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Peter Ashenden Kiniki Bermudez-Walker Lana Castle Mark A. Davis, MA Anthony J. Ernst, PhD Larry Fricks Nancy Fudge Vic Hernandez Lucinda Jewell

William B. Lawson, PM, PhD, DFAPA Julio Licinio, MD John McManamy Stephen Propst, MBA Gregory Simon, MD, MPH Ross Szabo

General Session Speakers

Gregory Simon, MD, MPH

Gregory Simon, MD, MPH, of Seattle, is the new Scientific Advisory Board chair for DBSA. Dr. Simon, a senior investigator for the Group Health Center for Health Studies and holds an appointment as a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington, is widely recognized as one of the country's top researchers and physicians.

He also practices adult psychiatry in Group Health’s Behavioral Health Service.  Dr. Simon completed residency training in internal medicine at the University of Washington and in psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital followed by fellowship training in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program.

Dr. Simon’s research has focused on improving care for people with mood disorders.  Specific research areas include epidemiology of mental disorders, management of depression in primary care, cost-effectiveness of psychiatric treatments, and psychosocial treatments for depression and bipolar disorder.  He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance and on the editorial boards of Psychological Medicine, General Hospital Psychiatry, and Current Opinion in Psychiatry.  He has authored or co-authored approximately 150 scientific publications, most of them related to care of mood disorders.

Breakout Session Speakers

Peter Ashenden

Mr. Ashenden is a consumer/survivor and the Executive Director of the Mental Health Empowerment Project (MHEP).  He provides training to consumers/survivors and mental health professionals around New York State and has been active in starting many self-help groups.

He has been an active member of numerous boards.  He is a former Commissioner of the Certification Commission of USPRA (formerly IAPSRS). He is an Executive Committee Member of the Board of USPRA. Additionally, he is an Executive Committee Member and the USPRA representative for the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, (NYAPRS). Peter is a past member of the CARF (the Accreditation Association) Board and a current member of the CARF International Advisory Committee. He is a former member of the Board of PEOPLe, Inc., the Mental Health Association of New York State (MHANYS), and is a past Treasurer for the Peer Accreditation Project of New York State.  

Peter is certified by Mary Ellen Copeland to train recipients of mental health services in the Wellness Recovery Action Plan; a member of the Copeland Speaker’s Bureau and is a member of the Advisory Committee to Mary Ellen Copeland’s Wellness Recovery Center.

Lana Castle

Austin-based Lana Castle is a bipolar writer, speaker and mental health advocate with a passion for the creative arts. She is the author of three books: Finding Your Bipolar Muse, Bipolar Disorder Demystified, and Style Meister (a book about editing and publishing). She has 28 years’ experience in communications and training, as well experience in cartooning, graphics arts, dance, music, photography, theatre, and video and filmmaking. 
 

Mark A. Davis

Mark A. Davis is a liaison to several communities including behavioral health consumer/survivors, people living with HIV/AIDS and individuals and groups representing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) citizens.  He is the Founding President of the PA Mental Health Consumers’ Association (PMHCA) in 1987 and has worked in the mental health consumer/survivor movement for 22 years. 

Mark tested HIV-positive September 27, 1988 and is a long-term survivor living with the virus.  He also is a person living with bipolar II and in recovery from drugs and alcohol addictions. He has been in the forefront of national, state and local efforts to eliminate the health and behavioral health disparities of sexual and gender minority cultures. 

He facilitates the DBSA Pink & Blues, an LGBT recovery peer support group in Philadelphia.  He is a consumer advisor to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline - 1-800-272-TALK - as a survivor of his sister Jennifer's suicide and a suicide attempt survivor.  Mark was honored with the Howie The Harp Arts Award at Alternatives ’06 in Portland, Oregon.  Howie was an international leader in the mad pride civil rights movement dating back to the 60’s and the award is given to a person who has excelled in the arts to promote recovery and resilience of people labeled, stigmatized and discriminated based on a mental health diagnosis. 

His drag with a tag character - Miss Altered States - had rave reviews in the 10th Annual Philadelphia Fringe Festival performance of “She’s Here, Queer and Crazy, too!”  "She" also won best individual performance in the Philly LGBT Pride Parade in 2005.  "He" also was the recipient of the 2006 Philadelphia Human Relations Commission’s Human Rights Award for Community Service and PA Department of Public Welfare, Office of Mental Health Substance Abuse Services and PMHCA recognition for improving the lives of people with mental illness.

Anthony J. Ernst, PhD

Anthony J. Ernst, PhD, is the director of Technology Transfer for SAMHSA's Co-Occurring Center for Excellence (COCE) at CDM Group, Inc., and an active member of COCE’s senior team. COCE was created to help SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) provide states, local communities and individual health care providers with the information, technology resources and training they need to care for people with co-occurring health problems, such as substance use and mental illness. Dr. Ernst’s experience and accolades include

• More than 25 years’ experience in the mental health and substance abuse fields
• Teaching awards as adjunct faculty at the University of Texas and the University of Illinois
• Presenter at many national and state conferences
• Manager of both inpatient and outpatient behavioral health programs, as well as a private practice
• Licensed chemical dependency counselor
• Licensed advanced clinical social worker

Larry Fricks

Larry currently serves as the Director of the Appalachian Consulting Group, Inc. For nearly 13 years Larry was Georgia’s Director of the Office of Consumer Relations ad Recovery in the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases. He is a founder of the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network, Inc., that now has some 3,000 members, a founder of Georgia’s Peer Specialist Training and Certification and a founder of the Georgia Peer Support Institute. He served on the Planning Board for the Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance and the Board of Directors of the National Mental Health Association. He is also on the Advisory Board for The Carter Center Mental Health Journalism Fellowships. Larry has a journalism degree from the University of Georgia and has won journalism awards from the Associated Press, the Georgia Press Association, Gannet Newspapers, the National Mental Health Association of Georgia and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill-Georgia. He is the 1995 recipient of the Clifford W. Beers Award given annually by the National Mental Health Association and the 2001 recipient of the American Association for World Health Award for significant contributions to improving community mental health. In 2004, he received the Recovery Award from International Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services.
 

John McManamy

John McManamy is a former financial journalist with a law degree. John was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1999 at age 49 following a suicidal depression and a lifetime of denial. Soon after, as a means of coming to terms with his illness, he started up his award-winning free email Newsletter, “McMan’s Depression and Bipolar Report,” and website, “McMan’s Depression and Bipolar Web". In the fall of 2006, John published his first book, ‘Living Well with Depression and Bipolar Disorder.’ John is a widely respected and outspoken consumer advocate, offering insights and information to those living with a mood disorder. You can sign up for John’s Newsletter on his website at http://www.mcmanweb.com/.

Stephen Propst, MBA

Stephen Propst is Chair of the DBSA Board of Directors, president of DBSA Metro Atlanta and is an active voice on radio/television and in print.  His column appears regularly in bp magazine.  He is a writer, a conference speaker and a consultant to families and patients who seek to successfully confront mental illness and have meaningful lives.  Stephen has an MBA from Michigan State University and previously worked in the hotel/restaurant field.

Stephen will be a presenter at the 7th International Conference on Bipolar Disorder in Pittsburgh, PA.

Ross Szabo