Mary Ellen Copeland, President of the Board of Directors
Getting well and staying well is the focus of Mary Ellen Copeland, PhD- author, educator, and mental health advocate. Mary Ellen’s work is based on the study of the day-to-day coping and wellness strategies of people who have experienced mental health challenges. It centers on self-help, recovery, and long-term stability.
Personally, Mary Ellen has experienced years of mental health challenges and has achieved long-term wellness and stability using these strategies.
Along with many other books, Mary Ellen is author of the celebrated WRAP® (Wellness Recovery Action Plan), a simple self-help system for identifying personal resources and then using those resources to stay well and help you when you feel badly.
Her work has changed the basic tenets of mental health as she has spoken the truth that people with mental health issues can have hope, control over their lives, develop self-directed wellness plans, and recover, working toward meeting their own life dreams and goals. These strategies and skills are being used in the worldwide mental health transformation movement.
Mary Ellen is the author of many self help resources including:
- The Depression Workbook: A Guide to Living with Depression and Manic Depression,
- Living Without Depression and Manic Depression: A Guide to Maintaining Mood Stability,
- The Loneliness Workbook,
- The Worry Control Workbook,
- Winning Against Relapse,
- Healing the Trauma of Abuse: A Woman’s Workbook, and
- WRAP and Peer Support.
Matthew Federici, Executive Director
Matthew comes to the Copeland Center from the Institute for Recovery & Community Integration where he served as Program Director. He is an Advance Level Mental Health Recovery Educator and WRAP Facilitator through the Copeland Center For Wellness and Recovery. Matthew’s personal and professional journey in wellness and recovery includes facilitating group therapy sessions, resource management for people entering independent housing; supervising community rehabilitation residents and implementing a supported employment and education program. In addition he has been a member of family and consumer advocacy groups for several years. He has also been involved in promoting Psychiatric Advance Directives though local, state and national consumer and provider conferences and is a Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner. He received his B.A. from Alvernia College in Psychology and Communications and M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He was awarded Distinguished Advocate Award from the Pennsylvania Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services in 2002 and Exemplary Practice Award in 2007 from the Mental Health Association of Southeastern PA Board of Directors.
Katie Wilson, Acting Administrator
Katie Wilson comes to the Copeland Center after working with Mary Ellen Copeland on a number of special projects – most notably, Mental Health Recovery’s online presence on mentalhealthrecovery.com, facebook groups, e-newsletters, webinars and wraparoundtheworld.com. Katie has worked for Marlboro College’s MBA in Managing for Sustainability, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and as an AmeriCorps*VISTA for Vermont Campus Compact. Katie received her BA from Bennington College and her master’s degree from New York University’s Center for Global Affairs where she studied international human rights. During her time with the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, Katie worked with staff from other philanthropies on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
She’s an avid reader of non-fiction and fan of public radio particularly of This American Life, Radio Lab, Marketplace, and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.
