Mr. Bloch is Senior Research Coordinator at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Boston University. As an almost 20-year member of the Research Division, he assists Principal Investigators with study management tasks that include a wide range of responsibilities. Mr. Bloch has helped develop curricula that have served as the primary intervention for a number of studies. Specific areas of interest include prejudice and discrimination related to mental illness, vocational recovery, empowerment of marginalized populations, and the photovoice participatory action methodology. Mr. Bloch considers principles of human rights, civil liberties, and social justice to be the foundational basis for his work in the field.

Ms. Legere is a person in long-term recovery from substance abuse and mental health challenges. Lyn came to the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation as a volunteer in the early days of her recovery. The opportunity to meet and work with others pursuing mental health recovery in an environment that fully supports peoples’ strengths and abilities led Lyn to increase her work and eventually enroll in the Masters program. Lyn received her Masters in Psychiatric Rehabilitation in 2005. After graduation, Lyn served as the Director of the Peer Support Training and Certification Program at the Transformation Center in Massachusetts for eight years. She took on a similar role at Promise Resource Network in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she worked for six years. She also has consulted nationally and internationally on best practices in peer support training, supervision, and peer roles within and beyond the behavioral health system. She is a consultant to SAMHSA and BRSS TACs (Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale, Technical Assistance Centers) on recovery and peer support. Lyn returned to the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation in 2017 as a Senior Training Associate, supervising peer Photovoice trainers in a research project. Currently, Lyn is the Program Director for the RiseUP Above Benefits project and is working on several projects with Dr. Zlatka Russinova and Dr. Sally Rogers.

During her 40 year behavioral health career, Lori has had a strong interest in the therapeutic effects of self-determination, choice, and personal freedom. She did her dissertation on freedom, spending a month in Russia at the time the Soviet Union collapsed, and focused her inquiry in Soviet mental hospitals, where the lack of freedom and choice was pervasive.

After a full career in California that included the Deputy Director for Community Programs of state Department of Mental Health, she re-located to Arizona where she accepted the position as Director for Adult Services for the Regional Behavioral Health Authority and served as a professor for the University of Arizona teaching psycho-social rehabilitation and managing one of eight SAMHSA funded employment demonstration programs. It was during this time that Lori became involved in the recovery movement. Through training with Mary Ellen Copeland and help from colleagues at Boston University, her commitment to recovery principles became a passion. When META Services (now Recovery Innovations), opened the Recovery Education Center in the fall of 2000, Lori accepted the position as Executive Director of the Center. Currently Lori is the Executive Director for the Recovery Innovations Recovery Opportunity Center.

Lori’s vision for the future is to continue teaching recovery principles and practices, assuring people that they can recover. She has developed several curricula designed to help individuals with psychiatric experiences move beyond recovery by finding their purpose, making their own unique contribution, and using their experiences to help others grow and recover. Her own passion for recovery stems from personal experience having struggled with severe depression most of her life.  Most of her time is spent writing books, developing training material and delivering presentations and trainings to help spread the word that recovery is proven and possible.

Sharon Pritchett recently retired after many years of teaching Photovoice and being associated with Boston University’s Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation. She became interested in teaching Photovoice after taking several Photovoice classes and also co-authored the Vocational Empowerment Photovoice Workbook and Leader’s Guide. She is a Certified Peer Specialist, holds a BA in Human Services Advocacy, and has completed many courses toward a Master’s in Counseling Psychology. Her other professional interests are psychiatric rehabilitation, addiction, and PTSD recovery.

Tracy S. Woods is a Massachusetts Certified Peer Specialist and a COAPS (Certified Older Adult Peer Specialist). She contributed as a student and an instructor at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation’s Recovery Education Program from 2007 until 2018. As a peer instructor, Tracy taught wellness classes related to substance free lifestyle, mindful eating, and recovery as a way of life. Tracy developed her knowledge and expertise in the area of stigma and discrimination through teaching Anti-Stigma Photovoice, an intervention that focuses on combatting ignorance, prejudice and discrimination related to mental health conditions. Tracy also taught and supported the delivery of Vocational Empowerment Photovoice as a research demonstration project and is credited as a co-author of that curriculum. Tracy furthermore contributed to the Center’s research endeavors via qualitative coding and data analysis. Tracy received her BA from Monmouth College and has attained continuing education in mathematics and electronics from the Lowell Institute School, Northeastern University’s College of Professional Studies.

Cynthia Piltch is an educator, consultant, and clinical practitioner trained in a variety of integrative healing modalities including therapeutic massage, Reiki, reflexology, and cranial-sacral therapy. Cynthia conducted her dissertation research on a gender comparison of the causes and consequences of stress in an industrial sample of workers. She received her PhD from Boston University, her MPH from the University of Michigan, her AB in Psychology from Harvard University, her diploma in massage from the Muscular Therapy Institute, her Reiki Master training from Arlington Reiki Associates, and her Peer Specialist training from The Transformation Center.

In addition, Cynthia maintains a private clinical practice in Lexington, MA and is a former member of the teaching faculty of the Boston University Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation where she teaches classes in Wellness and Photovoice.

Based on lessons learned from her own experience with mental health challenges, Cynthia also does peer facilitation and training to help combat stigma in several community organizations. In an effort to combat mental health-related stigma, she also founded and chairs the Temple Isaiah Mental Health Initiative, which has organized and run several mental health education events for the congregation and community beyond.

Dr. Russinova is the Director of Research at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation and a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy at the Boston University Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. She has directed several research projects exploring diverse aspects of recovery from psychiatric disabilities, including examining the patterns and determinants of vocational recovery, the role of spirituality and alternative therapies, and the measurement of mental health practitioners’ recovery-promoting competence. She has also pioneered a novel approach of using Photovoice methodology as part of psychosocial interventions targeting the reduction of personal stigma, community participation and vocational empowerment.