The Road Home: New Perspectives on Addiction, Wholeness, and Healing with Swoon and Dr. Gabor Maté

Symposium Bios 

DIY Trauma-Informed Skills for the Street

Jess Radovich is an integrative artist and growth counselor based in the Pacific Northwest. Drawing on experience in early childhood development, psychodynamic and somatic therapy, and the science of yoga and mindfulness, Jess creates interdisciplinary work in service of healing. She creates in varied settings, including HIV clinics, universities, nonprofit spaces, somatic programs and in artistic collaborations, including with Mural Arts Philadelphia, Swoon, and the Million Person Project.  She is the founder of The Heart School, a personal growth school for everyday people.

Hailing from Nigeria, Adaku Utah is a healer, liberation educator and organizer, and performance ritual artist committed to healing and liberation within oppressed communities. For over 10 years, her work has centered in movements for radical social change, with a focus on gender, sexuality, race, youth, and healing justice. She is the founder and director of Harriet’s Apothecary, a healing village led by Black Cis Women, Queer and Trans folks committed to living out Harriet Tubman’s legacy of liberation in our tissues and our lineage. She is also the founder of BeatBox Botanicals, a local sliding-scale, love-centered, and community-inspired plant medicine and healing practice. Adaku has taught, organized, and created sacred healing spaces and performed both nationally and internationally as a Social Change Initiatives coordinator, rape crisis counselor, youth organizer, intuitive healer, gender-based violence advocate, dancer, liberation trainer, sex education teacher, herbalist, sexual violence organizing educator, and board member for several organizations.

Dr. Christopher Tjoa is a psychiatrist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania–Penn Presbyterian and Pennsylvania Hospital. He received his medical degree from University at Buffalo, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and has been in practice between 6–10 years. He is one of 105 doctors at Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania–Penn Presbyterian and one of 79 at Pennsylvania Hospital who specialize in Psychiatry.

The Cutting Edge of Trauma

Nicole Connell is Special Advisor to the Commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS). She is involved in activities that support the Commissioner in ongoing system transformation initiatives designed to advance behavioral health and intellectual disAbility services through a population health framework. Connell has extensive experience in Philadelphia’s various social services systems, and nonprofit community based organizations. Connell has expertise in education, community organizing, partnership development, and federal grant management. She worked for several years in DBHIDS’ Strategic Planning and Innovation Division where she provided guidance and leadership for many of the department’s innovative population health initiatives. She also implemented procedures which significantly enhanced the efficiency of the Community Based Services Development Unit .

Caledonia Curry, who exhibits her artwork under the name Swoon, started her career as a street artist, but leapfrogged to museums and galleries. She is a classically trained visual artist and printmaker who has spent many years exploring the relationship between people and their environments. Now she has expanded her work to include installation and performance art, often with an activist bent. Her work can be seen outside of Prevention Point Philadelphia, in New York, Boston, and all over the world.

Sara Reed, M.S., is a Marriage and Family Therapist who practices in Farmington, Connecticut. She is currently a sub-investigator and study coordinator for the MAPS MDMA Clinical Study of PTSD at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Sara’s clinical interests include exploring relational processes and emotional patterns in Black-Americans and identifying sociocultural variables for ethnoracial minority participants in the MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD clinical trials. Sara also works to advance health equity and upward social mobility among boys and men of color through neutral strategies, such as art. As a socially-minded therapist, Sara continuously works to expand culturally sensitive practices within her work and within the literature of the mental health field.

Elise Gaul, LPC, CT is a certified EMDR Therapist and Certified Thanatologist (the scientific study of death, dying, and grief).  She has over 25 years’ experience in human services as a therapist, educator, and program manager in nonprofit, mental health, hospice, and higher education settings. As a clinician in private practice for over 15 years, Elise has worked with individuals and families addressing grief and loss, mood issues, PTSD and trauma, toxic stress, and coping with illness. In addition to EMDR, she utilizes Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction techniques having trained with founder Jon Kabat-Zinn. She also trained with Dr. Daniel Siegel in Interpersonal Neurobiology and utilizes this approach in her practice. Her private practice is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Deputy Commissioner Roland Lamb (Strategic Planning and Innovation Division, DBHIDS) has been working in the field of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Dependence Treatment for over 41 years as counselor, therapist, supervisor, coordinator of addictive services, program director, trainer, lecturer, consultant, and administrator. Because of the extent and nature of the various positions held within the behavioral health system—i.e., managed care, services to the uninsured, and coordinating the Single County Authority—he currently provides cross system management across several different work cultures.

Narratives for Change: Storytelling Workshop

Heather Box is a Northern Cali native currently living in San Francisco. Heather Box is a writer, activist, and trainer who works in partnership with change makers around the globe to support them to use their voice and tell their personal stories. Over the past 10 years she has worked in the social change movements in the United States and all over the world on issues of civic engagement, climate change, human rights, immigration and sustainable development. She is the co-founder and CEO of the Million Person Project, a global project about love, storytelling, and connecting change makers.

Amy Thompson is a creative, a storyteller, story listener, and dream believer. She is also a physical therapist. With her Doctorate in Physical Therapy, Amy went on a tour of our healthcare system, practicing all over the country as a PT—and felt something was lacking. She believes our entire health care system and world would transform if we prioritized true listening to the stories of ourselves and others. Her passions have always been story, storytelling, and understanding the innate power we all have to heal. She recently completed a Masters in Community Health and Prevention Sciences from the University of Montana, and completed her thesis on the role of storytelling in healing chronic pain. Amy finds incredible hope in pain science and the nervous system, and considers it a great honor to collaborate with people in healing and story. Amy now works with the Million Person Project as a Narrative Specialist and story enthusiast, and she has yet to meet a person or story she doesn’t care about.

Experience the Storefront: Art on the Frontlines

Lisa Kelley is an artist who is interested in exploring the intersection of art and social change. Her ongoing project, Epidemic, is a series of weavings thematically connected by the struggles, the despair, and the stories of hope surrounding addiction. Each weaving is created with strips of fabric on which people affected by addiction write a wish, a prayer, a dream, a memory. The messages of love and loss are knotted and woven together, then threaded onto and suspended from sticks found in parks in Kensington, which is where she was born and raised. The project is a story about bearing witness, of gaining empathy and compassion, of taking action and reaching beyond the personal to affect change in her community. Lisa and her colleague, Kathryn Pannepacker, along with their team of friends, have created a sanctuary studio at the Kensington Storefront called Tuesday Tea & Textiles, where they create art with people who are homeless and/or in active addiction. They have built a community where everyone is welcome and become part of a loving, compassionate community.

Kathryn Pannepacker is a textile/visual/community artist living in Philadelphia, PA. She has done many projects with Mural Arts Philadelphia over the years including Wall of Rugs 1 & 2, Nana Blankets, and Finding Home. Kathryn exhibits locally, nationally, and internationally, and has work in private and public collections. At the Kensington Storefront in Philadelphia, along with her colleague Lisa Kelley and the help of many others, they’ve created an art/craft-making ‘sanctuary studio’ called Tuesday Tea & Textiles. Working with folks in active addiction, they believe that creating an environment of belonging, meaning and purpose is a critical piece in any ‘recovery model,’ as the nation scrambles for solutions during an epidemic of addiction/trauma. Kathryn has received numerous grants. Her work has been featured on the cover of AMERICAN CRAFT and in many other publications. She offers hands-on workshops/presentations about art and social change.

Michael Worthy is a Certified Recovery Specialist with many years in recovery from addiction. He has spent the last few years of his life building on his education and working with his own life experience. He volunteers at his local church and has been working closely with folks in active addiction. His work at the Kensington Storefront and throughout the Kensington neighborhood has shown folks who are struggling that there is hope and a way out.

Gabor Maté: Why the Pain & How the Healing

Dr. Gabor Maté is a retired physician, bestselling author and prolific international speaker and seminar leader. Gabor is the author of four best-selling books published in 25 languages on five continents, including When the Body Says No: Exploring The Stress-Disease Connection and the award-winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction. In 2017 he was named among 150 Canadians as a Difference Maker in Mental Health by the Centre for Mental Health and Addictions. For his pioneering medical work and writings, in 2018 he was awarded his country’s highest civilian distinction, the Order of Canada. He frequently addresses professional and lay audiences in North America and internationally on issues related to childhood development and parenting, physical and mental health and wellness, and addiction. His next books, currently being written, are The Myth of Normal: Illness and Health in an Insane Culture and Hello Again: A Fresh Start for Adult Children and Their Parents. To learn more, join his e-news list at drgabormate.com.

Tim Wagner is the founder and executive director of Roots2Rise. Roots2Rise is a local nonprofit that offers classes which make yoga and meditation accessible to anyone—all ages, abilities, and income levels. Roots2Rises’ focus is on community access and community service in neighborhoods across Philadelphia. They have partnered with schools, shelters, community centers, hospitals, businesses, service organizations, libraries, and parks and recreational facilities across the Philadelphia region to offer yoga and mindfulness to anyone who wants to come to a class.

Miles Butler was raised in Mt. Airy, lived in Massachusetts for a few years, then moved back to Philly to pursue his passion as a musician and environmentalist. In 2014, served as the manager when Pure Sweets & Company, an organic bakery and shop, opened near Rittenhouse Square. He currently serves as the operations manager for the two Philadelphia locations of United By Blue, a sustainably-driven, outdoor lifestyle apparel company combined with a coffee shop. As a lifelong activist and a current leader in Philadelphia’s sustainability community, Miles Butler has dedicated most of his life toward spreading knowledge and awareness of environmental protection.

Ursula Rucker was born and raised in Philadelphia. She began documenting her observations of the world when she was just a girl. She is a graduate of Temple University’s journalism program, where she kept her creative writing as a prized, personal possession until she was prepared to share her gift with the world. Now Rucker is a world-renowned spoken word recording artist known for a diverse repertoire, unique poetry techniques, and a stage presence that catches her listeners’ attention, both of which have brought her critical acclaim and widespread praise from fans. She combines social awareness with womanhood, black culture, and love for something musically alluring.