Jeff Winton
Event on hot topics from the League of Women Voters “Recognizing and Improving the Status of Mental Health in Rural America” with Jeff Winton, Rural Minds
The League of Women Voters of Chautauqua County will hold a hot topics meeting Jan. 17 via Zoom. The meeting will open at 12:30 p.m. The presentation will begin at 1 p.m. Meeting registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83503069795?pwd=eE1MM0R0SWd0MFltWjc4TzhQbG4vUT09
Rural residents have less access to mental health resources than urban citizens. Rural counties experience higher rates of depression, leading to suicide rates 64 to 68 percent higher than urban areas. Stressors unique to rural life include a weakening agricultural economy, financial instability, and a solitary lifestyle.
Jeff Winton is founder and president of Rural Minds, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to serve as an informed voice on mental health in rural America and to provide information and mental health resources.
When his nephew, Brooks Winton, committed suicide in 2012, Jeff’s late mother, Elaine, who helped raise Brooks, bravely ignored the advice of some members of the local community and urged Jeff to speak at the funeral of the Brooks fight. An outpouring of support from other farm families regarding their own mental health struggles convinced him to devote a significant portion of his energy to connecting rural Americans to much-needed mental health services.
In addition to being the founder and president of Rural Minds, he is a member of a multi-generational farming family and founder and owner of Wall Street Dairy LLC, a family-operated dairy farm operating in Chautauqua County.
Winton is also Managing Director of Jeff Winton Associates, a full-service corporate communications and affairs agency that he co-founded in 2020. He has extensive experience – both professionally and personally – in advocacy efforts depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. , substance use disorders, and other forms of mental illness.
He spent four decades as a communications and corporate affairs executive with Fortune 100 companies and respected public relations and advertising agencies. This global experience covers highly diverse and dynamic sectors, including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, animal health, agriculture and consumer goods.
Winton graduated cum laude from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, with a bachelor’s degree from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and completed postgraduate courses at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He also served on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and was named Outstanding Alumni 2020. Winton belongs to a number of agricultural organizations, including the American Farm Bureau, Upstate Niagara Cooperative, Holstein Association USA and many others.
This event is a great opportunity for members of the Chautauqua County community to learn how they can support mental health care in Chautauqua County.
