About Learn to Live

Learn to Live was co-founded in 2012 by Dale Cook and Dr. Russell Morfitt to address what they saw as an avoidable mental health crisis. They knew that digital cognitive behavioral therapy was an underutilized tool that could provide effective, accessible help to the millions of Americans with unmet mental health needs.

Learn to Live’s programs provide convenient, confidential, and easy access to tools to help people improve and manage their mental health.

Today, Learn to Live delivers mental health programs and services to over 35 million people through their health plans, employers, universities, health systems, and other institutions who want to expand access to affordable, best-in-class benefits.

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Dale Cook

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Dale is a co-founder of Learn to Live and serves as its Chief Executive Officer.  Dale's commitment and love for his work stems from the impact that he has seen Learn to Live's programs make in the lives of silent sufferers who would otherwise not receive help due to access, cost or stigma. 

Dale is passionate about mental healthcare and start-ups and has been recognized for his innovative approaches to healthcare. He is an active member of multiple healthcare entrepreneur groups focused on improving healthcare at the state and federal levels and served as a member of the Governor’s Taskforce on Broadband in Minnesota, which seeks to ensure quality broadband access for all Minnesotans. Dale is also a Fellow of the fifth class of the Health Innovators Fellowship at the Aspen Institute and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Speech Communication from The University of Minnesota, and Master of Business Administration from The University of Chicago.

Dr. Russell Morfitt

Co-Founder and Chief Clinical Officer

Dr. Russ is a co-founder of Learn to Live and serves as its clinical leader. He has been helping people live better lives for 25 years as a practicing psychologist, and uses that experience to infuse each digital mental health program with his natural compassion and desire to ease human suffering and impairment. He guides the clinical and data teams that design services and measure clinical outcomes of Learn to Live's digital cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) programs.

Dr. Russ holds a PhD in Psychology from The University of Minnesota and is a Fellow of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. In addition to his clinical practice treating underserved people with high-fidelity CBT, he has conducted research and published on measurement of individual’s behavioral health and on the effectiveness of digital CBT on improving psychometric assessment scores, building greater resilience, and addressing anxiety, depression, social anxiety, and insomnia.

Sarah Thorstad headshot

Sarah Thorstad

President and Chief Operating Officer

Sarah is passionate about mental health and leads the company in its mission to help people learn to live better lives. She has dedicated her career to helping organizations grow and scale through strategic planning, culture transformation, and operational performance. Sarah’s leadership style inspires a positive, forward-thinking culture of innovators who are empowered to become the best versions of themselves, both personally and professionally. She embraces change to find better ways to solve problems for our clients and the individuals they serve.

Sarah applies over 15 years of experience in health care, including health plan management and care delivery transformation to improve access and clinical outcomes. She earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Management from Augsburg University.

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Donald J. (DJ) Bouchier

Chief Architect and Information Security Officer

DJ is responsible for driving the technology strategy at Learn to Live including system architecture, software development, information security, and technical infrastructure. His leadership helps ensure that the Learn to Live applications are reliable, scalable, and secure. User experience, system performance, and information security are always a central focus.

DJ applies his 30 years of experience as a software engineer, web developer, and enterprise architect to drive information technology at Learn to Live with a pragmatic, product-focused approach. He studied Political Science and History at The University of Minnesota.

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David Radloff

Chief Financial Officer

David oversees Learn to Live's finance and accounting functions and advises the leadership team and board of directors on strategic and operational decisions. David is inspired by the company's ability to dramatically reduce mental health suffering and its associated impact on the economics of healthcare. 

David applies his 40 years of accounting and finance leadership to oversee all aspects of Learn to Live's economic success. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics and Accounting from Augustana College.

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Erin Benson

Senior Vice President of Product

Erin leads product strategy, development, and delivery of Learn to Live's digital behavioral health solution and services. She thrives on the opportunity to help as many people as possible by raising mental health awareness and making a positive impact in the lives of individual users.

Erin has a 15-year history of achieving positive financial and operational results across change management consulting, market strategy development, and product strategy at national and global corporations. She is known for eloquently solving the hardest problems and is dedicated to continuous improvement. Erin earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Human and Organizational Development and a Master of Education Degree from Vanderbilt University, and a Master of Business Administration Degree from Duke University.

Sarah Happ

Vice President of Client Success

Sarah leads Learn to Live's client success team, which is responsible for building long-term relationships, driving value for clients, and optimizing utilization of digital CBT to generate measurable improvement in the mental health of individual users. She's committed to the positive impact of our programs and services, which brings joy and gives meaning to her work.

Sarah joined Learn to Live with 20 years of experience leading teams and driving meaningful client experiences in healthcare information technology. She earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business and Corporate Communications from The University of Missouri.

Security and Compliance

Learn to Live is committed to protecting the confidentiality, privacy, integrity, and availability of all electronic protected health information (PHI) that we receive, maintain, and process on behalf of our users. We have valued these principles since the company’s inception, and always strived to build and maintain the highest standards regarding our products and services.

"We wanted to help more people. We were troubled when anxiety sufferers couldn’t schedule appointments due to a shortage of psychologists and therapists that provide the treatment that really works for anxiety.

So, we developed a new program from the ground up. Since our inception, we’ve been crafting our lessons to be personal, encouraging, impactful, and based on the fundamentals of CBT, which can be truly life-changing. Because, at the end of the day, we all just want to learn to live."

- Dr. Russ

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