TAMI MICHELLE GATTA, MA, LCAT

Tami Gatta is a graduate of NYU’s Steinhardt School, where she earned her MA in Drama Therapy. A Licensed Creative Arts Therapist, she has chosen to further her studies abroad by completing an externship on alternatives to hospitalization for individuals experiencing psychosis. She is the Associate Director of a post-grad program geared towards using improvisation and embodiment as a means of healing trauma. Tami is also a frequent guest lecturer at schools including NYU and SUNY Hunter, where she discusses the Hearing Voices Movement, Peer Advocacy, and the effective use of self-disclosure in the therapeutic relationship.

Karinn glover, MD, MPH

After graduating from Howard University with a BA in History, Dr. Glover worked at Essence Magazine and then as an Account Executive for Verizon. She followed her curiosity about medicine and ultimately attended SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and obtained a Master of Public Health from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health via the highly competitive Macy Scholars Program.

Currently Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Dr. Glover teaches psychopharmacology and aspects of psychotherapy to Psychiatry and Family Medicine residents. Her decade-plus experience as a psychiatrist and leader in the primary care division at Montefiore Health System has informed her approach to health equity, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEI+B), and the styles of leadership that produce organizational success.

NOAH Gokul, ba, CPS

Noah Gokul (He/They) is the Program Coordinator at the Institute for Development of Human Arts (IDHA) and a training consultant who specializes in anti-oppression, peer support services, and youth-oriented service training. He has worked as a Peer Specialist for three years in a young adult program for first episode psychosis and has facilitated mental health training in a wide variety of settings.

Edwin J. lopez-soto, jd

Edwin J Lopez-Soto spent a total of 24 years working with legal services and the premier statewide support center in the country, the Greater Upstate Law Project, before joining the faculty of the Employment and Disability Institute. Over time he became a specialist in post-entitlement and return to work issues. Ed has written extensively on return to work as well as post-entitlement issues. Mr. Lopez-Soto has presented seminars on hundreds of occasions over the past 25 years for legal services attorneys, the private bar, lay advocates, agency personnel and persons with disabilities. Most of the seminars have focused on Social Security, SSI, post-entitlement and return to work issues. It was this aspect of his work that developed into a contractual relationship with the Work Incentive Support Center at Cornell University's ILR School. Ed continues to provide training and technical assistance concerning work incentive programming. Ed also serves as faculty on ytiONLINE, the institute's distance learning program for benefits planners and others interested in learning about the Social Security disability and work incentive programming. Recently, Ed and his colleague Ray Cebula, completed a new curriculum for work incentive benefits practitioners who provide benefits planning services to youth on SSI between the ages of 16 and 24.

RAY cebula, jd

Ray Cebula graduated from UNH Franklin Pierce Law Center in 1982. He has spent his entire legal career working with the low income and disabled population. He is a nationally recognized expert in "return to work" issues and has 40 years experience handling issues with the Social Security Administration and State agencies providing services and benefits to the low income and disability communities. He currently serves as the Director of the Work Incentive Support Center located at Cornell Universities Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability.

William J. Gonzalez, CRPA, RCP

William J. Gonzalez is a Certified Recovery Peer Advocate (CRPA), and is the Administrator for Peer Services, Training and Development at TRI Center Inc., with SUD outpatient treatment centers in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn. In addition to his role as a CRPA and Peer Supervisor, he is a Best Practice Trainer (BPT) for FOR-NY, an OASAS instructor for Recovery Coach/CRPA Training and a Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR) trainer for a number of their trainings, which include Recovery Coach Academy, Ethical Considerations for Recovery Coaches, Coachervision (Peer Supervision), Recovery Coaching for Professionals, Recovery Coaching and Spirituality, and Recovery Basics for Parents. He also provides additional trainings for the Supervision of Peers and is a certified Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) Seminar 1 facilitator.

Lyrica Fils-AiMé, LCSW-R, RPT-S

Lyrica Fils-Aimé, LCSW-R, RPT-S, facilitates from her identity as a Black Haitian first-generation immigrant with a white WASP parent. Lyrica has worked in education and mental health for over 15 years, and is particularly interested in dismantling the oppression in therapeutic modalities. Lyrica's approach is to honor ancestral lineage, while constantly acknowledging privilege and power to prevent being complicit in oppression regarding classism, ableism, islamophobia, homophobia and transphobia. Lyrica believes facilitated workshops around equity should be enjoyable, full of connection and meaning, with deep learning. Her goal is for participants to be able to return to the work.

Lyrica specializes in workshop topics in Ancestral Trauma, Wisdom & Resilience, Multicultural Play Therapy Techniques, Decolonizing Wellness, Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma Informed Practices, and healing for racial justice warriors.

john p. agosta, pHD

Dr. Agosta is an Industrial-Organizational & Occupational Health Psychologist who works for Harver as a Senior People Science Consultant and is an Adjunct Professor at St. John's University. Being a Queens native, diversity has always been an important element and value in his life. He has a sincere interest in people's employee experiences and how to use social science to improve the work and family lives of all who work.

Amelia Roeschlein, DSW, ma, lmft

Amelia Roeschlein DSW, MA, LMFT, Consultant for the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, is a licensed clinician who has led behavioral health programs and trained behavioral health providers for the past twenty years and is currently a consultant at the National Council of Behavioral Health with her portfolio in Resilience Oriented Trauma Informed Care and Integrated Health. She completed her doctorate at USC with a focus on innovation and creating large scale social change through transdisciplinary training of mental health practitioners, and a fellowship in Leadership, Equity Advancement and Diversity. Dr. Roeschlein has published research and has expertise about harm reduction in re-entry and incarcerated populations, interpersonal violence including healing families and survivors of domestic violence, personality disorders, co-occurring disorders, trauma-informed care, compassion cultivation, clinical supervision, adaptive leadership and integrated team-based healthcare.

Yves ades, phd

Since 2014, Ades Integrated Health Strategies (AIHS) has provided training and technical assistance for the implementation of best practices that facilitate engagement with high risk/high need populations. Adopting Trauma-informed Culture has been of central importance to providers seeking to enhance access to, and tenure in, services that address, both, the health and the social determinants of health for people with complex health care needs. I have worked with the NYC Health Department, community based behavioral health and primary care providers, and provider member organizations in New York City, Long Island, Rockland County and the Hudson Valley.

I am certified by the SAMHSA GAINS Center as a trainer in “How Being Trauma- Informed Improves Criminal Justice System Responses,” and I rely on the seminal contributions of Maxine Harris, Roger Fallot and Bessel Van Der Kolk as the basis of my work on adoption of Trauma Informed Culture in human service and healthcare settings.

AIHS respects the challenges and barriers providers face as they endeavor to adapt effectively to the new relationships, new payment models, new workforce competence requirements, and new technologies associated with the value-based, population health approaches in healthcare delivery. At the heart of AIHS’ practice is the knowledge, tailored assistance and guidance non-profit organizations often need to manage the inevitable tension between the business of health care and the art of caring.

CANDido crespo, MA

Candido Crespo, MA, is a husband, father, artist and educator. Each of those titles are dear to him as his art and community work stands at the intersection of each. Crespo’s long time interest in Art directed him to SUNY New Paltz where he received his BS in Art Education and later his MA from SUNY Stony Brook. During those years, Crespo was able to experiment with a variety of mediums including drawing, painting, digital photography and printmaking. Crespo’s recent involvement in the Arts includes teaching, podcasting, freelance designing and participating as well as organizing art exhibits. His personal artwork allows him to both celebrate and examine society and joyfully play through illustrations, printmaking, and painting. His community work and initiative titled creativiDAD project” aims to encourage parents, specifically fathers and male guardians to include creativity in their parenting tool belt.

John Bitondo, LCSW

John Bitondo Understory (he/him) identifies as a survivor/expatient, and has been participating in informal peer support and mutual aid since the 1990s. Ten years ago John made it his calling and career, working as a certified peer in community based mental health programs, respite centers, and warm lines. Inspired by the work, John has expanded his focus to training and supporting other community health workers. In 2021 John received his Master of Social Work from Fordham University; he has recently begun providing individual counseling in Rhode Island. John’s goals are to build sustainable peer run systems while also promoting respect, person centeredness, and humility in conventional systems.

Rev. Yokasta Tineo, LMT & Reiki Master

Reverend Yokasta, LMT & Reike Master, is a mother, a hermit, and a weaver who also happens to be a Licenced Massage Therapist, Inter-Spiritual Minister, Holistic Health Practitioner, facilitator, and founder of Kasa Healing. Yokasta offers Holistic Massage Therapy and Reiki sessions (for individuals and families), offers holistic consultations, spiritual counseling, co-creates rituals and ceremonies for various occasions and intentions, and leads group workshops and healing circles. Her approach integrates her learnings about holistic and trauma-informed somatic healing practices, nutrition, astrology, Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, mindfulness, brain-body-emotion connections, and Nature/Earth wisdom.
Yokasta facilitates healing circle on wellness and spiritual practices, trauma-informed, embodied/somatic and holistic healing tools & practices, lunar cycles & astrology, stress & energy management, mindfulness, self-massage, self-care, community care, social justice & spirituality.

Alexandra (Allie) Webb, LCSW

Alexandra (Allie) Webb, LCSW, oversees training and education at SPOP, as well as some of the agency's grant-based initiatives. Allie is a graduate of Columbia University School of Social Work and has spent her career supporting adults with a lived experience of mental illness. She joined the SPOP staff in 2016 as Assistant Director of PROS; prior to that Allie worked within the city's public hospital system in psychiatric emergency and inpatient programs. She has a particular interest in training and development, as well as quality and choice of services for aging communities.