NYAPRS is very pleased to welcome Denise Ranaghan as our new Director for Peer Services and Elena Kravitz as our new Director for Policy and Public Engagement.
Elena Kravitz CPRP is a native of Brooklyn who comes to us after a decade of highly acclaimed service as a leader, advocate and peer services manager in New Jersey while working for Collaborative Support Programs of NJ. During her tenure there, Elena was well known for her extraordinary commitment, courage, compassion and passion to advancing wellness, recovery and self-determination and her talent for networking and forging alliances with disparate individuals and organizations. Her special areas of focus include peer support, criminal justice, WRAP facilitation, cultural competence and disability rights. Most recently, Elena’s advocacy strengths have taken her to the national stage, where she is the sole grassroots peer representative to serve on the new federal Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee.
Denise Ranaghan, LMHC, CPRP also shares a powerful personal recovery story that has driven her 17 year record of service in our field and has taken her serving as a peer specialist on the MHA in Ulster County’s ACT team to become its director. She has also served as a residential manager, employment specialist and IPRT coordinator. In her role as Director of Wellness Services at the MHA, Denise initiated multiple projects that collaborated with community organizations to bring mental health and substance use related issues into public discussions. She is a certified WRAP facilitator who has both helped to start and support self-help groups and has made numerous presentations on trauma informed care, voice hearing and cultural diversity. Denise is also the author of “Institutional-Eyes,” which profiled her experience in the military.
Please join me in welcoming Denise and Elena to NYAPRS.