Harry Miller
President
Harry graduated from THE Ohio State University Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering. Formerly a starting offensive lineman, Harry made the decision to step away from football to focus on his mental health when in March 2022 he announced that he was “Medically Retiring”. Since that time, Harry has become a prominent Mental Health Advocate and has been keeping the conversation going through interviews, podcasts, visits
to schools, speaking engagements around the country, and social media posts. He is also spending time in Washington D.C. helping support and create policy and legislation such as the TEAMS Act, among other initiatives. In his free time, Harry enjoys reading, writing stories, playing Rugby, sketching, playing guitar, and spending time with his friends.
Debbie Schlib
Treasurer
Debbie has been a Controller in the automotive industry for over 30 years, which includes Human Resources. Harry’s experience has taught her how to see and help others while letting them know it’s ok not to be ok. Debbie’s free time is spent with friends and family, gardening, or experimenting with new cookie recipes.
Brian Weiss
Board Member
Brian Weiss is VP, Sales at Veugeler Creative, a digital marketing/branding company located here in Buford. Husband and Father of two boys, Brian is passionate about his family and his community. Brian and his family live in Downtown Buford. Brian is proud to play a role helping to ensure that the DMIW Resource Center is available, for free to our community. "For the community, by the community". His primary focus as a Board member with DMIW will be on fundraising and Community Partner development.
Kristina Miller
Vice President/Director
Kristina has worked in the healthcare field since 1992, with the last 21 years of her career in a pediatric hospital in Atlanta. She is passionate about healthcare for kids, including mental health. As Harry’s mom, Kristina has had a front row seat to mental illness since 2009, when Harry first expressed his thoughts of suicide. Kristina’s passion now lies in breaking the stigma surrounding mental illness, keeping the conversation going, and teaching kids and adults alike that it’s ok not to be ok. When Kristina is not advocating for mental health, you can find her on the sidelines of her son’s lacrosse game, walking miles around town, or solving crimes on ID.
Jack Miller
IT Support
Jack is a full-time student-athlete at Buford HS. His quiet leadership by example and willingness to serve his lacrosse teammates earned him the 2023 season’s “Green and Gold Award”. Jack proudly wears, and distributes DMIW bracelets to fellow students and teammates. In his free time, Jack enjoys online gaming, creating and editing videos, and spending time with his family and pets.
Heath Bowman
Board Member
Heath Bowman has been a member of the Buford City Community his entire life. The Bowman Family has developed a multigenerational attachment to the area and his family is passionate about preserving the historical feel and small town values found in Buford. Heath has been married to his wife Lindsay for 23 years, they have two children, Kaleb and Hadley, who attend Buford City Schools. Heath attended Buford High School - August 1992 to June 1996 lettering in Football and attaining 2 State Championship titles in Wrestling. He continued wresting at Anderson College. Heath currently owns multiple businesses in Buford and is proud member of the community.
About our organization...
In March 2022, immediately following the announcement of my son's (Harry Miller) medical retirement from college football due to mental illness, I received an overwhelming number of messages from parents all over the country who were also walking beside their children living with mental illnesses. Many of these messages came from local parents and neighbors who shared very similar stories of fear, doubt, and loss, “My son”, “My daughter”, “My brother”, “My sister”, “My father”, “My mother”, “My friend”. So many people suffering alone, in silence right here in our community, this had to stop! How wonderful would it be for these people to hear each other’s stories, to realize they aren’t alone, that there were people who understood what they were going through? From this realization, the nonprofit “Don’t Make It Weird” was created in April 2023, and I received training by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities to become a “Certified Peer Specialist – Parent”. We started with billboards and banners, directing people to the DMIW.org website for information and resources. Soon, I started looking for places for this group to meet once monthly to share our “lived experiences” with one another. We started to bring in speakers and advocates, but as the group grew, it became more challenging to find a private space to meet. The idea of a place of our own took root and began to grow.
We are not counselors and DO NOT provide counseling services.
We are peers who walk this journey beside one another, together. What we hope to provide for the community are resources, referrals, support, education, wellness classes, and positive experiences in general, particularly for our young people who are struggling so terribly, so when negative experiences occur, we are all better equipped in mind, body, and spirit. What we DO provide:
- Quiet after school study space
- Free community wellness classes
- Suicide Prevention Training – 2-hour class for everyone
- Youth Mental Health First Aid – 8-hour class for parents, teachers, coaches
- Guest Speakers & Advocates on a wide variety of topics
- Community Classes on a wide variety of subjects
- Life Skills Club for Teens
- Group Mental Performance Coaching for Performance Anxiety and Confidence Building
- Peer support, and so much more
Mental health IS health. Mental illness IS illness. Just like any other illness, it can be chronic, it can be mild or severe, it may or may not require medication, it can be life-threatening, it requires monitoring, and it deserves the same amount of attention and support. We hope you will join us in our mission to break the stigma while building a resilient, compassionate, and loving community.
Kristina Miller, CPS-P
Certified Peer Specialist - Parent
VP and Director, DMIW, Inc
About our back story...
Harry Miller appeared to have it all. The 2019 graduate of Buford High School (Georgia) was the valedictorian of his class, a missionary who serves on the board of “Mission For Nicaragua”, and a “Five Star” football recruit who had full scholarship offers to nearly every top football program in the country. Ultimately, he chose to play at THE Ohio State University where he saw time on the field playing as a freshman and would soon be interviewing agents who wanted to represent him in the NFL draft as a high round pick. All was going as planned, or so everyone thought. Late in the evening in August 2021, Harry would make a call to his mother that changed the trajectory of all their lives forever with five words, “I can’t do this anymore.” The following day after speaking to his Head Coach Ryan Day, telling him about his overwhelming desire and intent to take his life, he received the help he desperately needed. Like any other injury or illness, Harry began working with professionals to help heal from an illness that no one else could see, but everyone was talking about, “Where is Harry Miller?” After quietly sitting out of the 2021 season with much speculation as to his whereabouts Harry decided it was time to put an end to the false narratives circulating and tell his story by announcing his medical retirement from football. His statement caught the hearts of the country, and he was instantly catapulted into a newer, more important role, Mental Health Advocate. His mission is simple, to break the stigma surrounding mental illness by raising awareness and education, using the motto, “Don’t Make It Weird”, talk about mental health.
DMIW is talking about mental health...
- All
- CENTER
- COMMUNITY
- MEDIA
- Uncategorized
Harry’s Medical Retirement Statement
*(Warning: There are descriptions of self-harm and suicide.)
Posted on Social Media on March 10, 2022:
I am medically retiring.
I would not usually share such information. However, because I have played football, I am no longer afforded the privilege of privacy, so I will share my story briefly before more articles continue to ask, “What is wrong with Harry Miller?” That is a good question. It is a good enough question for me not to know the answer, though I have asked it often.
Prior to the season last year, I told Coach Day of my intention to kill myself. He immediately had me in touch with Dr. Candace (Williams) and Dr. Norman, and I received the support I needed. After a few weeks, I tried my luck at football once again, with scars on my wrists and throat. Maybe the scars were hard to see with my wrists taped up. Maybe it was hard to see the scars through the bright colors of the television. Maybe the scars were hard to hear through all the talk shows and interviews. They are hard to see, and they are easy to hide, but they sure do hurt. There was a dead man on the television set, but nobody knew it.
At the time, I would rather be dead than a coward. I’d rather be nothing at all, than have to explain everything that was wrong. I was planning on being reduced to my initials on a sticker on a back of a helmet. I had seen people seek help before. I had seen the age-old adage of how our generation was softening by the second, but I can tell you my skin was tough. It had to be. But it was not tougher than the sharp metal of my box cutter. And I saw how easy it was for people to dismiss others by talking about
how they were just a dumb college kid who didn’t know anything. But luckily, I am a student in the College of Engineering, and I have a 4.0 and whatever accolades you might require, so maybe if somebody’s hurt can be taken seriously for once, it can be mine. And maybe I can vouch for all the other people who hurt but are not taken seriously because, for some reason, pain must have pre-requisites. A person like me, who supposedly has the entire world in front of them, can be fully prepared to give up the
world entire. This is not an issue reserved for the far and away. It is in our homes. It is in our conversations. It is in the people we love.
I am not angry. I had to lose my anger because I did not know if God would forgive me if I went to Him in anger. I did not know how the Host of Hosts would respond to my untimely arrival, and I did not want to tempt Him. So in my sadness, I lost my anger and learned many things. I learned what color blood is through the tears in my eyes. I learned that the human ear can not distinguish between the two when their drops hit a tiled floor. But above all, I learned love, the type of love that can only be
pieced together by the mechanism of brutal sadness.
And so, I will love more than I can be hated or laughed at, for I know the people who are sneering need most the love that I was looking for. The cost of apathy is life, but the price of life is as small as an act of kindness. I am a life preserved by the kindness that was offered to me by others when I could not produce kindness for myself.
We ask, “How could this have happened?” but that single question can not absolve us of all the questions we might have asked while it was happening.
I am grateful for the infrastructure Coach Day has put in place at Ohio State, and I am grateful he is letting me find a new way to help others in the program. I hope athletic departments around the country do the same. If not for him and the staff, my words would not be a reflection. They would be evidence in a post-mortem. God bless those who love. God bless those who weep. And God bless those who hurt and only know how to share their hurt by anger, for they are learning to love with me.
I am okay.
There is help, always. 800-273-8255
“Dum Spiro Spero” – While I Breathe, I Hope.
