Northwest SubRegion B:

Sarah is a published poet, freelance writer, grant writer, and lifetime member of the Poetry Society of Virginia. She participates in system transformation toward recovery-based services, by encouraging individual wellness and by facilitating recovery education and the creation of Wellness Recovery Action Plans.

Sensitive to the concerns of those experiencing serious mental health issues, she has fluency with medication education, financial management, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy skills training and legal/advocacy issues.

She is currently serving on the Board of On Our Own of Charlottesville, a peer run recovery and referral mental health drop-in center.

She has been a Mental Health Peer Interviewer for the Virginia State Office of the Inspector General and the Virginia State Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services.

Sarah also has a BA in Psych from Temple University.

Sheri graduated from WRAP Facilitator training in October of 2006.  She is currently employed part-time as an administrative assistant with Virginia's Human Services Training Center, and also part-time as the activities coordinator for On Our Own Charlottesville. 

Dedicating much of her spare time to volunteer work which advocates for the improvement of mental health services in Virginia, she serves on the Board of Directors for VOCAL as Secretary, participates in the Recovery Education and Training Workgroup led by DMHMRSAS , and has been trained as an Acu-detox Specialist offering treatment 3 days per week at On Our Own.  Sheri is also a Work Incentives Specialist Advocate (WISA). One of 30 individuals in the state of Virginia, she is certified to provide specialized services to SSI/SSDI recipients who want assistant with the challenges surrounding employment and the utilization of Work Incentives offered by the Social Security Administration.

Cassandra Nudel is a creative educator, social justice advocate, holistic nonprofit consultant, and writer of grants, proposals, plays, poems, and stories. As an advocate for social justice and mental health peer rights, she has co-founded and designed several new statewide programs – The VOCAL Program Support Center, nonprofit training and assistance for grassroots programs; REACH Recovery Education and Creative Healing; and The VOCAL Network, community and empowerment for mental health peers. She has helped raise over a million dollars for VOCAL’s peer programs.

As an educator, Cassandra has designed and led workshops in Creative Writing, Literature, Sacred Arts, Dream Work, Mandala Making, Language Arts, Nonfiction Writing, and English as a Second Language. She has taught Women’s Health and Community Health in up-scale New York medical schools and remote Brazilian village areas. She also co-founded a Language Arts program for Korean Immigrants. Other experiences with diverse cultures include working with gay and lesbian and women’s causes, and living, working, and traveling in India, Nepal, Brazil and Eastern Europe.

Cassandra is also an award-winning writer with publications in over 30 magazines and literary journals, and her documentary photography has been exhibited at The Smithsonian Institute, The National Library of Congress, and elsewhere. Before moving to Charlottesville, and coming to be involved with VOCAL, Cassandra spent several years living in solitude in the mountains. Working with VOCAL has been an important transitioning point for her in connecting with the peer movement and re-visioning her own disability, mental health, and recovery issues.

She is currently living in Charlottesville, where she is studying shamanism, leading workshops in sexuality education and sexual orientation for teens, learning American Sign Language, co-writing and series of guidebooks on creating strong peer programs, and organizing a training retreat for leaders of grassroots peer groups.

Debbie graduated from WRAP Facilitator training in October 2004. Debbie leads sessions in Charlottesville.

Debbie has been an Area Coordinator and an Area Chairperson for the Special Olympics.  She also worked in the public school system for 2 years, teaching reading and math on the K-1 level.

She volunteers every week at a homeless shelter in her area.

Lynn graduated from WRAP Facilitator training in October 2004.  Lynn leads sessions in Charlottesville.

Lynn began her journey as a volunteer on a Kibbitz in Israel.  She has worked in medical services for relief agencies.  She has also stepped forward as an advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves, mostly the mentally ill and the homeless.  She works as a substitute teacher in the public school system.

She is a member of both the local Community Services Board and On Our Own-Charlottesville.