Micah was born and raised in Ketchikan, Alaska, a small island community in the southeast Alaskan panhandle. Her passion for mental health advocacy emerged early in life as she witnessed many of her friends wrestle with mental health concerns and substance abuse. These ailments were widespread in her extremely isolated community and bore a great deal of stigma. The Alaskan “toughen up” mentality was deeply ingrained in the culture, and mental health was simply not a conversation. After high school, she left the rainforest to attend Pepperdine University and pursue some much needed sunshine in Southern California, with the ultimate goal of working in the nonprofit sector. Having access to resources dedicated to mental health and opportunities for learning and conversation about these topics was a welcomed change. During her sophomore year she studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina where she saw the benefits of a culture with very little stigma around mental health and low barriers to treatment. Witnessing the benefits this brought to the community was a pivotal point in her passion for mental health stigma reduction and advocacy. 

She graduated with a degree in International Studies with an emphasis in Management and a minor in Nonprofit Management. She then entered a full-time position as the Director of Operations of White Heart Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to providing life-enhancing equipment and rehabilitative services, including mental health care, to severely injured veterans. Her time with the organization has been an incredible opportunity for growth and learning in the nonprofit sector. In her free time, you’ll find her by or on the ocean, attending Minds events or other mental health advocacy events, and attending as many live concerts as humanly possible. 

Micah is so excited to be a part of a community like MINDS that lowers barriers to mental health care and provides credible education surrounding mental health, a cause that she has pursued her whole life.  She’s thrilled to have support from the Minds community and to have more opportunity to provide much needed support to others lacking it. She aspires to bring these solutions back to her home community and the organization she works for and to continue to advocate for friends that remain in her hometown as well as the veterans that she serves.