Understanding mental health and how we can prevent serious mental illness became Hamilton’s singular reporting passion. This five-time Emmy award-winning journalist and former host of Portland, Oregon’s #1 radio program, Kink.fm., is now CEO of Beyond Well Solutions, which provides mental health programming for Fortune 500 companies interested in improving mental health and well-being. She is also the host of Spotify’s fastest-growing mental health program, “Beyond Well With Sheila Hamilton.”

Hamilton learned first-hand that economic security, a level of fame and health doesn’t protect from the ravages of mental illness. She makes a passionate case for understanding the sometimes elusive signs and symptoms of mental illness, especially in high-functioning people, who tend to try to mask their illnesses. She speaks to the chaos and confusion of attempting to help someone who is in denial, and how families can best reach a person who insists they are “fine.”

Hamilton has researched best mental health practices in the United States, Great Britain and Canada and is a passionate advocate for prevention, micro-habits that protect against brain illness and an authentic, open approach toward mental health and well-being in the workplace.

Hamilton’s healing started when she began to adopt mindfulness practices in order to heal from the trauma of her husband’s suicide. She urges corporate leaders to expand access to mental health treatment, to train managers how to spot a person in mental health distress, and to provide the kind of media programming and information that Beyond Well Solutions provides, so that people can understand the link between their symptoms and largely preventable mental illnesses.

Hamilton also urges survivors to end the cycle of suicide in families by fiercely advocating for the suffering. “We should demand an acknowledgment of brain illness as worthy of care, funding and research as heart disease, cancer and diabetes,” she says. “While every other measure of public health improves, this is the thirteenth year in a row that the suicide rate has increased.”

Hamilton speaks to the hero’s journey, the person who journeys through horrendous conditions in order to expand his or her consciousness. She urges us to overcome the shame and stigma of mental illness and to talk openly and humanly about it. It affects us all. Her hope is that another life as exquisite as her husband’s might be saved, and the sensitive ones will not only survive but thrive.

A storyteller at heart, Hamilton’s resume runs through film, television, radio and print. As a television anchor and reporter, she covered some of the country’s biggest stories, including the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger, the bombing of LDS Church officials by forger Mark Hofmann, the mass shooting at Thurston High in Springfield, Oregon and the national figure skating scandal inflicted by Olympic skater Tonya Harding. Hamilton recently ventured into reality television programming as a judge on Wanted, Adventure Woman. In 2013, Hamilton was voted Oregon’s “Best Radio Personality.” She serves on the boards of The Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care and the Flawless Foundation. In 2015, she was voted one of “Oregon’s Mental Health Heroes.”

Hamilton’s award-winning book, All the Things We Never Knew, chronicles her late husband’s descent into mental illness. She has received starred reviews from Kirkus, Library Journal and Booklist, whose editors called ATTWNK a “must-read” in the category of mental health. She has hosted international mental health conferences and acted as a moderator/interview for dozens of mental health panels. Hamilton was the recipient of the Judy Cushing Life Award in 2018 and the Ron Schmidt Community Hero award in 2019.