Speakers & Presenters

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Keynote Speakers

Chacku Mathai (he/him)

Chacku Mathai is an Indian-American, born in Kuwait, who became involved in consumer/survivor/ex-patient advocacy when he was 15 years old. Chacku’s and his family’s experiences with racism and xenophobia-related assault and trauma resulted in his own loss of safety and confusing extreme states, including hearing voices and other sensory changes as a youth and young adult. These experiences, including continued racism in schools, with police, and the behavioral health system, launched Chacku and his family towards a number of efforts to advocate for alternative supports, equity, and inclusion in the community. Chacku immediately experienced the challenges of being both seen and unseen as a person of color in the psychiatric survivor/ex-patient movement, leading him to search for ways to dismantle racism in every role and initiative. He has since accumulated over thirty-five years of experience in advocating for alternatives such as peer support and racial equity in community and in behavioral health systems in a wide variety of roles, always centering lived experience and human rights.

He currently works as the Director for the SAMHSA Healthy Transitions Initiative with the Center for Practice Innovations at Columbia University. He is regularly invited to train and consult across the United States on achieving racial health equity, undoing racism, social determinants of health, building collaborations across communities and systems, peer support, cultural congruence, employment and economic self-sufficiency, leadership, suicide prevention, crisis intervention, systems advocacy and implementing exemplary, integrated practices in supporting people to live, learn, work and play in the most integrated, meaningful, and self-directed roles. Chacku has received numerous awards for his work and advocacy and most recently honored as the 2020 Advocate of the Year by the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.

Paula M. Neira JD, MSN, RN, CEN, FAAN (she/her)

Paula M. Neira is originally from Jersey City, New Jersey and graduated from Regis High School in New York City. A member of the United States Naval Academy Class of 1985, she graduated with distinction from Annapolis in May 1985. A Surface Warfare Officer, she served as a regular and reserve officer, including serving in mine warfare combat during Operation Desert Storm. Her military decorations include three Navy Commendation Medals, the Navy Achievement Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon, as well as numerous unit, campaign, and service awards. After leaving the Navy in 1991, she began her career as a registered nurse. She is certified in emergency nursing and focused her career on adult emergency care and trauma resuscitation. From 2008-2016, Paula served as the Nurse Educator in Emergency Medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She also served as the co-chair of the Johns Hopkins Transgender Medicine Executive Taskforce. In November 2016, she became the founding Clinical Program Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Transgender Health and served in this role until 2022. In March of 2022, she was named as the Johns Hopkins Medicine Program Director of LGBTQ+ Equity and Education in the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Health Equity.

An attorney and member of the Maryland bar since 2001, Paula was a leader in the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy and in the change of military regulations to allow for transgender military service. As part of her role at Hopkins, she lectures nationally on the need for improved transgender cultural awareness and health equity. In 2015, she made naval history by becoming the first transgender Navy veteran to have her discharge documentation updated to reflect her correct name by order of the Navy. In 2016, the Secretary of the Navy named her to be the co-sponsor of the USNS HARVEY MILK (T-AO-206) and in November 2021, she christened the ship in San Diego. In 2018, she was awarded the GLMA Achievement Award, and in 2020, she was inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in recognition of her leadership in advancing diversity and inclusion both in the United States Armed Forces and in healthcare. She is the first United States service academy graduate to achieve this honor in American nursing. Paula and her partner reside in Bowie, Maryland.

Evelyn Clark (she/her)

Evelyn Clark is a Mexican-Native American woman who lives in Olympia, WA on the Native land of the Coast Salish and Squaxin people, along the beautiful Puget Sound with her husband and daughter. She loves walks along the beach and to connect with others. Evelyn is the Owner and CEO of Clarks Collective Consulting, LLC. This BIPOC-owned, Family-owned consulting business operates through the lens of Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and lived experience. She has nearly 15 years of experience serving young people and their families impacted by systems. Evelyn is a Certified Peer Counselor and a justice-impacted professional.

She is passionate about racial equity, leadership development, and peer support. She believes that community is the answer for people to get the best quality of services. Her work models, “nothing about us without us,” which speaks to including the community and those we serve in all we do. She has experience at the Community, State, National, and International levels of government. Evelyn is a proud recipient of the 2019 Peer Alternatives Youth and Young Adult Leadership award. In addition, Evelyn is a certified healing circle facilitator through Gloetry Assembly and a Certified Peer support trainer in Washington State. Her lived experience and work experience drive her heart and why for this work.

Evelyn brings heart, empathy, and vulnerability to her work, making her a brave and daring leader. Her mission is to end racial and ethnic disparities within systems and to promote leadership opportunities for the BIPOC workforce.

Workshop Presenters

Adelaide Weber (she/her)

Ms. Weber has worked in the behavioral health field for over 20 years. During her tenure with Maryland’s Behavioral Health Administration as the peer workforce development and training administrator, she has championed the expansion of workforce development resources for Maryland’s certified peer recovery specialists (CPRSs). Working diligently with community training partners and Maryland’s peer credentialing board, Ms. Weber ensures that peers have access to the resources they need to become credentialed.

Most recently, Ms. Weber has been chiefly responsible for the expansion of CPRS training programs for incarcerated citizens within Maryland’s criminal justice institutions. Her work in partnership with Maryland LABOR has developed an employment pipeline for returning citizens living in recovery. Before joining Maryland’s Behavioral Health Administration, she worked in an acute care mental health facility for 15 years, working with children, adolescents, and adults. Adelaide received her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University in 2000.

Mercia Cummings (she/her)

Mercia Cummings (enrolled member of Choptico Band of Piscataway Indians) is an Afro Indigenous Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Clinical Alcohol and Drug Approved Supervisor, who comes with 25 years in the mental health field. She is the Clinical Director at Native American LifeLines and has worked in mental health private practice in Southern Maryland for the past 16 years. Mercia comes with holistic values and utilizes a broader cultural lens as well as healing traditions, including being a registered 500 Hour Yoga Instructor, Mindfulness Educator, and Second Level Reiki Practitioner.

Mercia is charismatic, passionate, and able to use a creative, holistic, eclectic and energized approach to encourage her clients to connect to their authentic selves, mind, body and spirit. She believes in healing not just impacting the individual, but the community as a whole through language, music, arts, and culture. Mercia is licensed in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C., providing face-to-face and telemental health to engage her clients.

Vanita Leatherwood (she/her)

Poet/artist and social change educator, Vanita Leatherwood, M.A., facilitates Transformative Language Arts (TLA) programs that nurture wellbeing, personal growth, and social consciousness. Vanita is the founder of The Yes Within, facilitating virtual and in-person workshops for groups and individuals. She specializes in issues related to personal discovery, trauma healing, racial equity, stress management, chronic pain conditions, mental health, and creativity cultivation. She serves as a member on the TLA Network Board and is a member of the Teaching Artists Guild and the National Association of Poetry Therapists.

Alicia Lucksted (she/her)

Alicia Lucksted, PhD is a clinical-community psychologist and mental health researcher at the University of Maryland Medical School and the Veterans Administration VISN-5 Mental Illness Research Education & Clinical Center in Baltimore, MD. Her focus is developing, testing, and making available psychosocial programs to support adult mental and behavioral health recovery. Over the past 15 years, a main line of her research and program development has been strategies and programs to help people navigate and reduce internalized and anticipated stigma regarding mental illness (and other conditions) and the harms they cause.

Donielle Davis

Donielle Davis is a 49-year-old man born in Easton, Maryland. I am a graduate of Easton High, the University of Maryland-Easter Shore (from which I obtained a Bachelor’s degree) and have a Master’s in Substance Abuse and a PHD in Incarceration.

I am a son, a Husband, a father, a Minister, and a person in active recovery for 26 years and counting. I am an advocate for change, not only in the area of substance abuse, but the judicial system that criminalizes said abuse. I work for Affiliated Sante Group in the form of ESCR in Easton. I am the Caroline County Safe Station peer, and I assist the Sheriff’s office in helping people find adequate treatment facilities and advocate recovery in the lives of anyone who is willing to make the change.

My overall goals are to better the community as a whole and to aid recoverees, agencies, and organizations to decrease/lower recidivism and advocate for the downtrodden, left behind, and those who feel as if substance abuse is the only coping mechanism applicable.

Dr. Pamela Rakhshan Rouhakhtar (she/her)

Pamela Rakhshan Rouhakhtar, Ph.D. is an Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Dr. Rakhshan Rouhakhtar's research focuses on the validation and development of psychosis spectrum assessment in addition to work seeking to explore the role of cultural and contextual factors - particularly race - in our understanding of the psychosis construct, as well as illness presentation, course, and treatment. She is also co-director of the Strive for Wellness clinic within the Maryland Early Intervention Program, providing assessment, consultation, and treatment for youth and their families in the Maryland community experiencing early or attenuated symptoms of psychosis.

Raniya Holmes, MSW

Raniya Holmes is a second generation Morgan State University graduate hailing from Baltimore, MD. Raniya is twenty-two years old and a recent graduate from the Master in Advanced Standing program of the School of Social Work. Raniya Holmes has a history of social activism, joining her father as a teenager to testify for bills in Annapolis and has protested against gun violence, domestic violence, and racial prejudice. Raniya is a trained doula and works for Bridging Gaps through positive solutions as a mental health aid. Raniya wants to pursue a career in clinical therapy with a focus on postpartum mothers battling depression and anxiety and policy work in mitigating maternal health issues and reproductive health.

Linda Darrell, Ph.D, LCSW-C (she/her)

Dr. Darrell is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Morgan State University where she is also the Director of the DSW program and a practicing clinician. Dr. Darrell's research interests cover Mental Health in the African American Community as well as Grief and Loss.

Kris McElroy (he/they)

Kris McElroy is a biracial Black autistic transman living with multiple disabilities and mental health conditions. For more than 15 years, Kris has been a dedicated human services professional, public speaker, writer, artist, and advocate. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Maryland and his Master’s degree in Multidisciplinary Human Services from Capella University. Additionally, Kris enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter; collaborating on social justice projects; and continuing to take part in speaking engagements and art shows across the country.

Val Hicks, CPRS-F (she/her)

Val is a certified Peer Support Specialist with a Family endorsement. She has been in active recovery for almost 7 years and has worked in multiple states as a peer with both those with mental health and substance abuse issues. She currently works with mobile crisis on a new program that is trying to improve home life for youth up to age 24 in hopes it helps deter mental health or substance abuse issues from becoming a crisis. Val currently lives in Bethel, DE with her teenage children and mother.

Jericho Ayla Westgate (he/they)

Jericho provides trans/gender-expansive folks an up-to-date, fresh approach to living an authentic and happy life. Jericho seeks to provide equitable, compassionate care to the trans gender-expansive community and is passionate about improving the way folks receive healthcare, which includes eliminating barriers to that care. Along with working in private practice, he also has a full time position where he is responsible for the design and implementation of a LGBTQ+ and Gender Affirming Care Program within the behavioral health department of a FQHC. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Jericho completed a post degree two-year advanced training under PCIT International to become a certified therapist in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy. For the last 10 years, Jericho studied Dialectical Behavior Therapy and integrates DBT concepts into their therapeutic work. They created and led the Baltimore Trans Walkers & Runners Group and facilitates art workshops for trans/gender-expansive elementary school children.

Shira Collings (they/them)

Shira Collings, M.S. is NEC’s Youth Coordinator. As a young person with lived experience of mental health challenges, trauma, and recovery, Shira is passionate about advocating for peer-led services developed by and for youth. They have played a key role in developing and implementing Youth Emotional CPR trainings as well as webinars on approaches to youth leadership within mental health services. In addition to their role at NEC, Shira is an eating disorder therapist at the practice of Rachel Millner in Philadelphia.

Johnnie Fielding, MSW (he/him)

Mr. Fielding is currently the Co-founder and Program Director of Leading By Example, mental health services and family strengthening institute that serves adults and youth in the Baltimore Metropolitan area.

Mr. Fielding is a Baltimore native and a product of the Baltimore City Public School System. He attained his Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from Morgan State University in 2003, followed by his Masters of Social Work degree with a concentration in children and families through the University Of Maryland School Of Social Work’s accelerated graduate program.

Mr. Fielding has been working in the human service field for over 20 years, including direct care in a children's diagnostic treatment center, working with family systems in a treatment foster care program, and as a psychotherapist. He is currently serving on the Community Advisory Board for Morgan State University’s Bachelor of Social Work Program, helping to shape social work education and academic preparation of the next generation of community servants and healers.

Finally and most importantly, Mr. Fielding is a devoted family man and proud father of one son. Mr. Fielding’s commitment to his own family continues to shape him as a devoted servant in his community.

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