We’re excited to welcome three new executives to our team. They’ve already hit the ground running helping us build a more empathetic world!

We’re all about connecting with empathy, so we sat down with them to learn a little bit about what they bring to Crisis Text Line and the work they’re excited to do together.

César Bocanegra – Chief Operating Officer

What brought you to Crisis Text Line? 

I joined Crisis Text Line because I found the career trifecta here. First, Crisis Text Line’s mission of promoting mental well-being via text and at the intersection of empathy and innovation is near and dear to my heart. Secondly, I’ve been impressed with the caliber of the people I’ve encountered at Crisis Text Line. And Finally, the COO role I have been entrusted with to help scale the organization globally and improve upon our user (volunteers, texters, team, partners, vendors, etc.) experience happens to align perfectly with my experience and background.  

What are you most excited to work on with the team? 

I’m most excited about working alongside the Volunteer Experience team and everyone involved in our international expansion. I’m also looking forward to collaborating and co-creating JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) initiatives with the entire team. Finally, I love executing projects based on actionable insights gained from qualitative and quantitative data and I’m excited to partner with the team to make Crisis Text Line a better place to work.

What does empathy mean to you?

I’ve always believed that if I could magically make everyone feel empathy, the type of empathy that is compassionate, we would eliminate half of the world’s problems. To me, empathy is more than just putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. It includes recognizing the pain, acknowledging it, being an active listener, connecting with the other individual, and understanding the level of support needed at that moment.

Falk Gottlob – Chief Product & Technology Officer

What brought you to Crisis Text Line? 

I joined because what we do matters, what we do is needed, and sadly, it is required more each day.

Over my career, I was part of teams that pushed the boundaries of technology and data; more, faster, bigger were the key drivers for success. In much of my work, I missed the human aspect and developed a passion for humanizing digital experiences. I realized that it was never about technology and that there is a human behind each screen. This passion drove me to find mission-driven opportunities that could benefit from my unique skills and background. Bringing it back to how I started this answer; What you do matters! What you do is needed! You inspired me to be part of this team, and I hope to support you to have more conversations with fewer limitations.

What are you most excited to work on with the team? 

First of all, I am really looking forward to working with you. My teams and I can only succeed when we build trust, create partnerships, communicate with clarity, seek mutual learning, and inspire others to grow. 

Our texters need more human interaction, our volunteers (and you) deserve applications that support their desire to help others, and data can be used to improve this world for all of us. 

I’m excited to partner with all of you to help improve what we do and how we do it. What you do is so important. Thank you for letting me be part of it.

What does empathy mean to you? 

There is a human behind each SMS, there is a human behind each screen, and we are all on our own journey. Seeing that human for who they are is empathy. Empathy requires courage, empathy makes us vulnerable, but it also helps us understand and feel how others feel. We need to invest in gaining that understanding first so we can create technology that can help us to create a more “empathetic” and human world.

Margaret Meagher – Chief of Staff

What brought you to Crisis Text Line? 

​​I was drawn to Crisis Text Line because it aligns with three things that have mattered most to me over my career: reducing social inequity while improving individual and collective wellbeing; bringing evidence to bear on improving the lives of as many people as possible, especially those most vulnerable; and an ethos of integrity and inclusion in partnership with others motivated by a shared mission of social good. I’m humbled to join as Chief of Staff in service to the leadership and teams on the frontlines of mental wellbeing, and scaling social impact at the intersection of empathy and innovation.

What are you most excited to work on with the team? 

I’m especially excited to work with the team on strengthening results-based, collaborative organizational planning processes; leaning into evidencing the compelling proof of concept of Crisis Text Line’s model and the broader social impact of our community of trained volunteers; and illuminating new pathways and partnerships to dramatically scale mental health, social wellbeing, and collective impact across languages, cultures and contexts around the world.

What does empathy mean to you? 

Empathy to me means the ability to understand another person’s thoughts and feelings in a situation from their point of view and lived experiences rather than my own, grounded in authentic, compassionate human connection. I believe nurturing ethnorelative empathy has the potential to generate and regenerate reciprocal caring and wellbeing.