Manhattan's new mayor, Usha Reddi, was eight years old when she arrived to the U.S. from a small village in India.

"I think that speaks a lot to Manhattan and the diversity of our population," said Mayor Usha Reddi.

Reddi has been a school teacher in Ogden for 12 years and is involved in many civic organizations including the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

"When you’re not used to having that opportunity when you’re given it, you kind of embrace it real quickly," said Reddi.

Reddi has two major goals for her time as mayor: helping people in the community with concerns related to their mental health and teaching students about the importance of civic duty.

Reddi as part of Manhattan's law board recently approved the funding of an on-call mental health provider to assist police with individuals that may be triggered by an underlying mental health problem.

Pawnee Mental Health Services and the Riley County Police Department are co-sponsors of this initiative budgeted for 2017.

"It could be that they weren’t on their medications on a certain day and something triggered them. They shouldn’t be jailed for that. That’s more expensive for us and we’re not doing them any justice," said Reddi.

Her second goal is to start up a Breakfast with the Mayor for students from grade school to college.

"What of the things we have right now is this inertia for people to run for office. Whether it’s because of money or lack of time, or other reasons they come up with for not wanting to do it. But I want to make this accessible to them. This is something that you can do," said Reddi.