Nick Kislinger

Nick Kislinger is the Executive Director of Flourish Trust, where he oversees portfolios in mental health, food systems, and the arts, catalyzing new models of care and regenerative solutions. At Flourish, Nick is applying his signature approach of coalition-building, currently unifying Colorado's mental health field to create systemic change.

Nick's career represents a unique intersection of government, philanthropy, and mental health innovation, driven by his passion for organizing people and movements. After beginning as a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs and working at Pegasus Capital Advisors, he was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as Chief of Staff to the California Secretary of Education, where he led the Governor's Education Technology Working Group and created the California Office to Reform Education, unifying business leaders with education leaders across districts.

Recognizing that effective public policy should be informed by social entrepreneurs rather than isolated from them, Nick left government to work directly with innovators solving the world's biggest problems. He founded and served as CEO of Impact Hub Los Angeles, creating a space where government leaders and social entrepreneurs could intersect and learn from one another. His subsequent roles at Global Impact Institute and Entertainment Industry Foundation gave him new tools to support innovators solving the biggest problems in the world—traveling globally to administer diverse grant portfolios and launching EIF's education program while spearheading high-profile campaigns that raised millions in partnership with major foundations and celebrities.

Nick's mental health advocacy emerged from personal experience—reframing his ADHD as a gift rather than a problem and discovering breathwork as an alternative to medication. In 2019, he co-founded Breathwrk, a mental health app that was acquired by Peloton. When the app gained massive popularity during COVID, Nick seized the opportunity to deepen his expertise, pursuing a Master's in Clinical Psychology while volunteering as a therapist-in-training at Burbank Unified School District, where he discovered he wasn't alone in his journey and could help others through breathwork.

As Executive Director of Summit Impact, Nick oversaw Fellows and Labs that leveraged community power to accelerate innovative mental health solutions, directly preparing him for his current role at Flourish Trust, where he continues building coalitions to advance transformative approaches to healing and regeneration.