Meet Seika Brown

Seika Brown grew up noticing how culture shapes the way people talk about and experience mental health. This awareness led her to YLG Research, an initiative dedicated to understanding the cultural nuances of mental well-being and how they influence access to care.

At 15, she founded a mental health policy non-profit, working to bring youth voices into legislative conversations. She was part of advocacy efforts that contributed to the passage of Washington State House Bill 1216 in 2019, which expanded resources for student mental health and safety. Over time, her focus expanded beyond policy to research and programs that support youth mental health on a broader scale.

Seika is a youth research collaborator for the Karolinska Institute, a research-led medical university in Sweden. She has served on the National Youth Council on College Mental Health with the Marie Christie Institute, advised NAMI’s Trauma Awareness Training Program, and was a Rare Beauty ambassador. She also worked as a youth advisor for behavioral health tech and has collaborated with organizations such as UNICEF, WHO, and Mental Health America to bridge the gap between research and lived experience.

Her contributions have earned recognition from organizations like The Gates Foundation Discovery Center, The Conversationalist, Mental Health America, and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez.

Seika holds a B.S. in Urban and Regional Studies with a minor in Anthropology from Cornell University and is currently pursuing her Master of Public Health at Tufts University School of Medicine.

At the core of her work is a simple goal: to foster honest, culturally aware conversations about mental health that bring people together across generations and experiences.