NMHA Welcomes New Leadership to Board of Directors

National Mental Health Association
Tuesday, 17 June 2003

Six people who represent backgrounds in social work, consumer advocacy, co-occurring disorders, cultural competency and psychiatry joined the National Mental Health Association's board of directors at NMHA's annual conference this June.

Karl Dennis is an original founder of Kaleidoscope, a nonprofit agency in Chicago that pioneered the wraparound approach to providing support services for adolescents in transitional placements. He served as a consultant to Casey Family Programs and The Annie E. Casey Foundation, and currently advises the Illinois Department of Children and Families on quality-of-care issues. Dennis is the president of Karl Dennis & Associates, which provides training and consultation on wraparound initiatives and services, child welfare, juvenile justice, special education and children's mental health services.

Larry Fricks is the director of the Office of Consumer Relations for the Georgia Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases. He served on the planning board for the Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health and currently serves on the board of directors for the Depressive and Manic Depressive Association. Fricks was the recipient of NMHA's 1996 Clifford Beers Award, which is given to a mental health consumer who works to improve the lives of people with mental illnesses and who educates the public about these issues.

Tim Hamilton is the director of the Dual Recovery Empowerment Foundation in Prairie Village, Kan. From 1997 to 2002, he served as the community resource director for the Dual Diagnosis Recovery Network. Hamilton is a member of NMHA's Substance Abuse Task Force and the Ohio Substance Abuse and Mental Illness Coordinating Center for Excellence Advisory Council. Hamilton is the author of The Twelve Steps and Dual Disorders: A Framework of Recovery for Those of Us With Addiction and an Emotional or Psychiatric Illness.

D.J. Ida, Ph.D., is the executive director of the National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association in Denver, Colo. She served as a peer reviewer on the Surgeon General's Report, Racial and Ethnic Minority Mental Health Disparities, and participated in the 1999 White House Conference on Mental Health. Ida currently serves on the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Cultural Competence Advisory Council and the Georgetown University Child Development Center's Cultural Competency Resources Committee.

John Morris, M.S.W., is the professor of Clinical Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine and the founding director of the South Carolina Center for Innovation in Public Mental Health. He is currently serving a three-year term on the Standing Review Committee on Knowledge Application for the Center for Mental Heath Services. Morris is a long-standing member of the MHA in Mid-Carolina, and has served on NMHA's Public Policy Committee and Prevention and Adult Services Committee.

Cynthia Turner-Graham, M.D., is a private psychiatrist and a professional health and wellness consultant. Before her work in the private sector, she was the vice president of Medical Affairs for the Centerstone Community Mental Health Centers in Nashville, Tenn. Turner-Graham has served on the board of directors for the Mental Health Association of Middle Tennessee and NMHA's Prevention and Adult Services Committee.

The National Mental Health Association is the country's oldest and largest nonprofit organization addressing all aspects of mental health and mental illness. With more than 340 affiliates nationwide, NMHA works to improve the mental health of all Americans through advocacy, education, research, and service.

For more information, or to contact National Mental Health Association, see their website at: www.nmha.org