UW-Milwaukee graduate student dreams of mending the broken mental health system

Photo: Sunny Schneider works in law enforcement for the villages of Pewaukee and Summit and has extensive experience working with people with mental illness. She is enrolled part-time in a master’s program at UWM, with the goal of working with lawmakers and others to change the mental health system. (UWM Photo/Troye Fox) — Sunny Schneider works in law enforcement for the villages of Pewaukee and Summit and has extensive experience working with people with mental illness. She is enrolled part-time in a master’s program at UWM, with the goal of working with lawmakers and others to change the mental health system. (UWM Photo/Troye Fox)

At UW-Milwaukee, Sunny Schneider is working toward new solutions for people navigating the mental health system.

Schneider had a difficult childhood, growing up in Watertown with a father who had bipolar disorder and alcohol and drug addiction. She took a winding path that involved joining the military at age 17 — serving in Germany and Iraq — then earning a bachelor’s degree in history and working for a small business. After her father died in 2018, she decided to enter the police academy, feeling drawn back to the uniform and public service.

Schneider joined the Waukesha Police Department in August 2019. When the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, the volume of mental health-related 911 calls skyrocketed. She drew on experiences with her dad.

“I was good at de-escalating situations and always gravitated toward those mental health calls,” Schneider said. “I saw people that reminded me a lot of my father and families that looked a lot like mine.”

She often accompanied people in crisis to the hospital and worked with county mental health workers to arrange emergency hospitalizations for people who were a danger to themselves or others. “I spent a lot of time thinking about how the mental health system works and doesn’t work,” she said.

In 2022, Schneider spearheaded the creation of the Waukesha Police Department’s Crisis Response Unit, in which a police officer and county mental health worker responded together to all mental health calls.

The program was recognized for its success, and Schneider continued with the crisis unit until January 2026, when she felt called to “next-level leadership,” addressing big picture questions around health care and mental health. UWM’s Master of Healthcare Administration and Master of Business Administration dual degree felt like the right next step.

She liked that UWM offers Wisconsin’s only Master of Healthcare Administration degree accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education and that she could take her classes part-time and online. She is also looking forward to an internship at a Milwaukee area hospital.

“My goal is to understand all the stakeholders around mental health in Wisconsin,” she said, to bring them together toward solutions. For example, she’d like to address problems with statute 51.15, a Wisconsin law that allows law enforcement and other qualified professionals to place a person in emergency mental health detention. Schneider previously collaborated with a statewide coalition known as the Mental Health Action Partnership to write a paper outlining best practices for 51.15.

Her UWM coursework offers tools for such work, such as systems thinking, a way of analyzing complex problems by looking at their root causes. For example, multiple classes have given Schneider practice with a tool known as “the Five Whys,” designed to identify and address those underlying issues.

She has appreciated the mentorship of Melissa Armstrong, clinical associate professor and graduate director of health care administration at UWM. Schneider also has been invited to join Chancellor Thomas Gibson’s Committee on Mental Health and the Student Wellness Advisory Group. “I’m excited to see what I can do there,” she said.

After graduation Schneider dreams of finding a state-level role that allows her to influence policy. “I’m not a blind optimist,” she said, but she hopes to make the system at least a little better for people like her father.

“My father never intended to be my greatest teacher, but he was,” she said. “His influence is woven into everything I am and everything I strive to do.”

Written by Erin O’Donnell, UW-Milwaukee

Link to original story: https://uwm.edu/news/graduate-student-dreams-of-mending-the-broken-mental-health-system/

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