When you meet Amy Hebel-Brenner – who you may recognize on the front cover of the 2025 Senior Care Plus Best Start Booklet – you are immediately greeted with a warm smile. Behind that smile is a passion for family, mental health, the great outdoors and leaving the world a better place.
Amy has lived and visited far and wide. Born and raised in Wisconsin, Amy had an interest in education and helping others for as long as she could remember. After completing both her undergraduate studies and master’s degree in special education with focus in education administration,
Amy brought her knowledge to Alaska at the age of 26. She spent three years teaching in small Yupik villages, eventually becoming president of the local teacher’s union. As she approached her 30’s, Amy moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, her next home of four years. Although she continued to teach, she also poured her energy into the local arts and the non-profit scene, eventually running a non-profit organization herself.
It was during this time when she met her husband David, a pilot. After several more
years together in Alaska, they decided to, as Amy puts it, “thaw out.” The couple moved to Kihei, a town on the island of Maui, Hawai’i, where they welcomed their first child to the world. Amy taught in K-8 schools on Maui for another three years. And because her natural desire to serve her community followed her there, and she helped to start a non-profit with a mission to help unhoused Hawaiians.
After those seven years, Amy and David decided to move back to the mainland to be a closer flight’s distance from David’s parents. The two ended up falling in love with
the Reno-Tahoe region, where Amy calls home to this day. While David ventured into
financial planning, Amy, of course, brought her teaching skills to the Biggest Little City. She taught English, psychology and education at Truckee Meadows Community College and Special Education for the Washoe County School District (WCSD). When Amy stopped teaching, she became a stay-at-home mom to her two children while also volunteering for her church and community.
During her year with WCSD, her years with WCSD that she noticed a needs gap in mental healthcare for children in special education. This ‘aha’ moment refocused her life into one of passionate dedication to improving the local mental health landscape – and our planet.
In 2005, Amy and her two sons (aged 9 and 14 at the time) experienced an unimaginable loss when David, her beloved husband and father to her children, passed away after a battle with mental illness. Grief-stricken, Amy and her children had to learn how to live a “new normal.”
But she channeled that grief into meaningful motivation.
Amy knew that access to mental healthcare was a struggle for many families in northern Nevada, especially for those unable to afford it. And that’s when her ‘aha’ moment morphed into an actionable plan.
“All I wanted to do was provide free counseling for people in my community who couldn’t afford mental healthcare,” said Amy.
So that’s exactly what she did. Amy trained to become a certified counselor and
provided counseling at no cost through her church and private mentorship. This generous effort led to her facilitating support groups for families with loved ones battling serious mental illness through the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
To this day, Amy is thriving as a strong advocate for mental healthcare. She sits on the board of directors for the northern Nevada chapter of NAMI where she also currently serves as treasurer.
And of course, as a teacher herself, Amy wanted to share her knowledge in facilitating support groups with others. She is a state trainer for NAMI, training community members to be support group facilitators. In addition, she teaches family-to-family classes to help families get a grasp on mental illness diagnoses, what symptoms to look out for, the different treatments available, coping skills, communication skills and more. Her efforts serve as an example of how just one ambitious person can make a difference in closing care gaps and improving access to counseling that so many people in the Silver State needs and deserves.
“When I can add some encouragement and brighten someone’s day in some way, that’s what I’m all about,” said Amy.
A healthy planet goes hand-in-hand with a healthy mind. As an enthusiast of the
outdoors and its natural beauty, Amy has a deep love and appreciation for the earth. In fact, outdoor education was her “first love.”
When she’s not changing lives through NAMI or centering herself through her church, you can find Amy on her kayak, hiking up a mountain, leading a community yoga class, exploring one of the many state and national parks in the west or spending time doing one of her favorite hobbies of all time: gardening.
Amy has not taken living on an acre of land for granted. In line with her passion for both mental health and the earth, she built a spiral meditation labyrinth in her backyard, paved to lead her to a garden right in the middle of the spiral. Even when she fell ill and tore her meniscuses after a family trip to the Grand Canyon, Amy was determined to keep her garden healthy. She turned part of her garden into a forest of dill, which she says is a “delight to watch, especially in the afternoon wind.” It serves as a peaceful backdrop while she reads, writes or paints. Once Amy heals after her double knee surgery for her torn meniscuses, she cannot wait to hop back on her kayak or venture back into the mountains.
When Amy and her family first moved to Reno in the 1990s, Senior Care Plus had just emerged as a new Medicare Advantage plan. After her husband’s father-in-law suddenly moved in with them and needed new care providers, she felt confident that Senior Care Plus could help him heal. Throughout it all, Amy was impressed with the coverage, service and attention that was provided to him.
“I was so impressed that I thought, when I become Medicare age, I want to join Senior Care Plus!” Amy remembers.
So when she aged into Medicare, that’s precisely what she did. When she shopped
around for a plan that would fit her needs as an active, outdoorsy senior citizen, Senior Care Plus was the answer.
Amy enjoys being on the Essential Plan with Senior Care Plus, as she can see any in-
network provider she wants and keep her primary care provider whom she has seen since 1994. Plus, many of her providers (especially her Renown care team) use MyChart to easily communicate and quickly provide imaging and test results. To Amy, that convenience is key.
And because she takes preventive health screenings seriously, she takes advantage of the $50 Healthy Rewards gift card she receives once a year to stock up on over-the-counter medications – just for taking care of her health.
“This is a brave new world for seniors and baby boomers,” Amy mentioned. “Prior to our generation, our elders were often left to slowly die on their own. We are not letting anyone do that to us. I love that Senior Care Plus focuses on the elders in our community. When I see the Best Start booklet with our very own members on the cover, it brings home to me that we are a small, close-knit community here in Reno.”
Amy continues to embrace a life focused on health, happiness, our planet, and of course, spending time with her children. Her eldest son, now 34 years old, recently graduated with a master’s degree in computer science and is excited for a career in alternative energy. Her youngest son, now aged 29, is happily married and living in Spokane, Washington with his wife, who both are working on master’s degrees in Marriage and Family therapy. The couple is excited to follow in Amy’s footsteps by providing professional mental health care right here in Nevada, as they love the Biggest Little City and the Sierra Nevada terrain.
With her family, community and the earth surrounding her, Amy is looking forward to the adventures that lie ahead of her.
“I want to leave this planet a better place. That’s my legacy,” closes Amy.
