Activism
My activism centers mad liberation, non-carceral approaches to care, and cross-movement organizing. I’m especially interested in how storytelling, political education, and dialogue across difference can expand our collective imagination around crisis response and healing. My work has taken the form of writing, teaching, facilitation, curriculum development, research, and program design.
Selected Writing
Essay “The Power of Narrative Therapy” in We’ve Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health, Edited by LD Green and Kelechi Ubozoh
Selected Podcast Appearances
The Mosaic of Healing: Mental Health and Artistry | We the Unhoused
Narrative Healing: Reclaiming Your Story & the Power of Cross-Movement Organizing | DEPTH Work Podcast
The Future of Mental Health Education | DEPTH Work Podcast
Selected Trainings & Presentations
Organizations and universities I’ve collaborated with: MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NYS Office of Mental Health – Office of Advocacy and Peer Support Services, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Disability & Philanthropy Forum, Mental Health America, Partners for Justice, Sound Mind Live, Adelphi University, New York University, Fordham University
Conferences I’ve presented at: Beyond the Bars, ISPS-US, Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology, RebPsych, NARPA, APA Division 24
Educational Projects
As Executive Director of the Institute for the Development of Human Arts, I developed educational programs rooted in systemic change, experiential knowledge, and holistic care, including:
Transformative Mental Health Core Curriculum
The Core Curriculum is an in-depth, CE-accredited training program designed for clinicians, peer specialists, educators, and advocates committed to reimagining care. It explores the historical and systemic roots of the mental health system, the intersections of oppression and well-being, and alternative frameworks and practices grounded in lived experience, critical theory, and collective care.
Decarcerating Care
Decarcerating Care is a virtual panel series challenging the use of carceral frameworks within mental health systems and advancing peer-led, rights-based alternatives to crisis response. Launched in 2020, it interrogates the ways psychiatry has historically been used to control and pathologize marginalized communities – especially Black, Indigenous, and racialized people – and uplifts visions of care rooted in consent, solidarity, and collective safety.
Mad Studies Symposium
The Mad Studies Symposium was a live, virtual event held in 2024 to mark the release of the Mad Studies Reader. It symposium brought together artists, activists, scholars, and clinicians for a dynamic day of panels, performances, readings, and workshops. The event created space to explore mad identity, knowledge-making, and the politics of care outside dominant psychiatric paradigms.