Seika Brown

Seika Lee Brown (born 27 December 2001) is a Japanese-American mental health researcher and advocate from Seattle, Washington, who is well known for her work in policy and cultural mental health research. Brown initially gained traction through her work in the Washington State Legislature where she assisted two bills, passing one in late 2019. She spent three years, ages 15 to 18, working in policy change and awareness where she worked alongside major universities and organizations like the University of Washington and The Gates Foundation. In 2020 during her freshman year at Cornell University; which she currently attends, Brown founded a research initiative aiming to find the different cultural definitions of mental health.
In November of 2017, at age 15, she began looking into mental health services within her high school after being assigned a project in her psychology class. After realizing there was a lack of resources and awareness of available resources, she and two friends focused the project on creating a school club around the availability and awareness of mental health services. After the club was declined by Brown's high school, she founded a youth-led organization around policy change and awareness called "Archnova".
"Archnova" (2017-2020) worked on two bills within the Washington State Legislature. Seika eventually passed one bill (WA HB 1221) in 2018/2019 during her junior year of high school. During her time with Archnova, Seika worked closely with "The Youth Activism Project", The University of Washington Forefront, and representatives from Washington State. In August of 2020, Brown won a grant from the global mental health organization citiesRISE that provided funding for a toolkit that she and her team created. In November of 2020, Brown won The 100 Changemakers Award from The Gates Foundation. She is featured in the 7th edition of the American Government textbook from McGraw Hill Education.
Brown was accepted into Cornell University during her senior year of high school in 2020. She is currently studying Urban and Regional Studies. 
Coming into University, Brown attended a virtual event as a panelist with Ex-Chief of Health Stefan Peterson with global mental health organization citiesRISE for global mental health day in October 2020.</ref> After the event, Seika founded her new organization called "YLG Research" or "Youth Lead Global Research" where she aims to discover how mental health is defined across cultures and backgrounds. At the end of 2020, Brown won an award with the conversationaLIST and won the Mental Health America's mPower award in 2021.
Seika works closely with the Karolinska Institutet, The United Nations, The World Health Organizations, and many universities and local non-profits researching cultural mental health. She has worked on a multitude of projects with, including but not limited to, IDONTMIND, The University of Washington Forefront, The Youth Activism Project, The Seattle Neighborhood Group, TheConversationalist, Mental Health America, and citiesRISE. 
She has one brother who is four years older named Zaviar.
Category:2001 births
Category:American psychologists
Category:American lawyers
Category:Lawyers from Seattle