THE PLAYMAKER

Throughout his football career, Ryan Mundy racked up one impressive stat after another. At Woodland Hills High School outside of Pittsburgh, he set a school record with 54 career receptions and earned USA TODAY All-American Prep Honors. After playing at Michigan as a true freshman and transferring to West Virginia University, Mundy was drafted by the Steelers in 2008, was a member of the Super Bowl XLIII championship team, and also played in Super Bowl XLV against the Packers in 2011. After a stopover with the New York Giants, Mundy landed with the Bears, where he started all 16 games of the 2014 season, logging 108 tackles, 4 interceptions, and 4 broken-up passes.

But when his career abruptly ended at age 31, hastened by a back injury, Mundy found himself struggling with what to do with life after football and was dealing with anxiety and depression.

“I found myself in this very peculiar situation. I had money and resources, but I was not finding providers or spaces that were designed for me,” he recalls. Not surprisingly, he says, his personal experience is shared by others in the Black community.

“Sixty percent of the Black community say it’s hard to access quality healthcare, and almost 80 percent lack trust in the healthcare system,” Mundy explains. He adds that “78 percent of Black patients need insurance to access mental healthcare, but 60 percent of therapists don’t accept insurance.” The trends were troubling and personal. In his extended family, Mundy had also been watching his relatives deal with type 2 diabetes, heart attacks, stroke, and Alzheimer’s.

His awareness of these dismal numbers and his own frustrating experiences pointed to an opportunity in the healthcare sector for this businessman and entrepreneur (Mundy took advantage of the NFL’s education programs, earning an executive MBA from the University of Miami with additional studies at Notre Dame and Wharton). The timing was also fortuitous. The pandemic was shining a light on mental health like never before, and the Black Lives Matter movement was simultaneously prompting “a conversation about the importance of Black health in the country,” Mundy recalls.

And so, in late 2020, Mundy secured his first round of funding for Alkeme, a mental health platform dedicated to the needs of the Black community. With grit and determination that echoed his days in the NFL, Mundy solicited investment partners, built the platform, and captured the media world’s attention with coverage by TODAY, Forbes, and Entrepreneur magazine, among other outlets.

Alkeme’s initial offering was “like Calm or Headspace, with a more culturally aligned approach,” notes Mundy. The product quickly grew, but Mundy knew his team was just starting to move down the field. Last month, Alkeme took the next crucial step in Mundy’s quest to create generational health for the Black community by expanding into virtual health care.

“Visitors to Alkeme Health will be able to connect with a Black therapist who accepts insurance,” Mundy says, the excitement tangible in his voice. “We’ve been making a meaningful impact over the last several years, and now we’re just really focused on taking it to the next level.”

“The opportunity presents itself for us right now to increase the number of therapists who accept insurance and create pathways for better accessibility and connection to those therapists,” observes Mundy. In addition, Alkeme will take on the burden of nonclinical activities like billing and claims submissions so that therapists can focus on helping patients. The virtual care offering will launch in Illinois this year and expand geographically in 2026.

Last summer, Mundy was joined in these efforts by Neechi Mosha, an M.D. by training whose experience includes Clarify Health Solutions and Boston Consulting Group. He’s the kind of teammate Mundy appreciated on the field back in his football days, someone with complementary skills and eager to play. With Mundy as CEO and Mosha as President, they plan to help course-correct health care for a population that’s faced mistreatment and misdiagnosis for more than 400 years.

“We’re starting with mental health, and that’s a beachhead and a wedge into the market for us, but I don’t see us stopping there,” Mundy says. “I definitely see a day where we expand our services beyond mental health into nutrition and weight management, into primary care, and into specialty care, to become a comprehensive platform focused and specialized in serving the unique needs of the Black community. That’s our big vision. But again, we are starting with a focus on mental health because a healthy life starts with a healthy mind.”

It’s a mission that resonates strongly with this husband, father of two girls, and resident of Highland Park. “When I came to Chicago in 2014, we didn’t know many people. And it has been probably one of the best things that has ever happened in my life. At this point, I can’t really see myself leaving.”

Now, with his playing field shifting well beyond the 100- yard gridiron, Mundy has created a playbook for a healthy and vibrant community.

For more information, visit alkemehealth.com.