NAPT Board Members

2003-2005 NAPT Executive Board (biographies included below)
John Fox, President
Kay Adams, Past President
Perie Longo, Executive Director
Lisa DeVuono, Corresponding Secretary
Brian Moore, Recording Secretary
Nick Mazza, Journal Editor
Robert Carroll, Vice-President of Institutional Development
Rich Rosenfield, Treasurer
Ken Gorelick, Chair of By-Laws, and Ethics
Nancy Sherlong, Vice-President of Membership

2003-2005 Board Members
* indicates board member is an approved mentor-supervisor. For a complete list of mentor-supervisors, please click here.


*Kathleen Adams LPC, RPT: Past President
Kay is director of The Center for Journal Therapy in Denver and a private-practice psychotherapist specializing in poetry/journal therapy. She teaches both nationally and through distance-learning programs. She is the author of five books on the power of writing to heal.

Diane Richard-Allerdyce PhD, CPT: Education Committee
Diane is Chief Academic Officer at Toussaint L'Ouverture High School for Arts & Social Justice in Delray Beach, Florida, a charter school which she co-founded in 2001. She is a published poet and poetry therapist, a professor of distance learning at Lynn University in Boca Raton, and a proud mom of great kids. Read an interview with Diane here.

*Mari Alschuler, MFA, LCSW, RPT, M/S Chair 2004-2005 Conference Committee, VP of Conferences
Mari is a clinical social worker in agency practice in Miami-Dade County, Florida. She has a private practice in Broward County and teaches a correspondence course in Poetic Devices. The author of a poetry chapbook, The Nightmare of Falling Teeth (Pudding House, 1999), her poetry, essays, and articles have been nationally published for over 25 years.

Barbara Bethea, MA: Chair, Diversity Committee
Barbara holds an MA in Psychology with a focus on Poetry Therapy & Counseling. She is the CEO of Poetryworks Entertainment, which produces and coordinates spoken word and other creative programs for communities within NYC. She is also the Founder of SupremeTeens, Empowerment group for teen girls at risk. Barbara has also worked successfully with teen boys mandated to state facilities, women in the shelter system, and psychiatric populations. She is the co-founder with her husband of Peace and Blessing ministries. A poetess with a book in progress, she was the recent recipient of a Verizon Excellence Award for her volunteering efforts.

Margaret Blanchard
Poet, novelist, photographer, professor, Margaret Blanchard has published two novels, Hatching and Wandering Potatoes, two books on intuition, The Rest of the Deer and Restoring the Orchard, one book of poetry, Duet, and edited books on intuitive language, cancer, and transformative learning. As a teacher of writing and literature for 40 years, and currently professor of graduate studies at Vermont College of Union Institute & University, she initiated, with the support of the NAPT Board and the assistance of Sherry Reiter, a pioneering graduate Poetry Therapy focus in Vermont College’s M.A. program. More recently she was part of a team which developed this initiative into a joint certificate program for learners in Union's M.A. and Ph.D. programs.

Ted Bowman
Ted is an independent trainer and consultant specializing in work related to change and transition. He also teaches at the University of Minnesota, and is the author of two booklets; Loss of Dreams: A Special Kind of Grief and Finding Hope When Dreams Have Shattered.

Richard Brown, M.Ed
Richard is a Middle School Special Education teacher, a published poet, and a CPT in training. Before moving to Portland, Oregon from Massachusetts, Richard was the facilitator of "Spirit of Poetry" workshops and The Alternative Poetry Society, a group that met monthly. He was also the editor of Creative Light Magazine, which featured poetry and drawings of students at a residential school that he taught at for four years before moving West.

Bernie Bruster, M.A., J.D.
Bernie presently teaches College English and is the Texas Rep for NAPT. Bernie is an innovator offering e-poetry therapy experiences in conjunction with ivyvine (a web based presence serving friends and families of suicides). The web address for this service is http://ivyvine.org/healingyourwords.html Bernie is a Councilor for the Poetry Society of Texas and President of the East Texas Writer's Association. Her publications include: A Thousand Words a collection of her poetry and the photography of Charles Schuler, renowned Texas photographer, published by Flying Cow Productions 2001.

Robert Carroll, Vice-President of Institutional Development
Robert Carroll, M.D. is a family psychiatrist and poet in Los Angeles. He has a private practice of family psychiatry in Westwood, California and is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA. He has published professional articles, chapters, poetry and stories in the psychiatric literature and has published a series of more than twenty chapbooks of poetry. His poetry has appeared in Rattle, Spillway, ONTHEBUS and other poetry magazines and anthologies. He was a member of The Los Angeles Performance Poetry Slam Team for several years and has toured and performed nationally.

Jerri Chaplin, CPT: Chair of Praise of Muses Advisory Board
Jerri is in private practice in Charleston, SC and has served on the Board since 1999. Poetry therapy is a second career after 18 years in public relations and advertising. She grew up in Honolulu, got a BA in English from the U. of the Pacific in California, and has lived in Hawaii, California, Massachusetts and Dublin, Ireland. She settled in her birthplace, Charleston, SC in l995. She was the first poet-in-residence at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston in 1996 and is a published poet.

Lisa DeVuono, M.S.: Corresponding Secretary, Web Information Editor
Lisa has a graduate degree in Library and Information Science and has worked in health-related fields for over 15 years. She is a designated coach-trainer for the Artist Conference Network, a nationwide coaching community for artists of all kinds. She has also worked as a lay chaplain, was the founding member of a women’s performance group "It Ain’t Pretty" and has conducted numerous workshops at conferences, retreats and workplace settings.

*John Fox, CPT: President of NAPT; Chair, Education Committee
John is a full-time poetry therapist living in Mountain View CA. He practices nationally and internationally and teaches in several graduate institutions in the San Francisco Bay Area. John is also part of the California Poets in the Schools program. John is the author of Finding What You Didn't Lose: Expressing Your Truth and Creativity Through Poem-Making and Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making (Jeremy P. Tarcher/G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995, 1997).

Lisa Friedlander, LiCSW
Lisa is a social worker in private practice in Tewksbury, MA where she sees couples and individuals--both young people and adults. She frequently uses poetry therapy in her work and has recently begun her CPT training. She holds masters degrees in both movement therapy and social work. She taught at both Russell Sage College and Tufts University for a total of 14 years before making therapy her full-time career. Lisa has been a board member for 8 years--co-edited the Museletter with John Fox, was VP of membership, and for the last two years has chaired NAPT's national conference. She has presented at NAPT conferences and has publications--poetry, essays, reviews, as well as a chapter in the NAPT volume, The Healing Fountain.

*Ken Gorelick, MD, RPT, Ethics/By-Laws Chair
Ken is a psychiatrist and poetry therapist. He is a past president of NAPT, recipient of a Distinguished Service Award from NAPT, and has co-chaired three national NAPT conferences. He co-directs the Wordsworth Center for Poetry Therapy Training and is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at George Washington University and is in private practice in Washington, DC.

Sirkku Sky Hiltunen, Ph.D., Ed.D., RDT-BCT., ATR., LPC, Publications Committee
Sky is the CEO/President of Beyond Mask, Inc., Executive Vice President of The Art and Drama Therapy Institute, Inc., Artistic Director of the Therapy Theater Company, Inc. (TTC), and Founder of the Ilmatar Institute in Virtasalmi, Finland. Sky is an artist, a registered Art and Drama Therapist and Board Certified Trainer in Drama Therapy. She is a native of Finland and has a Black Belt in Tai Chi. She is the Master Teacher of NohCh’iDo-The Creative Way of Therapeutic Noh Theater‘. She has conducted art and drama therapy training in USA, Lithuania, Russia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, and Finland. She has published in professional journals in the USA, Canada, and Japan. Sky lives by faith and intuition and believes that creativity is a divine capacity.

*Perie Longo, Ph.D., RPT, LMFT Executive Director
Perie Longo, is in private practice in Santa Barbara, California. She is director of the poetry therapy program at Sanctuary Psychiatric Centers, has served on the Board for many years as vice-president and secretary, and is a mentor/supervisor. She has published two books of poetry.

Click here for an article about Poetry on the Couch from The Osgood File (CBS Radio Network), January 28, 2003.

Nicholas Mazza, PhD, RPT: Editor, Journal of Poetry Therapy
Nick is a professor of social work at Florida State University in Tallahassee. He holds Florida licenses in clinical social work, psychology, and marriage and family therapy.

Brian Moore, M.A., Recording Secretary
Brian received his M.A. from Goddard, in the Transformative Language Arts program where he blended together his passion for human services, poetry, and love of the natural world, including the field of eco-psychology. He has worked in social services for many years as a Resident Counselor and administrator at a men's drug treatment program,through Volunteers of America, Inc. He has also worked in editorial capacities for Blackwell North America, Inc., and for KAMS International, Inc., in Tokyo, Japan. Brian also helped to create and was editor of the Portland Tattler, a grass roots community literary journal with political and social commentary.

Richard Rosenfield, Ph.D., Treasurer
Rich is a licensed clinical psychologist and psychotherapist in private practice in Northern Virginia specializing in personal and career development. He regularly presents workshops on the evolution of identity during adult life.  Since first discovering the power of poetry in psychotherapy over 30 years ago, he has co-founded a structured group program for recovery from dysfunctional family influences and has authored two volumes of poetry that trace the growth of the self and the importance of loss, renewal, relationship and inspiration. Rich has been a NAPT member since 1995 and completed two years of poetry therapy training at the Wordsworth Center in the Washington, D.C. area. Over the years, he has held many leadership positions in professional and community groups and is excited to bring his organizational experience to NAPT as treasurer and executive commitee member.

Steve Rojcewicz, MD, RPT, NAPT Foundation Treasurer, NAPTF Representative to the NAPT Board, Chair of the Certification Committee of the National Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy
Steve is a psychiatrist in private practice in Silver Spring, Maryland who translates poetry from several ancient and modern languages.

*Charles Rossiter, Ph.D., CPT: Book Review editor for the Journal of Poetry Therapy; past Vice-President of NAPT
Charlie has over twenty years experience teaching workshops about poetry, self-expression and creativity in schools, libraries, prisons, community centers, mental health facilities and social service agencies. He has received fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Illinois Humanities Council and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He hosts the audio website, poetrypoetry.com and his poetry has been featured on NPR/PRI’s "Poet and the Poem" and on numerous NPR state-wide networks. As Special Projects Coordinator for NAPT he co-edited Giving Sorrow Words, published by the NAPT Foundation. His recent poetry publications include Back Beat, Cold Mountain 2000 and What Men Talk About, which was awarded the first Red Wheel Barrow Prize from Pudding House Publications.

Nancy Scherlong, CSW, QCS,RPT: Membership Vice-President; Chair, Government Affairs; Member, Integrative Medicine Committee
Nancy is a qualified, certified clinical social worker, and psychodramatist in training. She is the legislative liaison for poetry therapy to the National Coalition of Creative Arts Therapies Associations. She is the founder and director of Poems Heal Creative Arts Centers (www.poemsheal.com), a multidisciplinary practice and consulting service based in New York state. She works with children, adolescents, adults and families and has specialized training in treating trauma and addictions.

Jurate Sucylaite
Jurate lives in Lithuania and is a physician, psychiatrist, poetry therapist and writer in her home country. She is the author of four collections of poetry, three books of prose, and two of essays. She has worked with persons living with mental illness as well as those in recovery from alcoholism and drug abuse.

Hiroshi Tamura, MD: International Liaison
Hiroshi is a psychiatrist in Tokyo, Japan. He has used poetry for 18 years in clinical settings with inpatients, as well as with outpatient individuals, families and groups. He teaches poetry therapy to university students and mental health professionals.

Ingrid Tegnér, MSW, CPT
Ingrid is a Poetry Therapist and licensed social worker at a residential facility for adolescents in Baltimore, MD. She also facilitates poetry therapy/labyrinth workshops with diverse populations.

Karen vanMeenen: Chair, Publications Committee and Editor of the Museletter
Karen is Director of Special Projects at Writers & Books, a literary center in Rochester, NY, and teaches writing workshops for various organizations including Writers & Books, the Arts Council for Greater Rochester and the African Urban Arts & Cultural Association. Karen holds an MA in Transformative Language Arts from Vermont College. She is a Regional Representative for New York State and is so close to finishing her CPT that she can taste it. She also collaborated with Charlie Rossiter on the project Giving Sorrow Words.

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