Welcome to the first presentation of Welcoming Wellness! Our first session is a presentation by NAMI and is an introduction to NAMI’s Educational Courses, Support Groups and available presentations on Advocacy & Awareness. Also expect to hear personal stories on our speakers’ mental health journeys.

Speaker: Avi Aggarwal – NAMI Board Member: Volunteer/Programs Committee 

Having navigated mental illness as a caregiver to a family member and also via personal lived experience, Avi has been a grateful recipient of the community and support that NAMI provides via engaging in peer and family programs, leading NAMI on campus at NC State, and becoming a volunteer & currently a board member of NAMI Wake County.

Professionally, Avi focuses in strategy, operations, and partnerships across management consulting, startups, non-profits, and public health. She is passionate about the role that social drivers of health and employment can play in risk and recovery and about enhancing mental health care quality and access. Avi lives in the Triangle and enjoys cooking, singing in local choirs, supporting healthcare innovation, and reading psychology, philosophy, science and history.

Speaker: Dan Steever – NAMI Board Member: Board Vice President 

Dan Steever is a successful executive with over 30 years of executive leadership in Sales, Marketing and General Management. He has served as CEO of two national marketing services companies whose customers were very large retailers and CPG manufacturers. Dan has worked both in public companies, at an executive level, and in private equity sponsored companies.

Dan is known as a thoughtful, mature and passionate leader who excels in working with teams to lead change and improve outcomes. He has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia, and has deep experience in Marketing, Operations, Strategy Development, Finance, Board Management and Fund Development. Dan and his wife Cathy live in Wake Forest and have 4 grown children.

Speaker: Jeremy Fine – NAMI: Local, State and National Advocate

Jeremy Fine is a current MD-PhD student at UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine, where he is pursuing a medical degree in Psychiatry and a PhD in Health Policy and Management at the Gillings School of Global Public Health. His research focuses on implementation of models to improve acute mental health crisis systems in the US. Jeremy is also a patient advocate for individuals with mental health conditions, having lived-experience with OCD. Knowing mental health from the inside-out, Jeremy has developed an incredible ability to eloquently communicate challenging topics in mental health and psychiatry. He uses his experience as someone living with chronic mental illness to affect change on individuals and the mental healthcare system as a whole. He has advocated with the National Alliance on Mental Illness on local, state, and national levels.