Nashville Mom Turns Grief Into Youth Mental Health Mission

When Dr. Liz Willers lost her son Owen in June 2024, she faced a choice between collapsing under the weight of grief or channeling it into something that could save other families from the same pain. Two months later, she chose purpose.

Owen was 18, an artist and athlete who worked hard to manage his mental health. He died from an unintentional overdose after taking too much prescription and over-the-counter medication during a panic attack.

The tragedy reshaped everything Liz thought she understood about healing. For 25 years, she'd practiced medicine in critical care settings, intimately familiar with systems, protocols, and their frustrating limitations.

Before Owen's death, she had already been imagining a different approach to healthcare, one built around creativity, movement, joy, and human connection. Owen had been part of that vision, working on logos and dreaming alongside her.

When he died, that vision didn't disappear. It transformed into The Goldfinch Foundation, launched in August 2024 as a Nashville nonprofit supporting youth mental wellness through the very elements traditional medicine often overlooks.

"I knew I wanted to create something that was positive, that didn't have stigma," Liz says. She understood that if mental health support carried shame or labels, young people would never show up.

The foundation's name came from a bright yellow goldfinch that appeared in Liz's garden shortly after Owen's death. The symbolism went deeper than she initially realized: when the twins were born premature, her father called them "the gold dust twins," and Owen's sister Izzy would say, "I'm Goldie, and Owen's Dusty."

"But I guess Owen was Goldie all along," Liz says.

Unlike many mental health organizations that focus primarily on parents and caregivers, Goldfinch puts teens and young adults at the center. They shape the conversation, lead the programs, and define what healing looks like for their generation.

The foundation tackles the barriers that keep young people from getting help: long waitlists, limited access, and lingering stigma. It replaces those obstacles with creative workshops, movement classes, and spaces where belonging matters more than diagnosis.

The Ripple Effect

Goldfinch addresses what many healthcare systems miss: that today's young people are drowning in screens, pressure, comparison, and isolation. Anxiety and burnout are showing up earlier and hitting harder than ever before.

The foundation operates on a simple but revolutionary premise: healing doesn't always start in a doctor's office. Sometimes it begins with connection, with someone seeing you fully, with finding your people.

By centering youth voices instead of adult assumptions, Goldfinch is writing a new playbook for mental health support. The teens who walk through its doors aren't patients to be managed but leaders shaping solutions for their peers.

Liz built the foundation both as a memorial to who Owen was and as a mission to honor the person he was becoming. It stands as proof that even the most devastating loss can spark light for others walking through darkness.