FREE Webinar - Sacred Threads: Learning To Lead; To Love; To Serve
Doors to Wellbeing invites you to join our monthly Peer Specialist Webinar Series. This FREE continuing education opportunity brings experts by experience to expand peer specialist skills, knowledge and best practices. The series is the last Tuesday of every month (except December) at 2pm ET/1pm CT/12pm MT/11am PT.
Sacred Threads: Learning To Lead; To Love; To Serve - 2-Hour Special Event!
Explored topics: What we have learned from our experiences, ancestors, family, culture, and community service that support my leadership, wellness, and community. This session will discuss and explore liberating perspectives, differing perspectives on leadership, intersectionality, self-care, interdependence, mutuality / mutual aid, simultaneity, reciprocity, and interconnectedness
About the presenters: Nyla Christian, Jonathan P. Edwards, Matthew Federici, Nze Okoronta, and Julius E. Rhodes
Nyla Christian builds spaces where culture, care, and strategy align—because that’s what transforms lives, systems, and legacies.
For over 17 years, Nyla has guided leaders, families, and institutions through recovery, realignment, and reconnection—designing care strategies that are culturally attuned, purpose-driven, and grounded in real-world outcomes. Her approach is shaped by lived experience, deep industry expertise, and sharpened by national leadership in wellness equity and systems change.
She currently serves as Executive Director of CAARD (Center for African American Recovery Development) and leads her consulting firm, LifeInspired Development, where she created the LifeInspired Pathway™—a signature model for aligning whole-self wellness with identity, purpose, and legacy.
Nyla’s work is rooted in real-world impact and informed by national service. She is a Nationally Certified Intervention Professional (NCIP), Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist (CPRSS), and Nationally Certified Life Coach (NCLC)—and is honored to serve as Adjunct Faculty with Faces & Voices of Recovery, a SAMHSA-designated national thought leader, and a 2025 Recover Out Loud Award recipient.
Whether she is supporting high-performing individuals through complex transitions, partnering with families, or advising systems on equity and care strategy—Nyla brings the same approach each time: helping people and systems navigate wellness, recovery, and leadership with clarity, culture, and care.
Dr. Jonathan P. Edwards is a social scientist working at the intersection of public health, social work, and organizational development and brings more than 30 years of experience as a consumer, provider, architect and visionary of mental health and substance use services. In addition to his breadth of lived experience and credentials as Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Peer Specialist, Certified Personal Medicine Coach, Peer Supervision Professional, and Leadership Coach, Jonathan serves on the faculty of Columbia University School of Social Work, holds affiliate faculty status as a clinical instructor at Yale School of Medicine Program for Recovery and Community Health, and is currently employed by New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Use Prevention, Care, and Treatment as a Program Consultant. Jonathan has made significant contributions to workforce development in behavioral health and the recovery sector overall; led one of the largest peer support programs within the New York City Hospital system; published numerous peer reviewed articles and book chapters, and the co-authored “What It Takes: Wisdom from Peer Support Specialists and Supervisors"; enhanced the development of National Practice Guidelines for Peer Support Specialists and Supervisors; served as a technical expert to inform National Model Standards for Peer Support Certification and a Recovery Research agenda; presented nationally and internationally; and has received numerous awards and acknowledgements.
Dr. Edwards received his M. Phil and Ph.D. in Social Welfare from CUNY Graduate Center; MSW from Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College; and BA in industrial/organizational psychology from City College of CUNY. He serves on the Boards of New York Peer Specialist Certification, Friends of Recovery-New York, Mental Health News Education, and the Academy of Peer Services Advisory, Rutgers University.
Matthew R. Federici, MS, CPRP, is Chief Executive Officer of the Copeland Center for Wellness & Recovery. In 2010 frothe Institute for Recovery & Community Integration where he served as Program Director to create systems transformation through the implementation of a certified peer specialist training program across Pennsylvania. Matthew is an internationally recognized speaker, trainer, and consultant on recovery, wellness, community inclusion and peer support. He has served on the board of directors for the International Association of Peer Support and the National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery. In 2015, he was awarded by San Diego County the National "This Person" award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the hope and wellness of people in recovery. Matthew has provided keynote presentations, training programs, and webinars on recovery, community inclusion, and peer support in over 45 different states in the US as well as in Japan, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Hong Kong, and the Netherlands. Matthew is an Advance Level Facilitator through the Copeland Center for Wellness & Recovery. Matthew’s personal and professional journey in wellness and recovery includes involvement as a family member and a mental health consumer advocate for over 20 years. He has also been involved in promoting Psychiatric Advance Directives through local, state, and national consumer and provider conferences and is a Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner. He received his BA from Alvernia University in Psychology and Communications and MS in Rehabilitation Counseling from Rutgers University. He was awarded the Distinguished Advocate Award from the Pennsylvania Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services in 2002 and the Exemplary Practice Award in 2007 from the Mental Health Association of Southeastern PA Board of Directors.
Nze Okoronta is an advocate, writer and community organizer currently residing in Madison, WI. They are known for work surrounding mental health crisis services, peer run respites, peer support warmlines, crisis hotlines, suicide prevention, harm reduction and transformative mental health. Nze has worked within and alongside numerous organizations doing work around alternative responses to mental health crisis, harm reduction and drug user support, alternatives to policing, mobile crisis teams, civil and human rights protections, disability justice, and policy advocacy and reform. They have extensive knowledge in peer support spanning areas including fidelity and practice, national standards, statewide certification processes, program implementation, workforce development, supervision and leadership, peer support curriculum writing and development, and peer support training and facilitation in the US.
Their past experience includes designing and uplifting community-based projects connected to racial health equity, housing and houselessness, public health, disability access, clinical substance use counseling, and population-specific substance use care and program development for Black and Brown communities. Currently, they serve as Peer Respite Director for Solstice House and Co-Director of SOAR, a grassroots organization located in Wisconsin. They offer training, technical assistance and consultation for organizations and the general public related to crisis service transformation and redesign, and respectful applications of lived experience across various settings and disciplines.
Julius E. Rhodes, SPHR: Throughout his 30+ year career in the consumer products, durable and consumer goods, and healthcare industries Julius Rhodes has helped myriad leaders, and organizations; “BRAND: YOU.” His extensive experience in public service, associations, several leading-edge Fortune 100 firms and as a business owner, author, and trusted advisor has allowed him to support various entities in times of transition and change. Julius believes “Invest in Your People, and Your Business Will Prosper.” Based in Chicago, Illinois he is a much sought-after speaker, presenter, trainer and thought leader who has national exposure throughout the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii, and he has facilitated sessions internationally in Canada, England, Mexico, and Nigeria. His group interaction has been described as ‘approachable, relevant, and applicable.’ His mission is to ‘engage, support, and inspire his partners through the application of practical and sustainable practices which create improved process efficiency, talent development, integration, and utilization.
He speaks to thousands annually at conferences, conventions, and on-site covering topics such as human resources, environmental, health and safety, leadership development, emotional intelligence, health and well being, change, diversity, equity and inclusion, future trends, and positive disruption, among others.
This is part of Doors to Wellbeing's Peer Specialist Webinar Series.
