Rural Minds

Rural Minds Founder Jeff Winton was raised on his family’s dairy farm in rural upstate New York. Growing up, he discovered that many of the families in his small, 500-person town had a relative or friend living with some form of untreated mental illness—depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, schizophrenia. But their struggle was met with silence. There were few or no resources in the community for treating them or conversations about helping them. The stigma attached to mental illness was palpable.

In 2012, the suicide of his beloved 28-year-old nephew was a wake-up call for Jeff. In the eulogy he delivered, Jeff shared his family’s continuing struggle with mental illness. After the service, many local families shared their own experiences and thanked Jeff for finally giving them the permission to talk openly and freely. He realized that so much more needed to be done.

Since then, Jeff has focused a majority of his professional career aligning his expertise in the biopharmaceutical industry with his passion for helping rural families. That’s why he founded Rural Minds, a nonprofit organization to serve as the informed voice for mental health in rural America, and to provide mental health information and resources.