NAMI National Board of Directors
2005-2011
Sheila Amdur, First Vice President
With a Master’s in Social Work, Sheila has worked in Connecticut directing mental health centers and developing public policy initiatives to manage mental health care more effectively in the public sector. She became active in NAMI-CT in 1999, and for three years, served as NAMI-CT’s President, facilitating greater inclusion of consumers and younger family members, as well as growth in programs and funding. She continues to serve as the Public Policy Chair for the NAMI-CT Board, and guides their participation in mental health and heath care coalitions. This includes the Keep the Promise coalition, a large mental health coalition of family, consumer, and advocacy organizations, which she helped organize and co-chairs. Sheila was also the primary organizer of a family advocacy collaborative of culturally diverse family organizations whose primary goal is to build the family movement for families with children with mental illnesses. At the national level, she served as the chair of the NAMI State Presidents’ Council, and co-chaired the SPC/Consumer Council Joint Task Force on Consumer Inclusion. Presently, she chairs the Child & Adolescent Policy Subcommittee of the National Board, and co-chairs the Planning Committee.
Sheila also serves as a member of the Connecticut Lieutenant Governor’s Mental Health Cabinet, and on the key legislatively appointed bodies dealing with increasing the financing and improving the use of public resources targeted to the care and treatment of both children and adults with serious mental illnesses.
Sheila lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, and has a small on-line antiquarian book business, which allows her to indulge her love of books. She is active in politics, and is also an advocate for affordable housing. She has two sons, and a new grandson.
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