Biography

Delaney Ruston is a filmmaker, author and Stanford trained physician who has spent the past 25 years creating award-winning documentaries for social change--particularly on topics concerning mental health. Her most recent award-winning films include Screenagers, about solutions for healthy screen time, Screenagers NEXT CHAPTER, about teen mental health, and Screenagers Under the Influence, about vaping, drugs, and alcohol in the digital age. To date, over 14 million youth and adults have gathered for community screenings of these films in 104 countries.

As a trusted expert on the area of youth and screen time, Delaney has been invited to speak at places such as Google, Facebook, The Aspen Institute, many national conferences, and medical and academic centers. Her views are often in the press, such as Good Morning America, NPR, New York Times and many others.

Her award winning PBS films Unlisted: A Story of Schizophrenia, about her father, and Hidden Pictures, about global mental health were both the focus of advocacy campaigns, including with the World Health Organization. For her work in mental health advocacy Ruston has won several awards including from Harvard and Mental Health America. Ruston, who is a Fulbright scholar, previously was a researcher in human communication and bioethics at UC San Francisco and then was faculty at the University of Washington School of Medicine followed by Stony Brook School of Medicine, New York. Alongside filmmaking, Ruston has been providing care to underserved teens and adults in Seattle for the past 20 years.