Name: Catherine Quinerly
Title: Community Voice Policy Director

Email:

catherineq@transformation-center.org

Things I do:

To be announced

List four or five things that best represent your work related experience?

1. Check
2. Back
3. Later
4. ok?

Describe in four or five sentences: How does the mission of the Transformation Center resonate with you? What, do you hope for The Transformation Center?



List in order of importance: what are some personal things you'd like to share about yourself?

1. Back
2. To
3. basics
4. Java for beginners

Name: Matthew Joseph McWade
Email: matthewm@transformation-center.org
Title: Statewide Youth Coordinator

In one or two sentences, what does your job title mean to you?

I feel my position is a doorway between young adults and DMH, a function for youth who wish to have a voice, an expression from the venue of mental illness. My position to me means progress, the progression known as maturing, and respectful discourse (for all parties involved).

List four primary things you do for The Transformation Center?

• Chair SYAC
• Help individual and organized youth find their voice
• Express that sound with the vocals themselves in creative ways involving various media
• Express that voice myself in any arena I may find myself involved
• Coordinate youth activities

List four or five things that best represent your work related experience?

• Worked various part time jobs including supermarkets, fast food, and coffee-maker
• Enjoyed delivering blueprints and the driving that entailed
• Worked as a professional mentor with young adults in the mental health system
• Coordinated peer advocacy at metro suburban RLC

Describe in four or five sentences: How does the mission of the Transformation Center resonate with you? What, do you hope for The Transformation Center?

The mission of the transformation center is a dual road: (individually) I cement my recovery by vocalizing my angle in relation to services towards others (and vice versa I hope). I envision the transformations center can help quell the stigma that segregates to a more inclusive community, state, nation, world to ensure that people, any way, are recognized for their humanness as opposed to their "idiosyncratic eccentricities" ("I Have A Dream!...").

List in order of importance: what are some personal things you'd like to share about yourself?

1. I live with my girlfriend Jamie and cat Henry
2. I have written over 14 novella's, 1novel, 3 screenplays, 3 philosophical treaties, 4 (good) short stories and a plethora of pulchritudinous poems
3. I hope to one day have the opportunity to be a cinematographer on a major motion picture
4. I'm much inclined to introverted inspection (the mind is -obviously-a world into all we - absolutely - may know)
5. Religious scriptures and their understand-ed point of view is my passion

Ruthie Poole
Email: ruthiep@transformation-center.org
Title: Special projects
April 2007

In one or two sentences, what does your job title mean to you?

Currently helping out with the metro sub- RLC; particularly in the area peer advocacy. I'm also helping with the spin off of M-POWER form the TC.

List four primary things you do for The Transformation Center?

• Mentoring/supporting the peer advocacy coordinator at the Metro Sub RLC.
• Organizing trainings advocacy trainings for the RLC.
• Coordinating the Growth and Development Committee MPOWER.
• Assisting with fundraising for MPOWER.

List four primary things you do for The Transformation Center?

• Over 18 years of peer support/ peer advocacy experience.
• Experience in the cross-disability movement.
• Extensive grassroots organizing experience.
• Active M-power member for years.

Describe in four or five sentences: How does the mission of the Transformation Center resonate with you? What, do you hope for The Transformation Center?

I truly believe in the power of hope and peer support as key elements in recovery. We need to "come out" with pride as people with mental health conditions, and join together, to support each other and find our voice as a community. We must work together in order to fundamentally change the mental health system to become person-centered and recovery-focused. My hope for the Transformation Center is that we continue to grow and to reach the most oppressed among us.
#5: List in order of importance: what are some personal things you'd like to share about yourself?

I grew up in Michigan and still have a bit of a Midwest twang. I have two beautiful boys, and I live in Malden. I love to read, cross-country ski, and hang out.

Name: Ann Stillman
Email: anns@transformation-center.org
Title: Interim Director of Operations
Length of employment: 1999

What does your job title mean to you?

Being here gives me an opportunity to coach, to support, both - emotionally and with technical assistance, and to be a small part of the wonderful work that my colleagues do. Important for my own growth is to receive from colleagues the respectful yet spirited exchange of opinions and ideas that enriches each day and carries me through the rough times.

Four primary things I do for The Transformation Center.

• Support, mentor and supervise workers and volunteers to whom I have been assigned.
• Monitor our Human Resource activities.
• Monitor all contract and grant obligations.
• Oversee work space management.

Work related experience.

• Ability to identify with what it feels like to be in crisis and to not be an equal partner in my own treatment.
• Strong organizational, administrative, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Over 8 years of experience, not only with any nonprofit organization, but with M-POWER and The Transformation Center.
• Masters level degree in community organization and social work.

How does our mission resonate with me? What do I hope for The Transformation Center?
It focuses all the work that we do on helping each other heal, overcoming barriers to accessing services and making our voices heard about what we need to recover.

What I hope for The Transformation Center is that it will bring together the diverse voices of people with the lived experience of recovery to inform mental health policy and improve services.

Personal things I would share.

• I am intensely grateful to my husband, son and daughter for gently smoothing my rough edges.
• I am a passionate, albeit, 'fair weather' gardener
• I am frequently, and occasionally unwisely, a fierce advocate for underdogs

Name: Deborah Delman
Title: Executive Coordinator
Email: deborahd@transformation-center.org
Length of employment: Since 1994

In one or two sentences, what does your job title mean to you?

To reinforce and deepen the TC's capacity to discern and respond to our grassroots community's voice on recovery and resilience - which is the wellspring of our value as an organization. To coordinate workers, founders, and a broader community to take direction from this collective 'knowing', as we learn and practice the most effective ways to share hope, skills and resources.

List 4 primary things that do you do for The Transformation Center:

• Work with the Board on priorities carved from a huge list of important ideas
• Work with dedicated co-workers and volunteers to build support for their projects
• Work with Transcom, Recovery Learning Communities, and many others to build understanding - driving recovery-oriented systems change ahead
• develop and maintain funding relationships

List 4 or 5 things that best represent your work related experience:

• worked as a cook and a community organizer early on
• helped incorporate M-POWER in 1988, entering my own recovery through participation
• directed a recovery & skill building program from 1989 to 1994, helping people to leave a state hospital, working to heal and overcome mental health disability and institutionalization
• use my lived experience of recovery daily, and sometimes my public health degree in Foods & Nutrition (yum) from the University of Maine
• stay active with Mass Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association (MassPRA) as both a learner and an advocate for services that help people build a full life of their own choosing

Describe in 4 or 5 sentences: How does the mission of The Transformation Center resonate with you, and what do you hope for Transformation Center?

I want to help in our work to build a more life-affirming world where people help each other heal from suffering and violence, where people can easily access basic human needs, and where barriers are dissolved so each person can contribute and shine as who they are. I hope that The Transformation Center can model and inspire, building strength for an inclusive and diverse community that grows through difference and conflict rather than being divided by it.

List 4 or 5 (in order of importance) personal things you'd like to share about yourself:

• I used to own a 1968 Dodge Coronet. I miss it, especially in summer
• I love nurturing interesting weeds in my garden and adding dramatic items found in the trash for vines and flowers to riot around (I enjoy a good riot - of color, of laughter, etc)
• I plan to write a great American novel when I am older. I am older, and have not written a word.. yet.

Name: Susan Landy
Email: susanl@transformation-center.org
Title: Administrative Assistant
Length of Employment: Since Feb. 5, 2008

In one or two sentences, what does your job title mean to you?

Keep people connected. Do the nitty-gritty. Get to work early.

List 4 primary things that do you do for The Transformation Center:

• Type
• Answer phones
• data entry
• meter mail

List 4 or 5 things that best represent your work related experience:

• 1992 - 1999 Independent Living Center
• 1999 - 2008 Mass Rehab
• 2008 - Transformation Center

Describe in 4 or 5 sentences: How does the mission of The Transformation Center resonate with you, and what do you hope for Transformation Center?

Transformation Center works with my peers (persons with Mental Health issues) to help them become empowered in the Mental Health System and in the community. Helping my peers helps myself.

List 4 or 5 (in order of importance) personal things you'd like to share about yourself:

1. I got my first cat two weeks ago.
2. I like to read fiction.
3. I have taken a course on graphic novels.

Marcia Webster, MA
Email: marciaw@transformation-center.org
Title: Recovery Training and Policy Consultant

Began working for The Trans Center when Jo Bower and I started the DMH funded PACT PRS meetings in Fall 2005.

What job title means to me:

My job title (hoping it will be "staff" soon!) means that the full range of my personal and professional experiences and expectations are valued. It means there is something I can do to foster the development of a recovery-oriented system across the state.

Four primary things I do for Trans Center:

• Coordinate PACT Peer Recovery Specialist meetings and liaison to DMH on the project.
• Coordinate provider trainings (Larry Fricks, HR Policy Summit)
• Facilitate "Promoting a Culture of Respect" forums
• Bring people together from across the state and across roles and funding streams and agencies so they can support and learn from each other.

Work-related experience:

1. workshop facilitator using the arts
2. Coaching peer workers
3. Analyzing data (making sense of information so that it can be used)
4. Disseminating information - writing and presentations
5. Integrating personal and professional wisdom to inspire people to find their own.
6. Expressive arts therapist-in-training at Worc Polytech Institute and a public detox for people w/ HIV/AIDS. Masters from Lesley 2000.
7. Founding member of Worc DD Task force
8. WRAP training w/ Mary Ellen Copeland
9. Founding member of Worcester and Western MA Guiding Councils
10. DMH Case manager
11. Residential counselor for adult and adolescent programs (DMH and private)

How does the mission of Transformation Center resonates with you

I resonate with me in the following ways

The need for a statewide network of peers and non-peers that is respectful and engages with the best efforts of local individuals and communities.

The power and purpose of sharing lived experiences in the context of MH & addictions treatment and clinical settings.

Hope and optimism that we can expand who we are and partner with each other, even people who have established theme selves as a MH professional or a MH client.

What I hope for the TC

• I hope for youth leadership
• I hope to strengthen the TC as a trustworthy and responsible peer-operated organization.
• I hope we can model healthy processes for decision-making, conflict resolution, communication and staff support.
• I hope we really can service as a central organizing/dissemination point for all RLCs.
• I hope we can provide peer support, training/facilitation and technical support in concert w/ other RLCs, CQI and traditional providers.

Not sure how we can do all that! Maybe the 2 RLC "direct service" contracts can become "pilot" or training programs where new practices and processes are FUNDED, used and evaluated w/ particular care.

Personal things I'd like to share

• I grew up in Vermont and live in Western MA and have strong, wonderful relationships in Eastern MA.
• I have studied and practiced photography for over 20 years. Finally, after about 15 of those years and loads of tears, I do not try to have a goal or know "what I need to get" from making images and stories.
• I love the rhythm and the smell of picking raspberries from low in the bramble.
• I am stunned and excited by the power I and we all have for forging peace!

Kerrie Fallon
Email: kerrief@transformation-center.org
Title: Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) Educator / Facilitator and WRAP Advanced Level Trainer.

As a WRAP Facilitator / Recovery Educator I am very pleased to be able to share the grassroots work of Mary Ellen Copeland and others that has grown into what is called

Mental Health Recovery including the Wellness Recovery Action Planning (WRAP).

Based on the overwhelming results that found we all have the natural awareness and strengths needed to move through hard situations and into places of personal connection, hope and possibilities either in a group or individually, “WRAP” invites you to explore, understand and change ideas, situations and /or behaviors that keep you “stuck” in fear or anxiety.

You are the expert on yourself!

Similar to my co-workers, I am involved in some other projects here. I am pleased to be a part of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Seclusion and Restraint Elimination Grant and I have also been helping to update The Transformation Center’s Personnel Policy handbook. As a trained Mediator, I hope to offer assistance in this area when needed.

How long-
I became officially associated with M-Power/ The Transformation Center a few years ago. My previous work experience has always been in the areas that celebrate, support and guarantee the rights of all.

Advocacy means-
The practice of advocacy work in my family goes back several generations. Because of this I define advocacy as a way of living life with the Intention of doing no harm and in ways that respects and strives for the betterment of us all. Each of us has this natural responsibility.

Etc-
Besides the important people in my life that I love deeply, other things about me...

*Pets-I have shared my life with many animal companions, the most recent being Koopa, a delightfully uninhibited small Poodle who taught me to find the wonder in everything. Utopia, a sixteen year old cat who tolerates the others and Bird, a green Parakeet who enjoys sitting on the porch in the sunshine are presently sharing space with me..

*I love traveling to new places, learning about the how & why of things, star gazing, and although terrified of heights, I am also a “wanna be” pilot with some experience flying a four passenger plane.

Name: Scott Francis
Email: scottf@transformation-center.org

After graduating from college with a degree in Sociology, Scott's first job was answering phones on the Samaritans suicide hotline. Scott then worked for 14 years in human services. Mostly he worked with kids recovering from abuse and neglect in residential homes. These children are between 5 and 17 years old. Asked if these kids had a lot of problems, Scott replies, "Every kid is a good kid!"

Scott heard about Recovery for the first time at certified peer specialist (CPS) training. CPS redefined how he looked at himself. He says, "It was a wonderful experience. At first I didn't want to go. In the end, I didn't want to leave." Scott says, "CPS training helped me very much because it gave me a wonderful support network." Scott created the "Recovery Is Real!" events to spread the word that Recovery from mental illness is possible. Scott works on a PACT team that is DMH contracted through Fellowship Health Resources in New Bedford...

Scott's vision for the Transformation Center/M-Power is to have more Recovery events. A big supporter of CPS, he would like to see more peer specialists employed in the mental health field and recognized for their skills and knowledge. "I want other people to have what I have an outstanding peer support network, because peer support is a fantastic part of my life!" he says.

Name: Nicki Glasser
Email: nickig@transformation-center.org
Title: Coordinator, Restraint/Seclusion Elimination Initiative and Policy Representative
Length of employment: Since 2006

#1: In one or two sentences, what does your job title mean to you?
I oversee a statewide restraint/seclusion elimination initiative. I also represent the Transformation Center on the Boston Community-Academic Mental Health Partnership steering committee and provide leadership on other policy issues as they arise and as my time allows.

#2: List four primary things you do for The Transformation Center?

1. Coordinate for the Transformation Center a statewide restraint/seclusion elimination initiative.
   • Currently that means that I am coordinating a statewide event, the restraint/seclusion policy summit, taking place on June 5-6, 2008.
   • I am a member of the statewide DMH r/s advisory committee.
   • Helping to negotiate a paid role for peers in trauma informed care consultations taking place at state hospitals.
2. Member, Boston Community - Academic Mental Health Partnership steering committee and project team.
   In addition to being a steering committee member I am member of the project team organized to oversee our first research project that looks at the perspective of people who use psychiatric emergency services.
3. Other policy issues as they arise – i.e. I helped write a proposal for TC to have role in the quality process of DMH (i.e. Quality Councils). Also helped to bring the peer perspective on a recent report issued by DMH on risk and risk management.

List four or five things that best represent your work related experience?

• worked for DMH Metro Boston area for 10 years, first as a writer for the newsletter, then as a trainer
• Did some advocacy on the national policy arena
• Public speaking and education on mental health issues

#4: Describe in four or five sentences: How does the mission of the Transformation Center resonate with you? What, do you hope for The Transformation Center?

My work for the Transformation Center is both professionally satisfying and also deeply personal. Having spent many years greatly disabled from my mental health condition, these experiences will forever define some part of me. Being a peer advocate matters to me because I deeply believe that people with lived experience can make the mental health system better, more responsive, improve the quality of care, and one that supports each persons ability to recover.