Dr. Shelley Cohen Konrad is Professor and Director of the University of New England School of Social Work and founding Director (2009) of the Center for Excellence in Collaborative Education (formerly IPEC), an initiative that promotes shared learning, research, collaborative practice and service. Shelley received a BA from Boston University in Developmental Psychology, and an MSW and PhD from Simmons University in Boston. In 2007 she was awarded the Simmons College School of Social Work Harriett Bartlett Award for Scholarship in Health Care; and in 2014 she was inducted as a Distinguished Scholar & and Fellow in the National Academies of Practice and the Social Work Academy. Shelley is a prolific scholar. Her most recent publications in peer-reviewed journals focus on interprofessional education and practice as well as on the integration of arts and experiential learning in the health professions. Recognition of the global impact of her interprofessional scholarship and curricular redesign is evidenced by invited keynote presentations at the national IPEC Institute, the Nexus Innovation Summit, All Together Health in Oxford England, Collaborating across Borders, the Arctic Circle Assembly in Iceland, and at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, Israel where she spoke on the integration of interprofessional learning and the humanities. She is currently working on an edited book for Oxford Press that brings together international scholars on this topic.

Shelley has 30 years of clinical social work experience. She co-founded two community programs, Kids First and Touchstone that offer low barrier services to children, adults, and their identified family systems. A second edition of her book, Practice with Children and Families: A Relational Perspective, first published in 2013 is now available.

Shelley has keen interest in developing transformative education and training methods that prepare the future workforce with collaboration-ready, compassionate, team-based skills to serve youth to aging populations. She is an avid reader, art collector, gardener, baker, and enjoys time with her family on the coast of Maine.

Adam is a practicing artist and lawyer who was diagnosed with bipolar 1 over twenty years ago, shortly after he graduated from Stanford Law School and the University of Pennsylvania. As a conceptual artist represented by a gallery in Chicago, he explores a range of ideas—including ideas relating to voice, identity, inclusion, and stigma—through oil paintings, video, multi-media, and large-scale installations. As a lawyer, he has practiced antitrust and appellate law with large firms in San Francisco / Los Angeles and Washington, DC, clerked for a federal appellate judge, served as a state court mediator, and served in the non-profit sector by advocating for the constitutional and statutory rights of adults with intellectual disabilities. When not making art and raising his two teens, he works with law firms nationwide, consulting on, and writing, appeals and briefs.

Raffi Dersimonian brings a wealth of marketing and communications expertise within a range of industries. Prior to serving as Director of Marketing & Communications at Maine College of Art (‘12-’18), his professional experience includes leading marketing efforts for a range of industries and institutions including The Royal Festival Hall in London, Providence Performing Arts Center in Rhode Island, Orient-Express Hotels, Trains & Cruises, Becker College, and a various other academic institutions. He is founder and principal of Dersimonian LLC, a boutique marketing firm that specializes in the orchestration of large-scale initiatives that require strategy, creativity and technology.

He has also served in leadership positions for the Worcester Arts Council, Maine Academy of Modern Music, FORK Food Labs, The Armenian Cultural Association of Maine, Maine Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Portland Downtown Marketing Committee, Portland Bach Experience and Creative Portland.

Dersimonian received his graduate degree in professional marketing and communications Since receiving his graduate degree from Clark University in Worcester, MA. He enjoys tennis, sailing, outdoor adventure, live music, and promoting all the finer things Portland has to offer. He lives in Portland with his wife, Caitlin.

Christine Linnehan, M.S., LCPC, BC-DMT, FT has been in private practice, Riverview Counseling, in Scarborough, ME for the past 21 years focusing on grief, loss, and trauma.

She has been a clinical consultant in the Bereavement Support Program at the Center for Grieving Children since 2004. She is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, and a Board-Certified Approved Clinical Supervisor. Drawing from her training as a board-certified dance/movement therapist, she utilizes mind/body strategies in her clinical work designed to promote resilience and wellbeing.

Christine is certified as a Fellow of Thanatology (FT®) by the Association of Death Education and Counseling. She completed the Suicide Bereavement Clinician Training sponsored by the American Association of Suicidology and the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention (AFSP). Locally, Christine is active in the Maine chapter of AFSP and is a facilitator for their annual International Suicide Survivors of Loss Day. She has a special interest in the impact of suicide loss on children and families.

Chris McLaughlin, LCSW is the Executive Director of the Maine Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers and is the owner and lead consultant of Inspired Consulting Group, LLC. A lifelong resident of Maine, he obtained both his BA in Psychology (1996) and his MSW (2001) from the University of Maine in Orono. Chris has spent the last 20+ years providing behavioral health services to youth and families across a variety of clinical settings including treatment foster care, residential treatment facilities, public schools, private practice, community-based case management programs, and psychiatric hospitals. Chris is an adjunct faculty member at both the University of Maine in Orono and Husson University in Bangor.  He served on the Maine Board of Social Work Licensing for 5 years and is a member of both the NASW and the Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care (SSWLHC). He is a graduate of the Disney Institute leadership program and Maine’s “Daniel Hanley Health Leadership Development” (HLD) program.  Locally, Chriswas recognized in 2019 for his advocacy work with LGBTQ+ youth and was named Health Care Social Worker of the Year in 2019 by the Maine Hospital Association and the Maine Chapter of the SSWLHC. Nationally, he was the SSWLHC’s 2019 recipient of the Eleanor Clark Award for Innovative Programs in Patient Care for his work on youth suicide prevention. Chris and his husband live in Hermon, Maine with their 3 dogs, Anna, Becky, and Sawyer.

John Powers, a former board member, has continued his support for the Yellow Tulip Project by staying on as an advisor. He is willing to help anywhere, but is mostly focussed on large, community-based installations of our I Am More exhibit. The exhibit was on display at the Portland International Airport in 2018 and is now at Logan Airport in Boston, MA.

He has also served on the board at the Maine College of Art and still is on two of their advisory committees. Powers received his BFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at the Maine College of Art in 1995. After many years working in the arts, he transitioned to healthcare, and currently works for Baxter Healthcare. He is a living kidney donor, avid runner, poker player, artist, entrepreneur. He lives in Cape Elizabeth with his wife, Zuleika, while his twin daughters both attend Connecticut College.

For as long as she can remember, Cameron Kelly Rosenblum has loved stories in every form. Raised in southern Connecticut, she studied English Literature at Kenyon College and earned her M.Ed. from Lesley University. She’s spent half her career classroom teaching (Greenwich, CT and Cape Elizabeth, ME) and the other half as a school librarian, developing her writing craft all the while. Losing a childhood friend to suicide inspired her to write a young adult novel, THE STEPPING OFF PLACE (HarperCollins). It made Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2020 List and was further lauded as a top ten book discussing mental illness. Cameron lives in Cumberland Foreside with her husband and two children. She is committed to the Smash the Stigma campaign, and has joined YTP to spread the word through speaking engagements.

Elizabeth Sanborn has been a public school teacher since 2001 and is currently the gifted and talented teacher for the Sacopee Valley school district in western Maine. She received a Bachelor of Arts in English Education (2001) and Master of Arts in Teaching (2003) at the University of New Hampshire and is currently a doctoral candidate in the curriculum & instruction Ed.D. program at the University of Louisiana Monroe. Elizabeth is a National Board certified teacher in English Language Arts and a teacher-consultant through the Southern Maine Writing Project. Besides education, her other great passion is horses, and Elizabeth is an accomplished adult amateur in dressage and three phase eventing competition. If she’s not at school or spending time with her family, she is probably in the barn or on the back of a horse! One of Elizabeth’s amazing middle school students asked her if they could bring the Yellow Tulip Project to their school community in the spring of 2019, and since then the SVMS Tulip Team has created a true momentum! Elizabeth’s own journey of mental wellness, coupled with her desire to empower young people and serve as an influential role model, makes being a part of the Yellow Tulip Project quite fitting! She feels it is incredibly important to create a healthy middle school environment in which the importance of mental wellness is recognized and built on a foundation of advocacy, education, and awareness. Elizabeth hopes to be a resource for other middle school educators who want to bring the YTP to their schools.

Tim Wilson has more than 50 years of experience in education, public service and athletic coaching. Currently, Tim serves as Special Advisor to Seeds of Peace, an organization that he has been with since its founding in 1993, and Director of its Maine Seeds Program. Until 2006, he was the Director of both the Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine and the Seeds of Peace Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem. Prior to and during the early years of his appointment with Seeds of Peace, Tim served as the Director of Multicultural Programs for Pierce Atwood Consulting in Portland, Maine. Tim has been appointed by three Maine Governors to posts including Chair of the Maine Human Rights Commission, State Ombudsman, and Associate Commissioner of Programming for the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation & Corrections.

Tim’s work in the community includes serving as Chair of the Abyssinian Church Restoration Committee in Portland, Maine, on the Community Mediation Center Board of Directors, on the Maine Hospice Council Board of Directors, on the Kents Hill School Board of Directors, and as a Trustee of Bridgton Academy.

In 1997, the late King Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan presented Tim with a Medal of Honor. The Maine Youth Camping Association has honored him with the Halsey Gulick Award, and Seeds of Peace has recognized his efforts with a Distinguished Leadership Award.Most recently, he was awarded the Gerda Haas Award for Excellence in Human Rights Education and Leadership from the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine.