National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery

Molly has been the Executive Director of Grassroots Empowerment Project Inc. (GEP), a statewide organization in Wisconsin for 10 years and is responsible for the fiscal, program and personnel development and management of the organization. During her tenure as GEP Executive Director she has established the agency as a free standing, consumer controlled non-profit organization, more than doubled the agency’s budget and has worked collaboratively with consumers and policymakers across the state to strengthen the voice of the consumer movement.

Mike is the Executive Director of On Our Own of Maryland, Inc., a statewide mental health consumer advocacy and education organization, which has a combined membership of over 1,400 people and represents 20 affiliated independent, mental health consumer-operated agencies around Maryland. Mr. Finkle is also a former Chairperson of the joint Maryland Advisory Council on Mental Hygiene and the federal P.L. 102-21 State Planning Council. He has been involved in mental health consumer advocacy since 1981 and helped coordinate and host the first national Alternatives Conference which was held in 1985 in Baltimore, MD.

Sally Zinman has been a pioneer in the mental patient rights movement for almost thirty years. In 1977, Sally founded a client-run organization called the Mental Patients' Rights Association in West Palm Beach, Florida. This organization developed a small, unfunded, all-volunteer client-run community center and shared living space. These were among the first client-run drop-in centers and supportive housing projects in the country. Later, in 1985 in Berkeley, California, she helped found the Coalition for Alternatives in Mental health, known as the Berkeley Drop-In Center, one of the first funded self-help agencies in the country.
Sally has been passionate about systemic change as well as direct services. She was a founding member of the California Network of Mental Health Clients, a statewide rights organization working to develop and expand self-help groups throughout the state, to confront stigmatizing attitudes about mental health clients, to provide a strong voice of, by and for mental health clients, and to promote and instill the rights of clients. Today she serves as its Executive Director.

In 1986, Sally co-edited and wrote articles for Reaching Across: Mental Health Clients Helping Each Other, which has been used by mental health clients and professionals throughout the country as a manual for understanding and starting self-help programs. A sequel, which Sally co-edited and for which she also wrote articles, Reaching Across 2: Maintaining Our Roots/ The Challenge of Growth, was published in 1994.

Sally is a workshop presenter, keynote speaker, and consultant on issues of clients' perspective, self-help programs, the consumer/survivor movement, and rights protections and advocacy throughout the United States.

Co-Founder and Director of Advocacy/Program Development of Consumer Action Network (CAN) is a leading advocate on consumer issues in the District of Columbia. She has promoted self-direction and recovery for users of mental health services in many ways, from co-launching the first consumer-operated professional organization, to promoting entrepreneurship concepts for consumers, and Serving on various State and national-level committees and advisory boards, including the DC State Mental Health Planning Council. She encourages people who use services to be involved in policy and program development to become drivers of system change. Effie is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless and is passionate about enhancing housing options for persons with disabilities.

Joseph Rogers is executive director of the National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse, one of five consumer and consumer supporter national technical assistance centers funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration/Center for Mental Health Services; and chief of advocacy of the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania. He has testified before U.S. Senate committees; has consulted in more than 30 states, as well as nationally and internationally; has served on numerous boards and committees; and has received a number of local and national awards, including the 2005 Heinz Award for the Human Condition, which is accompanied by a $250,000 unrestricted cash award.

Linda has been the Executive Director of the statewide consumer run agency of Vermont (Vermont Psychiatric Survivors) for 9 years. Previously she was the Recovery Education Coordinator for Vermont Recovery Education Project. Linda began having mental health issues at age 6. She is passionate about recovery and building peer leadership. Linda believes that recovery is a personal process which each individual must define for one’s self.

Dan obtained a PhD in biochemistry and carried out neurochemical research at the National Institutes of Mental Health. During the course of that work, he was labeled with mental illness. He recovered, earned a medical degree and became a psychiatrist. As co-founder and Executive Director of the National Empowerment Center, he has been an outspoken advocate for rights and recovery. Dan was a Commissioner on the White House New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. He promotes recovery throughout the US and in Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, United Kingdom, Portugal and Korea.

My home is Lafayette, Louisiana and I am very happy to be an advocate for those of us who suffer from mental illness. I am presently president for the primary state consumer organization, Meaningful Minds of Louisiana. My advocacy work has been to bridge gaps between Office of Mental Health and those that are served by this consumer-run organization, I am President of the local chapter for Mental Health Association and co- chair for the Regional Advisory Council in my region. I am also very active in committees within my state on the state level. Making a difference is what I choose to do with my life.

Kathy is Director of Consumer Organization and Networking Technical Assistance Center (CONTAC), West Virginia, which oversees implementation of self-help education and training programs such as the Leadership Academy. She has facilitated Leadership Academy workshops and presentations for several years as well as authored articles on leadership and empowerment. Ms. Muscari applies both personal and professional expertise to facilitate skill-development in areas of wellness and recovery, non-profit governance, transformational leadership, and peer support.