After witnessing the kindness and generosity of her community, Andrea Sherwin decided to change careers and devote her professional life to paying that kindness forward. As President and CEO of Mental Health America (MHA) of Northwest Indiana, Sherwin works to provide services and support to those in need.
MHA is a nonprofit organization that focuses on early intervention and prevention. They provide many programs in the community that over a thousand people throughout Northwest Indiana participate in.
“If you think about someone who has had cancer, the goal is to not wait until stage four to correct the problem. We know it's less effective and it's costly to do it. That same philosophy applies to mental health and wellness. The earlier we can get in and prevent certain things from happening, the better life trajectory people are going to have,” Sherwin said.
Graduating from Indiana University Bloomington with a degree in journalism and a focus in marketing, Sherwin did not always plan to be in the social work field. Sherwin spent 27 years in corporate America where she worked in marketing and strategic planning before she realized she wanted to shift her career to one where she can better serve those around her.
“My career was wonderful; it was great for me, and I loved it,” Sherwin said. “I’ve made some lifelong colleagues and friends, but about the time I was going through my personal experiences, I just decided that for the second half of my career, it was going to be important to sort of pay forward all of the love and kindness that we received from people who devoted their daily careers to serving others.”
Sherwin made this decision to pay it forward after going through a difficult time personally.
“About four years ago, I started to experience some different family traumas that were going on. I have a family member who’s a suicide survivor, and I lost both of my parents within three months of each other,” Sherwin said. “I just started going through a lot of personal experiences where I had to really rely on people who had devoted their lives to service and helping others.”
During this difficult period, Sherwin went through a change that led her to MHA and the place where she finds herself today.
“At that time, I got a really strong look at what it meant to leave a legacy of service instead of just the day-to-day grind,” Sherwin said. “I really went through a change; I wanted to make a change in my life to be able to pay that forward to people. So, I was actually on the board for Mental Health America for about four-and-a-half years. I really fell in love with the organization and really cared deeply about the mission.”
After serving on the board for so long, Sherwin found out that the CEO of MHA at the time was moving out of state. So, she decided to apply for the position.
“Something just clicked in me, and I said, ‘I have to throw my hat in the ring.’ It was almost like a calling,” Sherwin said. “I needed to just go find out if this is what I was meant to do to help utilize the skills I had in business management to help this nonprofit really grow and thrive.”
Sherwin has now been CEO for three years and is excited about the future. However, her journey has not been an easy one. Last year, Sherwin’s husband passed away, but she kept pushing. When someone asked her how she kept going, she told them she knew she had the responsibility to show up.
“You have to just show up for your own life and for other people, and I think that's such an important thing to keep in mind,” Sherwin said. “Some days are a lot stronger than others, but every single day I wake up and I say, ‘Okay, you have to show up.’ I have the responsibility to get up and get things done, and it's really been a part of the healing process. It’s what keeps me going every single day.”
Sherwin’s team at MHA played a large part in her journey, and those alongside her continue to inspire her every day.
“We have one of the best teams in Northwest Indiana. They are a wonderful, cohesive unit. I’m inspired by their passion for the work they do every day,” Sherwin said. “There’s nothing like having 80 social workers around you carrying you through the process. They literally saved me in that process by just checking in every day.”
One of Sherwin’s goals is to help expand the conversation on mental health and wellness, especially following COVID-19.
“One of my goals is to make sure that people over time really become comfortable talking about mental health and wellness,” Sherwin said. “Often people are afraid to talk about mental health, and it has had a stigma for many, many years.”
Sherwin enjoys the work she does and enjoys seeing the success stories from the people she and her team at MHA help.
“I go to work every day and come home with a smile on my face, which was a career goal for a long time,” Sherwin said.