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Dori Hutchinson, ScD, LRC
PRF Chair/PRA Immediate Past Chair
Director of Services, Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Boston, MA

Dori has worked at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University for 29 years. She currently serves as the Director of Services Division, which serves women, men and youth with serious psychiatric illnesses who may also be homeless, at risk for homelessness and experience significant co-morbidities. Her programs have included: Boston University Campus Suicide Prevention Program, College Mental Health Initiative Program, Hope and Health: an evidenced-based program of health education and lifestyle interventions for persons with serious mental illness and serious medical issues; the Recovery Center: a Holistic health Adult Education program that helps people develop readiness to change; and The Training for the Future Computer Program. She serves as an Associate Professor at Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Boston University.

Dori was the 2000 recipient of the International Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services Association’s (IAPSRS) Early Career Research Award for her contributions on health issues for persons with serious psychiatric disabilities and in 2010, received the Armin Loeb Award from the United States Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association (USPRA) for her work in promoting the health of people with mental illness. She served as the chairwoman of the research committee of IAPSRS in 2002-2004.  She is also a current Board of Director member (served as Treasurer and Secretary) and is Chair-Elect of PRA. She is also the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Employment Options, a recovery oriented clubhouse in Massachusetts.

Dori has developed and implemented recovery-oriented service initiatives that assist people who have mental illness assume their rightful roles as students, employees, residents and members of their communities. She provides training nationally to providers and programs who seek to deliver recovery-oriented services and practices. Over the last 29 years, Dori has also developed health service initiatives in community rehabilitation settings, inpatient settings and educational settings that provide health promotion knowledge and skills to empower people with psychiatric disabilities to change their lifestyles and recover their functional health that has resulted from the consequences of living with a serious psychiatric illness.

Lisa Razzano, PhD, CPRP
Academy Co-Chair
Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Deputy Director, UIC Center on Mental Health Services Research and Policy, Chicago, IL

Lisa is a tenured Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and has worked in mental health services research and training for more than two decades. She also serves as Director of Graduate Education at the UIC College of Medicine, providing oversight for the James Scholar Program for advanced medical student researchers. Lisa is a recognized expert on mental health services research and psychiatric rehabilitation, having lead funded projects exploring co-occurring psychiatric disabilities and physical health, vocational rehabilitation and employment, the mental health aspects of HIV/AIDS and treatment adherence, and special topics, including adaptations to evidence-based practices and transforming medical education.
 
For more than 20 years, Lisa has been a leading investigator at the UIC National Research and Training Center (RTC), one of three federally funded RTCs focused on psychiatric disability. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, technical reports, and training materials regarding services research and psychiatric rehabilitation, and is a member of the editorial boards of the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, Journal of HIV/AIDS and Social Services, and the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation.
 
Lisa has been a PRA Board member since 2006, is a past Board Secretary and past Board Treasurer. She also is a member of the PRA Research (Chair 2004-2006), Conference, and Multicultural Committees; she also obtained her CPRP credential in October 2008. Lisa received the PRA Armin Loeb Research Award in May 2005 and the Lifetime Achievement Award for promoting recovery from the PRA GLBT subcommittee in 2009. Lisa also has been recognized for her research and service to the field as a recipient of the John M. Davis Research Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Greater Chicago (2007); the UIC Mentor of the Year Award (2009); the UIC Excellence in Teaching Award (2011); and most recently, was named Researcher of the Year by the Health and Medicine Policy Research Group (2012).

Roy Starks, MA
PRA Chair
Director of Rehabilitation Services & Reaching Recovery, Mental Health Center of Denver, Denver, CO

As the director of the rehabilitation program for the Mental Health Center of Denver (MHCD) for more than 25 years, Roy has expanded the services to provide supported employment and supported education to over 1500 people annually. He has helped develop a resource center, which provides food, clothing, furniture, etc. to thousands of people receiving services at MHCD. He also serves as the director of Reaching Recovery. In this role, he develops relationships with other mental health centers to implement instruments to measure recovery developed by MHCD. MHCD has demonstrated that a process of measuring people’s recovery and the development of a wellness culture for staff, leads to increased recovery outcomes. Roy also oversees a very large peer provider workforce including peer mentors, and peer specialists. We also have added a young adult program which combines clinical and rehabilitation services in one facility for ages 14 to 26. Roy has provided extensive consultation, training, and workshops on the topics of recovery transformation.
 
Roy understands and appreciates the challenges faced by mental health providers. His personal experience includes overcoming childhood trauma that has increased his commitment to the recovery of people with mental illness. He recognizes that people with mental illness can recover and that we can create systems, which promote this process.

Andy Bernstein, PhD, CPRP
PRA/PRF Secretary
Clinical Director, RISE Health and Wellness Center, Tucson, AZ

Andy was a clinical and community psychologist by training, but wandered into the mental health consumer movement as a “trusted professional” in the mid-1980's, partly through his work at the NJ Self-Help Clearinghouse. His doctoral dissertation examined the development of self-help groups, and during the next 25 years he worked both as a family systems-oriented psychotherapist in independent practice and a trainer, supervisor and consultant with agencies serving people with serious mental illnesses and HIV/AIDS throughout New Jersey. 

Andy was a founding Board member of Collaborative Support Programs of New Jersey (CSP-NJ), now in almost its 30th year as a state-wide consumer-operated multi-service agency, and he served as Adjunct Faculty with UMDNJ’s AIDS Education and Training Center, helping to develop and teach curricula for case managers and supervisors in the field. He helped launch New Jersey’s Consumer-Provider Association in 2000 and was asked to stay on as a “Coach” to its Board of Directors until he left the state some 10 years later. Obtaining his CPRP in 2003, he received NJPRA’s Wellness and Recovery State Transformation Award in 2008, for “willingness to challenge the status quo and embrace profound change” in moving NJ’s mental health system towards a recovery-oriented model of care. In 2011 he received the Riki Jacobs Award for Social Justice by the Hyacinth AIDS Foundation, where for over 15 years he provided both clinical supervision to staff and direct psychotherapy services to clients.

That same year, Andy and his wife moved to Tucson, AZ, where he was surprised to be so quickly asked to serve on the Board of PRA's Arizona Chapter, the Arizona Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioners (AAPRP) as Vice President and on Southern Arizona Psychological Association’s Board as Professional Outreach Chair. He worked as a psychologist at the State Prison for a year, and now in addition to maintaining a recovery-oriented independent psychotherapy practice, he is the Clinical Director of the University of Arizona’s Department of Family and Community Medicine’s Health and Wellness Center, which teaches recovery and health and wellness strategies to people with serious mental illnesses.

Lewis C. Manges, MEd, CRC, CPRP
PRA Treasurer
Executive Director, Elwyn Behavioral Health Services

Lewis C. Manges has over forty-five years of experience managing non-profit organizations and programs. After a year as an administrator of a licensed special education school, K through 12 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Mr. Manges returned to Elwyn in 1974. During his years at Elwyn, he has held administrative positions in Rehabilitation Counseling, Adult Continuing Education, Vocational Programs, Deaf Services and Behavioral Health Services.  Mr. Manges currently serves as Executive Director of Behavioral Health at Elwyn which provides a variety of services including Outpatient, Mobile Crisis, Crisis Residential, Full-time Residential, Fairweather Lodges, Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Certified Peer Specialist and Clubhouse programs.

He serves on numerous Boards such as The Philadelphia Alliance and County Criminal Justice and Mental Illness Committee.

Lori Ashcraft, PhD, CPRP
PRF Board Member
Executive Director, Resilience, Inc., Nevada City, CA

During her 40 year behavioral health career, Lori has had a strong interest in the therapeutic effects of self-determination, choice, and personal freedom. She did her dissertation on freedom, spending a month in Russia at the time the Soviet Union collapsed, and focused her inquiry in Soviet mental hospitals, where the lack of freedom and choice was pervasive.

After a full career in California that included the Deputy Director for Community Programs of state Department of Mental Health, she re-located to Arizona where she accepted the position as Director for Adult Services for the Regional Behavioral Health Authority and served as a professor for the University of Arizona teaching psycho-social rehabilitation and managing one of eight SAMHSA funded employment demonstration programs. It was during this time that Lori became involved in the recovery movement. Through training with Mary Ellen Copeland and help from colleagues at Boston University, her commitment to recovery principles became a passion. When META Services (now Recovery Innovations), opened the Recovery Education Center in the fall of 2000, Lori accepted the position as Executive Director of the Center. Currently Lori is the Executive Director for the Recovery Innovations Recovery Opportunity Center.

Lori’s vision for the future is to continue teaching recovery principles and practices, assuring people that they can recover. She has developed several curricula designed to help individuals with psychiatric experiences move beyond recovery by finding their purpose, making their own unique contribution, and using their experiences to help others grow and recover. Her own passion for recovery stems from personal experience having struggled with severe depression most of her life.  Most of her time is spent writing books, developing training material and delivering presentations and trainings to help spread the word that recovery is proven and possible.

Beth Boersma, MSW, CPRP
PRA Board Member
PSR Program Director, Community Friendship, Inc., Atlanta, GA

Beth became part of the psychiatric rehabilitation community in 1993, when she began her career at Grady Health System.  At Grady, Beth had opportunities to develop skills in leadership, quality assurance, and program/staff supervision, as well as to participate in work groups and committees to address issues of cultural diversity, staff development and training, and adherence to service guidelines and accreditation standards.  Beth was a strong proponent of recovery while at Grady and was involved in ongoing efforts to integrate recovery principles and values into the traditionally medically-oriented healthcare setting.    

Since 2005, Beth has served as PSR/Day Program Director at Community Friendship, Inc. (CFI) in Atlanta, GA.  At CFI, Beth oversees daily PSR service provision for adults in their efforts to develop skills for working, living, learning and socializing independently in the community.   Beth is a member of CFI’s Accessibility Committee and also assists with teaching documentation skills at monthly New Employee Orientation trainings.  Beth also serves as the (un)official CFI photographer at agency activities and events.

Beth has been a member of the Board of Directors for the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association (PRA) since 2013, and also serves as the President of the Board for the Georgia chapter of PRA. She is a member of the Georgia Recovery Initiative (GRI), a stakeholder group supporting a Recovery Oriented System of Care in Georgia.  Beth holds degrees from the University of Georgia in Child Development (B.S., ‘90), Education (M.Ed., ‘93), and Social Work (MSW, ‘13).  She is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) in the state of Georgia and is also a Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner (CPRP).

 

 
Mary Gregorio, MS, LRC, CRC, CPRP
PRF Board Member
Program Director, Center Club, Bay Cove Human Services, Boston, MA

Mary’s involvement with USPRA (IAPSRS) dates back to 1975 when Center Club (Center House) along with 12 other agencies founded IAPSRS. She has worked for the agency for more than 35 years, the last 33 years as Program Director of Center Club, the first PSR program in New England. She is a past President of the New England Chapter, and current Board member of MassPRA.

Being part of the PSR community has always been a high priority for both Center Club and Mary, making sure that people in recovery are at the center of the process. Providing quality educational and training opportunities for PSR practitioners and networking with colleagues across the country are also high priorities for Mary. She believes that relationships are at the heart of all that we do and has made a career of bringing people together with the ultimate purpose of supporting people in recovery.

Jennifer McLaughlin, CPRP
PRF Board Member
Senior Program Director, Community Services Group

In May of 1990, Jen McLaughlin earned a B.S. in special education with a concentration in psychology from Millersville University. Her professional career began  with employment as a group activity therapist for Community Services Group (CSG) partial hospitalization program in the fall of that same year.  Jen has continued her employment  with CSG for the past 24 years in various roles and capacities.  She was instrumental in the development and opening of the CSG’s first Psychiatric Rehabilitation program in 1994, andsince that time has played an active role in expanding psychiatric rehabilitation across 19 Pennsylvania counties where CSG provides services.   In 2002 she earned her CPRP, and currently holds the title of Senior Program Director, overseeing  CSG’s site-based and mobile psychiatric rehabilitation programs.

Over Jen’s 24 year career with CSG, she has been instrumental  in staff training and program development. Wellness Coaching, Daily Living Activities – 20and Common Ground Trainings are some of the staff trainings she has offered to CSG employees.and she is currently on a team that is developing a Motivational Interviewing Training to promote recovery-focused communication within CSG’s programs and services.. To add to the list of Jen’s development efforts,  she headed the expansion of CSG’s behavior health/physical health integration services byembedding a nurse navigator into mobile psychiatric rehabilitation.

Jen does not limit her passion for Psychiatric Rehabilitation to CSG programs only.  She served on the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (PAPRS) from 2004-??.  In 2007, she accepted the position of conference committee co-chair and is currently finishing her last year as President of the Board. Over the past 5 years, she has maintained active involvement in various county and behavioral health managed care company recovery workgroups, Pennsylvania provider association government relations workgroups, and worked on the Pennsylvania State committee that wrote the psychiatric rehabilitation regulations that went into effect in September 2013.

Steve Miccio
PRA/PRF Vice Chair
Executive Director, PEOPLe, Inc., Poughkeepsie, NY

Steve is the Executive Director of Projects to Empower and Organize the Psychiatrically Label, Inc. (PEOPLe, Inc.) located in Poughkeepsie, NY. He has the lived experience of a mental health diagnosis and has used that experience to advocate for improved quality care and rights for others in New York and nationally. Steve has been involved with PRA since 2000, serving on the Public Policy Committee and is a current board member and past president of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation (NYAPRS) Board of Directors since 2003. His commitment to PRA is to strengthen public policy, increase CPRP certifications, and build PRA as the premiere leader in promoting psychiatric rehabilitation and recovery.

Steve utilizes a strong psychiatric rehabilitation approach to the development and operation of Hospital Diversion Respites and all peer services at PEOPLe, Inc. He is currently developing a whole health integrated care model using community based asset development skills that incorporate all community services to be responsive, efficient, and cost effective in delivering improved outcomes. He is partnering and using all community and non-traditional providers to commit to meeting the Triple Aim goals as set out by the Affordable Care Act.

Linda M. Olson, PhD, OTR/L
PRF Board Member
Acting Chairperson, Program Director & Assistant Professor at Rush University Medical Center Department of Occupational Present Therapy

Linda Olson is an Assistant Professor and Acting Chair of the Department of Occupational Therapy at Rush University in Chicago, IL.   She is a strong advocate for the mental health needs of all individuals and articulates those beliefs to her students both in the classroom and out.  Inside the classroom, she is intentional in encouraging her students to look at individuals holistically, to always remember the psychosocial side of an individual is just as important as the physical.  Outside of the classroom she invites her students to participate in advocacy efforts, whether it be writing their state and federal legislators or participating in community activities.  One of the highlights of the year is one Linda walks side-by-side with the students in the local American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Out of the Darkness Walk.  This event does more to educate students on the challenges of living with mental illness than could ever be taught in the classroom.  As a clinician, Linda has provided services to individuals with mental illness in a variety of settings ranging from community to inpatient mental health.   She currently provides consultative services to older adults living in the community who are experiencing symptoms of depression or anxiety. 

Linda has authored numerous articles, book chapters, and technical reports on the role of occupational therapy in mental health.  She is the past editor of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Mental Health Special Interest Section Quarterly Newsletter and a guest reviewer for the British Journal of Occupational Therapy and Occupational Therapy in Mental Health.  Linda is currently the Chair of the AOTA Mental Health Special Interest Section, co-chairs the Illinois Occupational Therapy Mental Health Evidence-Based Practice Work Group, and represents AOTA on The Joint Commission Behavioral Health Professional and Technical Advisory Committee.

David Pilon, PhD, CPRP
PRF Board Member
Executive Vice President, MHA of Los Angeles, California

David received his doctorate in Social Psychology from Harvard University in 1981. He is a licensed psychologist and is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer and President for Mental Health America of Los Angeles. In 1989, he was the lead writer for the grant writing team that produced the successful bid to design and implement the Village Integrated Service Agency in Long Beach, California. He has consulted in the design and transformation of mental health programs and systems throughout the United States, New Zealand and Japan. He is a past president for the California Association of Social Rehabilitation Agencies and currently serves on the Evaluation Committee of the Mental Health Services Oversight and Advisory Commission.

Dr. Pilon has presented numerous workshops on ethics and leadership issues in psychosocial rehabilitation as well as on the development of outcome measures for social rehabilitation programs. From 1999 through 2007, he served as the lead evaluator coordinating the collection and analysis of data documenting the effectiveness of the Integrated Services for the Homeless (AB34) program serving nearly 5000 people who are mentally ill and had been incarcerated and/or homeless.

Dave is the co-creator of the Milestones of Recovery Scale and has served on the Performance Measurement Advisory Committee (PMAC) for the California State Department of Mental Health. He is the Principal Writer for the California Institute of Mental Health’s Full Service Partnership Performance Measurement Toolkit. In 2004 he received United States Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association’s (USPRA) Armin Loeb Award for outstanding research in the field of psychiatric rehabilitation.

Carlos Pratt, PhD, CPRP
PRA Ex Officio Board Member
Professor, Director of Graduate Studies in Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Behavioral Health Care, Rutgers School of Health Related Professions, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

Dr. Pratt is Professor, Director of Graduate Studies in Psychiatric Rehabilitation, and Director of the Center for the Study and Promotion of Recovery from Severe Mental Illness, Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Behavioral Health Care, School of Health Related Professions, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.   The Ph.D. Program in Psychiatric Rehabilitation he helped establish and directs is the first to specifically offer the doctoral degree in this emerging field. He is past President of the New Jersey Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association, a board member of Collaborative Support Programs of New Jersey, and Vice President of the Board of Directors of Project Live Incorporated, Newark, NJ.   Dr. Pratt is first author of Psychiatric Rehabilitation , (1999, Academic Press) the first comprehensive textbook on the subject.   In addition to numerous conference presentations, he has authored articles in Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, Community Mental Health Journal, Psychiatric Rehabilitation Skills and Rehabilitation Education.   He is the Book Review Editor of the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal and a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Psychiatric Rehabilitation Skills. He is the current Chair of the Certification Commission for Psychiatric Rehabilitation.

Sharon Leigh Young, PhD
PRA Board Member
Institute Director, CooperRiis Healing Farm

Sharon Young is the CooperRiis Institute Director focusing on continual program development as well as insuring fidelity to CooperRiis values and principles. She is also charged with developing a methodology to help others learn the CooperRiis model as a way to actualize improved mental health care across the country. As a part of those efforts Sharon has offered a variety of trainings and consultation services in the United States and Canada and has published her work in multiple journals.

Although Sharon has worked in a variety of mental health settings including wilderness therapy settings, hospitals, community mental health centers, and a private practice setting, she has put the most effort in her professional career into establishing the CooperRiis programming which has included continual program development, implementation, and evaluation as well as provision of training, supervision, and direct services.

Sharon has also been committed to community service throughout her career. She was the recipient of scholarship leadership and scholarship athlete awards as a student and also earned service awards from the American Psychological Association and the Asheville Chapter of the American Red Cross. She's been a member of the Buncombe County Mental Health Task Force and the Advisory Board Member for the Asheville Family Visitation Center in addition to serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea, West Africa for two years.

A native Ohioan, Sharon was awarded a Graduate School University Fellowship for exceptional academic achievement at the University of Toledo in northern Ohio. She earned her Masters Degree and Doctoral Degree in Clinical Psychology there with a research specialty in the area of Mental Health Recovery. Sharon obtained a grant from the Ohio Department of Mental Health which funded her efforts to promote and actualize the progressive Recovery paradigm in the state of Ohio. It is the model that emerged from that research that now serves as the conceptual foundation for the Seven Domains of Recovery and for the holistic and hopeful approach that is foundational to the CooperRiis program. Sharon has had the opportunity to create an empirically validated recovery measure as well as specific recovery oriented interventions and has published and presented her research findings in multiple locations in the United States and Canada.

In her free time, Sharon loves to trail run, to travel, and to enjoy the natural beauty of Western North Carolina.