Dr. Sheila Schuster is a licensed clinical psychologist with graduate degrees from Purdue University and the University of Louisville who practiced for twenty-seven years as a child psychologist. As a mental health advocate, she has spent more than four decades of work in Frankfort to improve services for persons living with mental illness and other disabilities and to increase access to health care across Kentucky.
Dr. Schuster is currently the Executive Director of the Advocacy Action Network (AAN), an umbrella organization which includes the Kentucky Mental Health Coalition (80 member organizations) of which she was a founder in 1982, and the United 874K Disabilities Coalition, representing over 874,000 Kentuckians who have a disability. AAN coordinated the establishment of the Kentucky Voices for Health Coalition, whose goal is to increase access to quality health care, especially for those Kentuckians without access. Dr. Schuster currently serves as Chair of the KVH Board of Directors.
Dr. Schuster has served in many leadership positions with the Kentucky Psychological Association, including twelve years as the first KPA Executive Director. She has chaired the Behavioral Health Technical Advisory Committee since it was formed in 2011 and was recently appointed by Governor Andy Beshear to serve on the Kentucky Medicaid Advisory Council (MAC). She was elected Chair of the MAC in 2024. Dr. Schuster is a frequent presenter of advocacy training for a variety of audiences and issues with the goal of helping those who wish to raise their voices to become more effective advocates.
She was appointed by Governor Patton as the first consumer representative on the KY Department of Insurance’s Health Advisory Council. Her advocacy efforts to improve the quality and availability of health care, including mental health services across Kentucky have been recognized with her induction into the Kentucky Psychological Association Hall of Fame, U of L College of Arts & Sciences Hall of Honor, the UK College of Public Health Hall of Fame, an honorary Doctorate of Public Service degree by Spalding University, the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky’s first Annual Gil Friedell Health Policy Award and appointment as a Kentucky Colonel.
Dr. Schuster is quick to point out that while advocacy is her passion, her first loves are her two children and five grandchildren!
