Self-Determination Workshop Series Session #3

Biographies of Presenters

Sylvia Caras
Judith Cook
Howard Dansky
Frances Priester
Ed Schwartz

Sylvia Caras

Sylvia Caras was active on the support email lists in the early 90's, developed first ThisIsCrazy and now peoplewho.org. Currently she is a member of The Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) National Advisory Council (NAC) Subcommittee on Consumer/Survivor Issues (SOCSI), a board member and legislative chair for CA Protection & Advocacy, and active in international work. Details:  www.peoplewho.org/sylvia/resume.htm

Judith A. Cook

 Judith A. Cook is Professor of Sociology in Psychiatry at The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Department of Psychiatry. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from The Ohio State University and completed an NIMH post-doctoral training program in clinical research at The University of Chicago. Currently she directs the Mental Health Services Research Program (MHSRP) which houses two federally funded centers and a number of research and evaluation studies. The UIC National Research and Training Center on Psychiatric Disability is funded (by CMHS and the U.S. Department of Education) for five years to conduct a series of research and training projects designed to promote self-determination among people with psychiatric disability. The UIC Coordinating Center for the Employment Intervention Demonstration Program is a multi-site study of vocational rehabilitation interventions for persons with major mental disorders in eight states around the country funded by the federal Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS). She also directs the Assertive Community Treatment Training Institute, a statewide initiative in Illinois to assess and enhance provider competencies in delivering community-based assertive outreach services to those with multiple psychiatric hospitalizations. With staff at the MHSRP, Dr. Cook has created a series of training manuals and curricula in areas such as: community safety for women with mental illness, collaboration between consumer and nonconsumer service providers, vocational transitioning for youth with severe emotional disorders, job coaching in psychiatric rehabilitation, assertive case management for homeless persons with severe mental illness, and outreach to minority families of persons with mental illness. Her published research includes studies of vocational rehabilitation, transition-aged youth with mental disorders, psychosocial rehabilitation outcomes, educational services for persons with mental illness, gender issues in psychiatric disability, and coping strategies of parents of adult offspring with severe mental illness. [Back to Top]

Howard Dansky

Howard Dansky, M.A., owns STARHD (Services, Technical Assistance & Resources for Human Development), a development and research consultancy helping service providers to develop programs enabling people to make the transition to work. As Project Director for the Vocational Research Institute (VRI) in 1998-2001, he directed Project FAIR, funded by the National Institute for Disability & Rehabilitation Research. Project FAIR produced WorkPlace MentorT, a community-based situational assessment and planning software system. Howard has presented numerous workshops and institutes on situational assessment, planning for employment, and using information technology. His experience in mental health services goes back to the early 1970's as a Mental Health Worker in then-emergent community-living rehabilitation programs at Philadelphia State Hospital. Howard earned a masters degree in Developmental Psychology at Temple University.  [Back to Top]

Frances Priester

Frances Priester, raised in the segregated South, received her law degree from University of Buckingham, England in 1984. Misdiagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia for seven years until finding appropriate treatment for bipolar disorder, she now advocates for over 300 forensic consumers as a Consumer Specialist at Elgin Mental Health Center. She is an advocate for safe, decent, affordable housing for all disabled Americans and enforcement of the Fair Housing Act. Frances also conducted a successful voter registration campaign in five counties in Southern Illinois. Frances is a recipient of the 2001 Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Award, and serves on numerous boards and communities throughout the State of Illinois. Her advocacy efforts focus on providing options to consumers, including alternative treatments as well as treatments under the medical model and she continues to advocate for "decriminalization" of those with mental illness and for the provision for law enforcement training on mental health, mental health courts, and jail diversion programs. She continues to give hope to other disabled Americans by sharing her recovery story and promoting consumer empowerment and self-determination.
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Edward Schwartz

Dr. Edward Schwartz is presently President of the Institute for the Study of Civic Values, an organization that he founded in 1973 to develop education, research, and action programs that relate contemporary issues to America's historic ideals. Presently, the Institute sponsors a block leadership development program in Philadelphia known as "PhillyBlocks," that uses both community meetings and the Internet to help block and neighborhood activists gain better service from City Departments. ISCV also administers a sizeable welfare-to-work Community Service Jobs program, enabling more than 1,500 welfare recipients annually fulfill their work requirements through community service jobs. ISCV's "Youth Urban Affairs Arts Program (YouthRAP) helps middle school students identify issues of concern to them and present their recommendations to community leaders and public officials. And ISCV is known world-wide for "Neighborhoods Online," its pioneering web site that helps community activists throughout the country gain easy access to information relevant to their work.

Dr. Schwartz received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Rutgers University in 1986. He is a 1965 graduate of Oberlin College. A student activist throughout the 1960's, he was national President of the National Student Association in 1967-68, spearheading a major movement for "student power." He has served as a visiting lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and has taught classes at Haverford College and Temple University

In 1984, Dr. Schwartz was elected a Councilman-at-Large in Philadelphia. In just 3 1/2 years, he emerged as a major force in developing innovative strategies for neighborhood economic development. He fought successfully to hold pre-paid fares on the City's public transit system, SEPTA, below $1.00. He also was a leader in holding City departments accountable to set standards of performance. As a Councilman, he was the first Philadelphia elected official to use computer-generated data bases to monitor the work of City departments and as early as 1986 participated regularly in an on-line local computer bulletin board to exchange views on public issues with computer-literate constituents. In 1984, Philadelphia Magazine gave Dr. Schwartz an award as an "Honest Politician," and he won "Best of Philly" awards as "Best Local Politician" and "Best City Councilman" in succeeding years as well.

Between 1987 and 1991, Dr. Schwartz directed Philadelphia's Office of Housing and Community Development (OHCD). During this period, OHCD rehabilitated over 4,000 houses and apartments, invested over $30 million in neighborhood-based community development corporations, generated over $93 million in private investment in low-income housing; and created homeowner and weatherization programs that reached over 25,000 low and moderate income households.

In 1992-93, as President of the ISCV, Dr. Schwartz moderated a monthly radio program of town meetings on issues of democracy from Philosophical Hall that won the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters' Award as the Best Public Affairs Program of the year.

He has written for a wide range of publications, including The New York Times Book Review, The American Prospect, Social Policy, The Nation, Progressive Magazine, Denver Law Journal, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Philadelphia Daily News. He is author of Will the Revolution Succeed? Rebirth of the Radical Democrat, published in 1972 by Criterion Books, and NetActivism: How Citizens Use the Internet, published by O'Reilly and Associates in 1996.

A jazz pianist, Dr. Schwartz founded the Reading Terminals' Jazz Group in 1984.

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