Harvey Rosenthal has over 35 years of experience working to provide or promote public mental health services and social policies that promote the recovery, rehabilitation and rights of people with psychiatric disabilities. From 1975-93, he served in a variety of community mental health service settings, including inpatient and outpatient treatment, case management, residential, forensic, emergency and rehabilitation settings. For twelve years, he served as Director of Albany's Potpourri Club. He is a former President of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (NYAPRS) and, since 1993, has been its first Executive Director. In this role, Harvey has helped lead numerous successful advocacy coalitions in achieving the passage of Medicaid Buy-In legislation, the MTA Half-Fare Fairness Act, the Community Reinvestment Act, Timothy's Law and legislation requiring prison-based mental health alternatives to solitary confinement, as well as increases or restorations of funding for numerous services and entitlements for New Yorkers with psychiatric and related disabilities. Harvey has also worked tirelessly to promote the expansion of recovery centered services, peer support and employment initiatives and, in recent years, a system wide focus on self direction and community integration. He has also worked to fight stigma and discrimination, to expand informed choice protections and open access to a broad range of mental health, health and a variety of public services and has long worked in New York and nationally to oppose involuntary outpatient and other forms of coercion. Under his leadership, NYAPRS has helped launch several nationally acclaimed initiatives including the much replicated NYAPRS Peer Bridger model, the NYAPRS Collective to transform community based mental health services and the NYAPRS E-News that helps provide timely informational and educational postings and alerts to about 7,500 state and national subscribers each week day. Harvey currently serves on the boards of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and the American College for Mental Health Administration, and is a member of the state's Most Integrated Settings Coordinating Council and the Governor's Adult Care Facilities Work Group. Harvey's interest in promoting mental health recovery is also personal, dating back to his own hospitalization at age 19.

Chacku Mathai is an Indian-American, born in Kuwait, who has over twenty-five years experience in mental health and community based services in a wide variety of roles including peer advocate, peer support meeting facilitator, self-help educator, community organizer and educator, community residence manager, psychiatric rehabilitation practitioner, trainer and program administrator. He currently serves as the Associate Executive Director for the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services and is an implementation partner for the New York State Center of Excellence for the Integration of Care (CEIC) and the SAMHSA Recovery to Practice Resource Center for Mental Health Professionals. He also serves as a board member and advocate for Friends of Recovery – New York, a statewide coalition of people in recovery from addiction and is a former member of the Commission that oversees the United States Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association (USPRA) Certification Program for Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioners (CPRP). Chacku is regularly invited to train across the country on peer support, leadership, advocacy and exemplary, integrated practices in supporting people with psychiatric disabilities, diagnoses, trauma related conditions and co-occurring conditions. Chacku’s personal experiences as a consumer of mental health and addiction services in New York launched Chacku and his family towards a number of efforts to advocate for improved services and alternative supports in the community.

As Office Manager, Bobbi Fain is responsible for the day-to-day administration of NYAPRS. She has ten years of management experience and has a strong background supporting not-for-profit organizations and advocating for change. 

Mary joined NYAPRS in 1997 after managing her own business "Be Creative & Print" for several years. Mary has a wealth of experience in commercial printing, desktop publishing and office management. She enjoys working on the annual conference and having the opportunity to see the people from around New York State and the country. She is the NYAPRS "font of knowledge" and fields requests and questions with equanimity. Mary resides in Delanson, NY and is a member of the Planning Board of the Village of Delanson.

Kelly Stengel has an MPH from SUNY Albany with a concentration in health policy and management. Since joining NYAPRS in 2010, Kelly has developed training resources and tools to improve the implementation of the Ticket-to-Work Program in New York State and contributed to other deliverables under the Medicaid Infrastructure Grant (MIG). During the past year Kelly has also coordinated the development of educational tools for the We Can Work and We Can Save Campaigns. Recently, Kelly joined NYAPRS full-time as the Assistant Director of Community and Economic Development and Project Coordinator for the Academy of Peer Services.

Tanya joined NYAPRS in February of 2004. Prior to this, Tanya served as the Director of the Women, Co-occurring Disorders and Violence Study at Policy Research Associates. This project was the first federally funded outcome study of it's size to implement and evaluate trauma services for women who had been in and out of both the mental health and substance abuse service systems. The goal of this study was to integrate services in an attempt to treat and address trauma and keep people out of services. One of the key components of this study was the integration of consumer/survivor/recovering women in all aspects of project design and implementation. Tanya oversaw the national advisory board and developed key trainings for and by survivors to better the goal of this program.

Coleen Mimnagh has been working for NYAPRS since 2003. She has worked on the Queens Bridger team as the Peer Support Specialist, as well as a Peer Bridger, helping peers transition from Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital back into the community. She is working with the CIDP (Chronic Illness Demonstration Project) as a Peer Wellness Coach. She attended UMDNJ in 2009 and is a certified Peer Wellness Coach. She is now the Downstate Peer Support Specialist for NYAPRS and also works on a new Bridger project NYAPRS has in N.Y.C. with OptumHealth. Coleen also has been able to maintain her own recovery with mental illness and substance abuse for the last 15 years. She is a dedicated worker with a lot of energy and loves helping peers in their recovery. She loves to share her experience with others, and feels that nothing is impossible if we just have faith and believe in ourselves.

Laura oversees the Peer Services Teams working in the 5 boroughs of NYC and Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island. She was recently appointed to the NYC Annual Peers Conference Planning Committee as NYAPRS representative. Laura has an extensive background in Administration; has worked as Senior Administrator and as Assistant to The Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

10 years ago, her personal journey in recovery lead her to begin work and education in the field of substance abuse. During her time in the field of substance abuse, she facilitated Women's Groups & Dual Diagnosis groups as well as early recovery groups. Her area of specialty was working with individuals involved in the criminal justice system and her cases were primarily individuals reentering the community on parole and on probation as an alternative to incarceration. Individuals mandated by various EAP & PAP programs came to her because she had established rapport with the referring agencies' staff. Another position she was proud of was Intake Coordinator at an Out Patient SA and MH Clinic..Laura really enjoyed this because it brought her in contact with almost all of the patients/clients and she was the first person they met and talked to at the agency... it was great because she knew everyone's "story" and felt a real connection to them, and from what she could see... they felt the same way.

Ruth Pasillas-Gonzales, a native of California, a Graduate of Howie the Harp Peer Advocacy Center in Harlem and a Copeland Center Certified Wellness Recovery Action Planning (WRAP) ® Facilitator, has been living in New York since 2003. Ruth is the Assistant Director for the NYAPRS Collective. The Mission of the Collective is to create Partnerships in Recovery by creating a learning environment that challenges mindsets, strengthens skills and builds a foundation for recovery through the partnering of practitioners and consumers. Ruth's approach to working with individuals and organizations has been shaped by 20 years in the For-Profit Sector as a Procurement Specialist working for such companies as Southern Pacific Transportation, DHL and Lockheed-Martin then enhanced with thirteen years of serving in the Non-Profit area as Business Manager for The Center of Spiritual Light-NYC, Peer Specialist at FEGS, Board of Trustees at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco and as a Finance Committee Member for That All May Freely Serve. Ruth is committed to sharing how WRAP® has been an integral component in getting her from the hopelessness of mental illness to becoming a partner for others in bringing hope and a practical way to rebuild one's life using the strategies of WRAP. Ruth has conducted trainings with staff on the elements of WRAP® and its effectiveness in a wide variety of Mental Health Service Settings including: ACT Teams, Inpatient, CPEP, Peer Specialist Training Programs, Bronx Psychiatric Center's Conference From Fragmentation to Integration: Multidimensional Approaches for Working with Complex Trauma, NYAPRS Executive Seminar Panel Transforming Psychiatric Emergency Services, NYC Adult Homes, ACT Regional Conference ACT Supporting Recovery and the 66th Institute on Psychiatric Services Pride and Practice: Bringing Innovation Into Our Treatments.

Colleen lives and works to promote the paradigm shift to recovery oriented trauma informed services, true community inclusion and valued roles for every person. She began working for NYAPRS in 2004, received her CPRP credential in 2005, and is a Person Centered Practices Qualified Trainer through the WNYCCP. Colleen is currently participating as a consultant for the SAMSHA Positive Alternatives to Restraint and Seclusion grant (PARS) in the Buffalo, NY area and works with Project Connect, a partnership of NYS Office of Mental Health, Division of Forensic Services and NYS Division of Probation and Correctional Alternatives and NYAPRS. Colleen has a passion for learning and growing to increase resources, skills and abilities by attending and presenting at local and national conferences and workshops. Colleen's road to recovery began in Southern California where she learned how to type and operate a computer as part of a program that supported people with disabilities to get job-focused training so they can immediately go back to work in a high demand employment area. Upon arriving in Buffalo, NY, where she moved to be near her young daughter, Colleen worked as a founding member of the Recipient Associate Managers (RAMs) of Buffalo Psychiatric Center and served on the executive committee working closely with professional advisors. The RAMs' mission is to bring the peer voice to the table at all levels of an organization including the administrative. She quickly got involved with the Erie County Partnership, NYS-OMH Recipient Advisory Committee (RAC), CARE Inc, and Healthy Alternatives in the Healing Arts- Colleen is also a Certified Laughter Leader. As a RAM she also helped pioneer a peer run, focus group survey business called RESPECT, Inc, serving on the board of directors and leading focus groups. After a year of stipend, part time work; Colleen went on to add full time work as the first Peer Case Manager for Lakeshore Behavioral Health in Buffalo, NY (5 years) to her increasingly busy schedule. As a Peer CM Colleen's life path of living an alternative life style armed her with knowledge and skills one learns effectively through lived experience. Colleen is proud to be able to work with you and your agency as a consultant to assist and support you to transform your programs.