Anuj Gandhi

Advisor
NAMI Next Gen

Anuj Gandhi (he/him) is a dynamic 23-year-old hailing from Bartlett, IL, currently applying for his PhD in Clinical/Counseling Psychology. He works in mental health research and education in the Chicago area through NAMI DuPage and the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois Chicago. With a passion for mental health advocacy, Anuj aims to blend his academic and professional pursuits with his lived experience as a second-generation Indian American with a mental health condition. His journey is rooted in a commitment to create safe spaces for dialogue and collective healing, along with developing community-level interventions that possess high cultural humility and focus on peer support, education, and complementary practices.

Anuj actively takes part in public speaking engagements, storytelling, educational workshops and presentations, event programming, community dialogues, intervention development and facilitation, and community-based research, demonstrating a strong understanding of the diverse actions needed to combat the mental health crisis in marginalized communities.

Anuj Gandhi brings a fresh perspective to NAMI Next Gen, aspiring to create inclusive and equitable solutions to uplift the mental health of the diverse communities afflicted by systemic oppression. In his free time, he enjoys practicing yoga, reading comic books, watching films/shows, thrifting, spending time with loved ones, and training in an Indian dance style called Kathak.