Fort Worth’s M2G Ventures, a real estate investment and development firm, recently hosted its sixth annual fundraising gala, Art of the Mind, raising more than $500,000 for its Mental Health Initiative.
The funds benefit the University of Texas Southwestern’s Center for Depression Research and Clinical Care in Tarrant County and the Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation and its Summit for Research. More than 300 guests attended the Nov. 6 event at Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall in the Fort Worth Stockyards.
M2G’s co-founders, Jessica Miller Essl and Susan Miller, launched the M2G Mental Health Initiative in 2019 following the loss of a loved one to bipolar disorder. MHI earned 501(c)(3) status in 2022 with a focus on changing the way the world diagnoses and treats mental illness. Since it began, the initiative has raised more than $2 million.
“MHI’s philanthropic beneficiaries are notable institutions doing great work, and these are long-term partnerships for us,” Miller said in a news release.
M2G Ventures co-founder Jessica Miller Essl talks during a Candid Conversation panel May 22, 2025, at Tarrant County College. (Mary Abby Goss | Fort Worth Report)
One beneficiary, the UT Southwestern’s depression research group, brings its services, studies and resources to children and young adults in Tarrant County and across North Texas. It is also conducting research in unipolar and bipolar depression, among other areas.
The other beneficiary, the Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation, hosts an annual Summit for Research conference that brings together 20 of the world’s leading suicidologists to collaborate and determine how their work can influence the foundation’s programming. According to the foundation’s 2024 Impact Report, this summit contributed to broader efforts that helped achieve a 75% decrease in suicide in the schools served by the organization.
M2G, known for integrating immersive art into its development projects, strategically partnered with local, regional and national artists to commission fine art that was auctioned during Art of the Mind’s live auction.
“The impact of this event grows each year because our community continues to show up with compassion, generosity and a collective passion for change,” Essl said. “The art moves us, the shared understanding inspires us, and the collective support brings us closer to transforming the way mental illness is understood and treated.”
Scholarship funding
The Eosera Foundation recently awarded a $5,000 scholarship to a group of Texas Christian University students for their participation in developing a creative marketing campaign for the company.
Jennifer D’Angelo, assistant professor of marketing in the TCU Neeley School of Business, led the class throughout the semester as they completed market research and developed creative campaigns featuring Eosera Ear Wax MD ear wax dissolving drops. At the end of the semester, the students presented their campaign concepts to the ear care product company’s CEO, Elyse Stoltz Dickerson, and the Eosera marketing team.
Of the six teams, it was the final presentation by NexGen Media which scored the highest marks.
“We loved how these students really put on their creative thinking caps and dove into a topic not many people think about — ear wax,” said Stoltz Dickerson.
NextGen Media’s campaign sought to normalize cleaning your ears, making earwax removal part of a self-care routine. It featured man-on-the-street style social media videos, a popular get-ready-with-me style TikTok, and ideas for a podcast and interactive blog.
Stoltz Dickerson said this is the inaugural year of the Eosera Foundation Ryan Headlee Scholarship program, named for the CVS category manager who first noticed Eosera when the company pitched Ear Wax MD to the retail chain in 2017.
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