to see philanthropy stepping up in this space.
Other interests
Apart from mental health, the Hacketts also have an interest in cancer research. Maureen Hackett serves as a board member and officer at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Her mother survived cancer two times and Maureen herself is passionate about finding a cure. The family is also interested in educational equity. “I’d like to wipe out SATs and let everybody have an opportunity,” she says.
Faith is also a big part of the family’s life, and James Hackett once even enrolled at Harvard Divinity School. In 2016, the family made a $2 million gift to the school to establish the Hackett Family Fund for One Harvard and a lecture fund at the Center for the Study of World Religions. Maureen also points out the connection between their support for religion and mental health, noting that people often first turn to faith leaders to open up about anxiety, stress and sadness in their lives.
The couple’s four kids are also involved in the family’s philanthropy, particularly daughter Kelly. Their youngest child, meanwhile, has taken an interest in helping boys and girls who have been the victims of sex trafficking. But Maureen’s passion for mental health issues will likely remain a central cause.
When I asked her what philanthropy could do to be a better ally in the mental health space, she was quick to say that philanthropists themselves need to have a seat at the table, and help people understand that mental health is an important component of health care access.
“I think that people understand you are entitled to physical health. But you should also be entitled to mental health. They shouldn’t be separated. Your head is attached to your body.”
