Chrisa Hickey is an author, speaker and advocate specializing in supporting families raising children with serious mental illnesses like childhood onset schizophrenia, childhood onset bipolar disorder and severe depression. Chrisa began her advocacy work when her son Timothy was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of eleven. She began her blog, The Mindstorm, in 2009, and shortly reached more than 3,000 readers a week.

Ms. Hickey has been writing and speaking about serious mental illness, the challenges of raising special needs children, the complexities of finding quality mental health care in Rural America and mental health advocacy for nearly 15 years. She has published articles in Redbook Magazine, BringChange2Mind.org, and NPR.org, as well as been interviewed on CNN, NPR, the Ricki Lake Show and dozens of podcasts about her advocacy work, mental health stigma, healthcare legislation and parenting.

Ms. Hickey lives on the shores of Green Bay in Northeast Wisconsin with her husband of 33 years, their three rescue dogs, and more than a dozen chickens.