We educate, advocate, and support those with mental illness and their families.

Bill Lindsey brings a passion for reforming mental health care in South Carolina. He has forged relationships with the media, the legislature, advocacy groups, state agencies, health organizations, and most importantly, the families, care givers [Read more]

Corinne started working at NAMI South Carolina in 2003. Her duties include a variety of things including all the bookkeeping for NAMI South Carolina. She prepares the material for all of the state trainings, each of the education courses and CIT courses throughout the state [Read more]

Sharyn received her bachelors at Wofford College and her masters in social work at the University of South Carolina before moving down to Florida where she worked in health care administration for seven years. She moved back closer to home when… [Read more]

Sherri is a retired law enforcement officer after 25 years. She worked at the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy for 15 years teaching in basic and many advanced classes.[Read more]

Marty Wilkes is a retired Captain with the Greenville Police Department with 25 years of service. During his career with the Greenville Police Department, Marty worked as a Patrolman, Investigator, Supervisor, and was a member of the Executive Command Staff. Marty… [Read more]

Peter Farrell is a retired Lieutenant with the Charleston Police Department. During his 25-year career he served the Department in the Patrol and Detective Divisions. He has also served as a Command Duty Officer, Team Three Commander, the Property Crimes… [Read more]

Michelle graduated from the MUSC School of Nursing. In 2002 she joined NAMI when a family member was diagnosed with a mental illness and was inspired to become a volunteer with NAMI. She became a Family-to-Family teacher, state, and national trainer, [Read more]

Paige Selking graduated from American Public University in 2013 with a BA in Sociology. In 2016, she became involved in NAMI as the result of her husband and son’s struggle with PTSD, depression and anxiety. She served as the Program Chair on the NAMI Mid-Carolina… [Read more]

Deniece Chi turned to NAMI-NYC Metro for help in January 2004, two weeks after her daughter Lucy was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A single immigrant mother at the time, Deniece decided to educate herself… [Read more]

Judy Rauppius graduated from Albright College in 1986 with a BS in Psychology-Business. In her early career, she worked in operations and marketing for Verizon Wireless and other wireless service providers prior to raising her children. In 1998, she and her… [Read more]

Loving her role as an advocate for children and families, Robin McCants has spent over 40 years in the role of teaching and administration in early childhood programs and public education. First and foremost, she has loved being on the floor with children…[Read more]

Maria Beth Swenson Smith is a former medical assistant and small business owner. She is the mother of adult children and became associated with her local NAMI affiliate (NAMI Charleston Area) shortly after a hospitalization in 2011. She became an… [Read more]

With a background in counseling, Amanda Phillips currently serves as the Ending the Silence program coordinator for Anderson County District II and Greenville County. Her experience with mental health advocacy also includes work as a freelance writer, keynote speaker and member of South Carolina’s Behavioral Health Coalition. She most recently consulted on and appeared in a segment about the intersection of mental health and domestic violence for The TODAY Show, and has been a featured speaker at James Madison University, the Southeastern Symposium on Mental Health, and South Carolina’s Zero Suicide Institute training. After experiencing a suicidal crisis as a college sophomore and receiving a mental illness diagnosis as a graduate student, she used resources from NAMI to come to terms with how to live well with a mental health condition. Amanda now devotes her life to making the world of mental health less stigmatized and easier to navigate for those also in the battle. She shares her story in high hopes of spreading the news that there are things we can all do to take better care of our mental health, as well as thrive in recovery from a mental health condition.

Leola Reaves-ETS Program Coordinator for Florence School District One. Retired School Counselor. Graduated from South Carolina State University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Masters Degree in Education. Looking forward to working with students, teachers and parents in the Florence community.

Emily Gunning is a peer as well as a family member when it comes to mental heath. In Mississippi, she started working for NAMI in 2019 where she worked as a Youth Engagement Coordinator under the Department of Mental Health as well as a Community Engagement Specialist. She was certified in peer to peer and she has done many Say It Out Loud presentations. Emily has always been passionate about mental health and her goal in life is to help as many people living with mental illness as she can.

Karimah Nonyameko is the a Regional Program Manager for Ending the Silence in the Lowcountry. She is responsible for the operational success of Ending the Silence in Lowcountry South to include the five-county region of Colleton, Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton, and part of Charleston through development and program delivery and and supervising a team of volunteer presenters. She also helps the ETS team transition from in-person to virtual presenting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before joining NAMISC, Karimah was the Leadership and Mobilization Manager for Encore.org’s Generation to Generation Campaign. She was responsible for supporting a diverse network of communities and organizations experimenting with innovative models for engaging adults 50+ to help children thrive. She also helped to co-design and support a robust online learning community for youth-serving practitioners to distill and share best practices for leveraging encore talent. Prior to Encore.org, Karimah was the Subject Matter Expert in Community Development for Habitat for Humanity International, where she provided consultation, technical support and training to build the community development competencies of numerous affiliates and HFHI’s affiliate services staff. Prior to HFHI, Karimah worked for 17 years as a national organizational development trainer, coach and consultant and helped to build over 100 organizations that build strong, sustainable communities and work for positive change across the US. She started her career in the nonprofit sector as a community organizer before moving into training and consulting. Karimah has lived and organized in every region of the US, building relationships and working around a variety of social change issues.

Michelle Hinson graduated from Boise State University in 1993 with a BBA in Management. She became involved with NAMI in 2019 after her daughter was diagnosed with a mental health condition triggered by going off to college. She was touched by NAMI at multiple points: the hospital, a family-to-family class, support groups, and doing Ending the Silence presentations. She continues her involvement in the Ending the Silence program in the Northern Tri-county Region and joined NAMI SC staff in March 2020. She lives in Fort Mill, SC, with her husband Timothy, daughter Ashlynn, son William, and dog Sadie.