Dr. Spaniol retired in 2004 as Senior Director at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation. He holds a doctoral degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and has over 40  years of experience in the mental health field as counselor, advocate, program developer, administrator, and educator. Dr. Spaniol was the Founder and Executive Publisher of the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal. He taught as an Adjunct Full Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Counseling at Boston University. He also founded and taught in the Recovery Center, a rehabilitation program for people with psychiatric disabilities at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation. He was President of NAMI of Cape Cod and served on the Affordable Housing Committee for the Town of Wellfleet, MA. Dr. Spaniol has published 18 books and many book chapters and articles about psychiatric rehabilitation, recovery, and families.

Ms. McNamara began her career in 1978 providing services for people with psychiatric disabilities in community programs, and in 1985 she began teaching the skills of psychiatric rehabilitation to providers in the mental health field. For 15 years, Ms. McNamara worked as an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor in the Rehabilitation Counseling Program at Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Boston University. She has co-authored several articles and curricula on psychiatric rehabilitation. She created the Professional Development Program, which offers various options for continuing education through the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation. Currently, Ms. McNamara works as the Product Specialist in the Training Division at the Center.

Dr. Gagne worked in numerous research, training, and service projects at the Center. Dr. Gagne was a senior training associate and spent her time training and consulting with mental health programs in the United States and internationally. She was the associate director of the Services Division of the Center, which develops, delivers, and evaluates innovative services for people with psychiatric disabilities. She developed many training programs and courses for mental health professionals and people who use mental health services.

Mr. Forbess was the Associate Director of Training at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University. He began his career as a provider, supervisor, and manager in community mental health centers in Texas and Maine. He received his Masters of Science Degree in Social Work from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1978 and joined the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation as a Senior Training Associate in 1985. Since that time he has provided training and technical assistance to a wide range of mental health agencies throughout the United States and Canada in order to implement psychiatric rehabilitation, person-centered service planning, and other services guided by values considered central to facilitating a person’s recovery from mental illness. He developed and assisted with the development of training technologies, manuals, guides, and program curricula and has co-authored published articles and book chapters on psychiatric rehabilitation and case management.