2025 Annual Meeting Information & Board of Directors Candidates

Save the Date! The Annual Meeting will be held on Monday, November 17 from 7:00 – 8:00 PM on Zoom. Connect with affiliates, vote for new board members and bylaws, and discuss organizational matters.  Don’t miss this opportunity to contribute and connect! Keep reading to learn more about this year’s Board of Directors candidates.

In order to vote in the election of the Board of Directors you must be a current member of NAMI Massachusetts in good standing with dues paid as of October 3, 2025. Whether you have Open Door, Regular, or Household memberships, you only get one vote. Each eligible member will receive a link by email on November 14th to the online voting portal. If you do not receive this link, please first check your spam/junk folder. If you did not receive the email, please contact elections@namimass.org. Voting will open at 9:00 am on Monday, November 17 and will remain open until 11pm.

We will be announcing the results of the Board election on Wednesday, November 19th.

 

From the beginning of my life, I have always identified as someone who wanted to change the world. In first grade, I would go door to door in my neighborhood, selling handmade bracelets and fusion bead projects, raising money for different organizations without really having one I was truly passionate about, until my mental health challenges threatened my life.

I live in eating disorder recovery, along with OCD, anxiety, and major depression. I share my story openly so others can feel safe sharing their own. From creating my own community organization to building spaces and opportunities through events and published books, it is imperative in my recovery that I not only speak to my own experience but also uplift the voices of others.

I have also had the honor of sharing my story with thousands of individuals through speaking engagements, viewings of my mental health documentary, and purchases of my mental health cookbooks. As much as I have accomplished, I struggle every day and believe I have an understanding of what a messy and realistic recovery looks like, as I am very much living it.

As much as I love my work, it sometimes feels isolating or like I am yelling into a void. Being part of the NAMI Massachusetts Board of Directors, I believe, would give me the opportunity to collaborate with others who are passionate about mental health and to help create sustainable and lasting change.

In addition to my mental health story, I bring experience in fundraising, event planning, organization, and graphic design. I also hold my master’s in public health and can assist with grant applications.

Amidst everything else, I am still that girl selling my handmade products in hopes of making a difference, but now I hope to do so on a larger scale, where I can truly contribute to something I am passionate about in order to help change the world.

Thank you for your consideration.

I am by trade an attorney (JD) and a researcher and developer (PhD), with a focus on mental health. I have also worked extensively with the community on advocacy matters, program development (such as peer support and young adult initiatives), and participatory research. I believe my primary skills are in strategizing to build advocacy teams that can impact state mental health policy.

As a peer, I myself have a bipolar condition. I have been on SSDI, am still on medication, and have lived in a halfway house, with numerous hospitalizations, though the last one was over 25 years ago. I also bring an understanding of the services offered and the importance of community participation.

My more focused skills are in legal management (including personnel and HR), grant development, and non-profit governance, having run a non-profit organization for over 12 years. As mentioned above, my legal expertise is in mental health, with a particular focus on employment.

In my consulting work, I am frequently asked to write grants and papers. I often see documents that lack clarity or focus, and I believe I can assist NAMI Mass in strengthening the quality of its written materials. I have built businesses based on financial growth and would like to help develop steps to support that within NAMI Mass as well.

I am dedicated to making NAMI Mass the strongest advocacy voice in Massachusetts. I have been involved in this field for a long time and helped lead a successful peer-based advocacy movement. From that experience, I saw how, with strong leadership, NAMI Mass could become that kind of powerful voice.

I ran a successful non-profit for 12 years and know what it takes. My unique perspective comes from being a person with lived experience and from having worked in Massachusetts mental health policy and practice for over 25 years. Much of that time has involved collaboration with state agencies, providers, managed care organizations, and community groups to improve quality.

Ten years ago, when my daughter experienced a mental health crisis, I was introduced to NAMI Mass by a friend. Parenting mostly on my own, I was frightened, anxious, lost, and lonely. Hearing the stories of other caregivers, and the stories of those living with mental health conditions, filled the void of loneliness I felt with understanding, empathy, and compassion. I learned that I was not alone and that NAMI Mass offered a family and community of resources to support those impacted by mental health issues.

I found that my path to healing would be through getting involved in activities to increase mental health awareness and through the connections I made in the process. It was through other families I met, who understood, as a mother, how helpless I felt, that I came to recognize the profound emotional impact this experience had on me, my relationships, my work, and my finances. Unlike doctors and clinicians, families understood how challenging it is to work within the system and to secure the support and treatment that my daughter needed.

These experiences led to involvement. I became a regular speaker in NAMI Mass’s school-based programs, spoke to legislators on Beacon Hill, and trained as a NAMI Basics instructor to support other parents like me. As a member of the inaugural class of Sharing Our Stories, I now regularly share my story in Crisis Intervention Team training for law enforcement. Each opportunity to share my story and connect with law enforcement, educators, and families contributes to my ongoing healing.

I’ve worked in corporate Human Resources for over 30 years, and I am fortunate to work for an organization deeply committed to philanthropy. I’ve taken advantage of paid volunteer days to present on behalf of NAMI Mass and secured $50,000 through two grants from our foundation, which invites employees to support organizations we care about.

Most recently, I proposed (and it was approved) launching “Gordon Brothers Cares” — an initiative to prioritize wellbeing in the workplace, increase global awareness, reduce stigma around mental health conditions, and offer educational support to employees and managers. We have pledged to be “Stigma Free,” and we are partnering with NAMI Mass to leverage its resources. Throughout my career, I have prioritized helping people be the best they can be at work and advocating for companies to recognize the importance of prioritizing mental health in the workplace.

If elected to the board, I will bring passion, energy, and a commitment to advancing NAMI Mass’s mission. My goals include identifying prospective corporate partners, building relationships, and expanding NAMI Mass’s reach while raising awareness about its role as a leading provider of mental health education and support.

Perhaps more important than my professional experience is my perspective as a mother who is intimately familiar with what it is like to fight for her child and who understands the vital role NAMI Mass can play in that journey. I am thrilled to share that my daughter is emotionally healthy, physically well, and thriving. I remain deeply committed to NAMI Mass and to reducing stigma surrounding mental health conditions.

Over the past two years, it has been a privilege to work with my colleagues on the board in effecting a major rehabilitation of NAMI Mass. After the departure of our executive director in early 2024, amidst the loss of about 75% of the staff and almost half of the board of directors, the organization was in dire straits. We were forced to make temporary reductions in programs. We faced difficult budget issues. We had lost the confidence of a portion of our vitally important affiliate community. But we persevered. A major step was elevating Eliza T. Williamson to permanent executive director. Over the past 18 months, we have rebuilt the staff and the board and are continuing to work to restore NAMI Mass to its historic status as a premier NAMI state organization.

As Vice President of the board and chairperson of the Nominating and Governance Committee, I have been at the center of this turnaround. It has been a challenging but extremely gratifying endeavor. Working with our exceptional executive director and my colleagues on the board, I have helped solve some difficult organizational issues and have chaired two Nominating Subcommittees, a critical role as we rebuild the board with energetic and committed new directors. We have revived our committee structure and are making good progress with budget challenges in the face of state funding cutbacks. And we are working to regain the confidence and trust of our affiliates. Our work is not done, but we have made great strides.

Previously, I served for four years as president of NAMI Central Mass. I have taught a Family-to-Family class and speak several times a month in the In Our Own Voice and Sharing Our Story programs. Given that I struggled with bipolar depression for over 25 years and survived suicide attempts, it is extremely meaningful to share my story of recovery and hope.

In 2016, I lost my remarkable son, Hale, to suicide. He was a junior at Yale. When I speak on college campuses, I try to send a message that I wish Hale could have heard about the importance of maintaining a balanced, positive sense of oneself in the midst of academic and social stresses.

I have built an extensive network in the Massachusetts mental health community. I serve as president of the board of trustees for the Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital (WRCH). I also serve on the Advocacy Advisory Committee of Commonwealth Care Alliance and as a Corporator of Open Sky Community Services. I am a core supporter of the Genesis Club in Worcester.

I bring to the board skills developed in my diverse background in law, mediation, and teaching. After graduating from Yale University and the University of Virginia School of Law, I practiced law in Washington, D.C., and also served as Adjunct Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law. I served as the court coordinator of a mediation program in Worcester. Currently, I am an instructor in constitutional law with the Worcester Institute for Senior Education (WISE) at Assumption University and facilitate a Supreme Court discussion group.

I first began my journey with NAMI Mass in 2015 and was blown away by the support and connection with other individuals with lived experience when I took a Peer-to-Peer class. The class was a turning point for me. I was on disability at the time and felt all alone.

Since then, I have been involved with In Our Own Voice (IOOV) on and off over the years, sharing my recovery story. In my recovery, I have had the privilege to experience good mental health care, mostly in the private sector, and some very poor care, mostly in the state mental health system. I understand the strengths and weaknesses within the system.

In my travels both within the system and in my life in general, I have experienced support and community as well as stigma, bias, disempowerment, and oppression. I became a clinical psychologist in 2011, and I now provide support and guidance to those in need. I often tell my patients about NAMI Mass and encourage them to become involved. One of my goals in life is to continue to help others find their voice, empower those who feel disempowered, and give hope to those still suffering.

I do this through IOOV, through my work, and also through my writing. I am currently in an MFA program and am working on a memoir about my mental health experiences. I have also written essays in literary journals about these experiences.

I am actively involved as a board member for a new nonprofit, CanDID Expressions, and I am now seeking other ways I can help enhance education, community, support, and resources to anyone and everyone we can possibly reach.

I believe my extensive mental health experiences, my successful career as a psychologist, my passion to improve and spread quality care, and my writing ability would be an asset to any mental health Board of Directors. Because of my love of NAMI Mass, I want to be a part of its continued growth and know that my participation as a board member would be an asset.

I have dealt with neurodiversity and mental health challenges throughout my life, including depression, hypomania, anxiety, and ADHD. I work through each of these very human phenomena with professional therapists, both through talk therapy and carefully tuned psychopharmaceutical medication. I have done this work since my early 20s, and I believe in being open and honest about these inner dynamics when appropriate opportunities arise.

Last semester, I intentionally customized the course I teach at Northeastern to specifically accommodate more diverse learning styles, wider considerations for international students and the kind of global cultural perspectives they bring to the thinking and work we do in design, and to also be far more inclusive of students with dyslexia, ADHD, and other neurodiverse lived experiences. The learner-centered experience I crafted really invigorated the course for everyone in the classroom and helped to better connect the students to the larger mission of design — which, of course, is to change the world.

I truly believe that we are ALL affected when people are hurt, excluded, or treated unfairly, and I recently started to delve more into trauma-informed research, anti-colonial research and design practices, and began to leverage the kind of human-centered research I do in my daily jobs as a design leader, educator, and artist/performer to do my part to progress the cause for everyone I work with directly and anyone I am in contact with each and every day.

I’m not sure if this is the most appropriate place to disclose a special interest I have in suicide prevention and related mental health and well-being — my mother died by suicide in 2019, and I firmly believe we are all going through something and need each other. We need to check in with each other and — with compassion, respect, and generosity — we need to take care of each other to the best of our ability.

I am also intentionally a very active listener. I tend to use my understanding of humor and comedy to bring my vulnerable, more serious side to conversations, which helps others open up to more personal revelations  in community or in one-on-one exchanges. I find that the act of simply, deeply listening can really help people and provide an opening for them to get back to their fully empowered, unique selves.

And, of course, as these more personal conversations come up for me and the people I engage with, I make certain that I contribute to the best of my ability, and within the appropriate limits of my training (which, in psychoanalysis, psychology, mental health and well-being, is rooted in my lived experiences — basically what I have encountered through my own challenges and the challenges I’ve faced in my upbringing and family). I always aim to reference and defer to those with more official training, expertise, and medical background in mental health and well-being.

I’ve worked in media for more than two decades, with experience spanning both creative and operational roles. Early in my career, I worked in reality TV during my MTV days, then transitioned into medical content with Medscape. For the past nine years, I’ve focused my attention on the sports world, helping athletes tell their personal stories.

One of the most fulfilling jobs I’ve ever had was during college, when I worked at the Arc of New Jersey as a care specialist in a home with about ten resident patients. It gave me a deep appreciation for the possibilities of healing and growth, and for how different tools and approaches can make a meaningful impact.

In recent years, I’ve concentrated fully on content operations. My work has included creating a production studio, overseeing P&Ls, and managing vendor and resource audits. My current role involves overseeing content operations for Sports Illustrated, The Players’ Tribune, and other brands, while leading teams across diverse cultural and professional backgrounds.

My skills include managing legal agreements, navigating media technology and content production workflows, and designing operational solutions that fit the unique needs, resources, and cultures of diverse groups. I’ve worked extensively with both internal and external stakeholders—including celebrities, publicists, and global teams. I manage the P&Ls of four content brands, have worked on integrating new employees and tools following several company acquisitions, and, with my background in creative production, I’ve led the development of campaigns and their social media strategies.

Alongside my career, I’ve devoted time to volunteering with organizations centered on mental health and media. I was born and raised in Brazil and am of Italian and Lebanese descent. I identify as bisexual and have lived with bipolar disorder for about 20 years, navigating both educational and corporate environments while exploring a wide range of therapeutic and medical resources to treat and manage my illness.

Coming from a modest background, I’ve seen firsthand how access and opportunity can shape someone’s path, which has made me especially attuned to the challenges many communities face. At The Players’ Tribune, I’ve had the privilege of working closely with athletes to share their personal stories, many of which highlight mental health challenges as well as economic and interpersonal struggles. This work has deeply shaped my perspective on the human condition, reminding me of the importance of representation, empathy, and creating spaces where people can openly share experiences that are often overlooked.

Most recently, I’ve served as an In Our Own Voice (IOOV) speaker, which has been incredibly fulfilling. At the Natural History Museum in New York, I worked on the Margaret Mead Festival, drawn by my interest in documentaries centered on global health, science, and policy. Gallop NY is another organization I’ve had the pleasure of working with; they offer equine therapy for individuals with disabilities. I am fluent in Portuguese and hold a BA in Communication from Rutgers University.

My connection to mental health spans generations and has profoundly shaped the person who sits at this keyboard today. When I was young, I only knew that my grandmother had “nerves” and sometimes “wasn’t doing well” and couldn’t handle visits with our family. I was aware that every few years her condition would worsen, leading to hospitalization and ECT sessions.

At 13, my father experienced his first psychosis and became a religious fanatic. This lasted seven years, and my family lived on a roller-coaster of fear due to the delusions, oppression, judgments, and anger that accompanied his mental health condition. Later, he experienced depression with suicidal ideations, and as a young adult I drove over an hour to my parents’ home every weekend, hoping that my father would keep going if he knew I was coming back to see him the following week.

In my early twenties, I began experiencing severe anxiety, and suffered in silence until the age of 35 when I sought treatment at Mass General and was diagnosed with Bipolar Type 2. A year later, my six-year-old child was diagnosed with Bipolar NOS; she was very rapid-cycling, treatment-resistant, and prone to rare side effects.

I made it my job to read every book on Bipolar Disorder to help her make it through school, try to thrive, keep going despite persistent depression, and not be ashamed of her struggles. A few years ago, she went off all medication, which resulted in her first psychosis and a seven-month hospital stay.

Early in her hospitalization I turned to NAMI Plymouth, and during that first support group, I knew I had found my people and that I could have hope. I was later asked to join the board and became the secretary.

Through support groups, I learned about DMH and MassHealth, which have made a huge difference in my daughter’s life. I received support, encouragement, information, and felt so much stronger emotionally.

I have participated in Walks and other NAMI Mass activities, been interviewed by local media stations, and take great joys in knowing that each step I take with NAMI Mass is a step toward less stigma, more acceptance, and a better quality for so many. NAMI Mass is an organization I have grown to appreciate and respect, and I would love to be involved in governance at the state level.

I am dedicated to improving mental health and am diligent, responsible, reliable, impartial, empathetic, organized, and love creating binders and spreadsheets. I have worked in financial management at one of the world’s largest disability insurers and the world’s largest professional services consulting firm. I have done small business consulting, spent 10 years running a farm stand, and in event planning.

I currently work as a library assistant, helping implement community programs planned by the librarians. I am currently the Secretary for NAMI Plymouth Area; I maintain the website, respond to emails, and review our quarterly financials.

I volunteered as the PTO treasurer at my children’s school for six years and was trusted to manage over a hundred thousand dollars during a unique period of playground replacement and grounds improvement.