Board Members
MEMBERS OF THE MENTAL HEALTH BOARD
Board Officers:
Co-Chair
Harriette Stallworth Stevens, Ed D
Seat #10
Family Member Seat
Appointee of Supervisor Mark Farrell
Harriette Stallworth Stevens, Ed.D., is a mathematics educator and consultant. Currently, she is involved with an educational research project that focuses on classroom discourse and problem solving in urban schools. While she grew up in Alabama, she has lived in San Francisco for over 35 years with her husband and two adult children.
Before coming to San Francisco, Dr. Stevens attended the University of Kansas where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Applied Mathematics and Master of Arts in Education, with a concentration in Mathematics. In addition, she received her Doctorate in Education, with an emphasis in curriculum and instructional design, from the University of San Francisco. For over 25 years, she directed a mathematics professional development program for teachers at the University of California, Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science. In this capacity, she worked with urban-school teachers and their students and designed various curriculums to support students in succeeding in college and mathematics-based careers. Prior to working at the university, she worked at Cañada Community College, Redwood City, where she developed curriculum and coordinated a program that helped prepare college-level students for the health science professions. In addition, she also taught mathematics at the community college and secondary school levels across the country.
In addition to being a teacher, Dr. Stevens is also a credentialed counselor. In her work, she found that many of her students faced life challenges that they needed to address in order to continue pursuing their academic work. As a result, she felt a need to become better equipped to listen to, advocate for, and provide her students, family members, and staff with as much guidance and counseling support as she could. For these reasons, she returned to school and earned a counseling credential at San Francisco State University.
Dr. Stevens has the compassion and ability to understand other’s feelings and offer a nonjudgmental voice, especially to family members with a loved one with a serious mental illness. For almost three years, she has experienced coping with and being a support to her child and the challenges he has faced.
Throughout her career, Dr. Stevens has also been deeply involved in a number of professional and civic organizations. They include the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, California Mathematics Council, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Cal- PASS Professional Learning Councils, Blue Ribbon Committee/Bill and Melinda Gates High School Reform Initiative, and the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI).
Dr. Stevens is an accomplished NAMI family support group facilitator and has lead/co-lead monthly discussion groups for caregivers, families and friends in San Francisco. In this capacity, she is committed to fostering discussions that offer hope, and help families communicate, share experiences and become better able to cope with major challenges they face with a mental illness.
As a San Francisco Board family member, Dr. Stevens will continue to contribute to essential mental health initiatives, offer a strong voice, advocate for individuals and families, and promote quality treatment and services for families and their loved ones.
Co-Chair
Ulash Thakore-Dunlap, MFT
Seat #15
Mental Health Professional
Appointee of the Board of Supervisors
Ms. Dunlap is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and holds a PPSc
(School Counseling Credential.) Currently, she is core faculty at the Wright
Institute, MA Counseling Psychology Program and adjunct at San Francisco
State University MS Counseling Program. Ms. Dunlap also maintains a private
practice in San Francisco. She is the Founder of Understand My Mind (UMM)
providing free resources and support on wellness and mental health topics.
Ms. Dunlap has extensive clinical experience working with children,
adolescents, schools, families and adults. Her focus is providing culturally
appropriate counseling to adolescents and school-based settings. Ms.
Dunlap’s passion for school-based counseling services has led her to present
on this topic at a national and international level and publishing articles
on adolescent clinical needs, undocumented students and South Asian
immigrant youth.
In her free time, Ms. Dunlap is active in the community and is on
several committees and boards including International Committee Member for
the American Counseling Association (ACA), past Communications Officer for
the Asian American Association (AAPA), past Chair for the Division On South
Asian Americans, part of AAPA, past board member for The Children’s Book
Press and current member for 3rdi South Asian International Film Festival.
Vice Chair
Idell Wilson
Seat #16
Family Member Seat
Appointee of the Board of Supervisors
Idell Wilson is a native of San Francisco and a single mother with
four grown children. She shares her story of her family’s recovery, life
experiences about single parenting, dual mental and others illness,
homelessness, drugs, family, and community. She feels we need to work together
to break the stigma about mental illness.
She is a talk Show Host and Producer of BLACK DIVA TV Media, “Making
The Impossible Possible” on San Francisco public access TV 29, every 1st and 3rd
Friday @5:30-5:52PM. and internet www.bavc.org public access TV live stream 76.
The staff and team that lead the TV show are people with mental illness and
other disabilities.
Idell’s motto for life is “never give up” and she really lives her
belief. She has overcome tremendous obstacles in order to pursue a college
education. She has also lived in an area of San Francisco where many shootings
of teenagers have happened. One of her daughter’s was an innocent bystander in
one of these shootings and fortunately survived.
While working on her degree at San Francisco State University, she
noticed the difficulties that other students with disabilities were having so
she organized support services for these students. Then she took it a step
further and developed her own local cable TV show where she trained women of all
ethnicities with disabilities in the broadcasting arts.
Her show focused on real people with real stories. She interviewed
people who have overcome life’s challenges, highlighted people who have
accomplished special things, and entertained and enchanted the audience with her
passionate belief in others. For example she invited a homeless man to share his
story on her show, but she told him that it was a professional studio and that
he would need to take care of his hygiene. He surprised his case managers by
complying and showing up for the interview freshly bathed. Idell inspires people
to rise to their best.
Idell was appointed to the San Francisco Mental Health Board early
2002 by a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and re-appointed in
2014. Between her two MHB appointments, she served as Chair of the San Francisco
Mayor’s Disability Council. One of the issues she highlights for the board is
the stigma of having a mental illness that makes recovery more difficult for
many. She is keenly aware of the subtleties of the effects of stigma on people
with a wide range of backgrounds.
Secretary
Gene Porfido
Seat #6
Consumer Seat
Appointee of Supervisor Malia Cohen
I’ve spent most of my
life working and performing in the music industry, as a musician, live and
studio engineer, lighting designer, and producer. After many years of
touring and working on all kinds of great music, I came to San Francisco to
work in the gaming industry in 1999. After a few award winning games and
remakes of classics like Operation and Candyland for computers, I woke up
one morning with no feeling in my right hand. That led to a multitude of
tests, layers of speculation, and a prognosis that left me angry,
disappointed and eventually determined to fight back at what I considered a
raw deal at the time.
Permanent disability and
heavy medication only led me deeper into a dark place I had never had any
intention on visiting. It took a few years of being ‘OK’ with my situation,
and a few eye opening experiences for me to realize I did not have to settle
for anything, that I could have my life and my spirit back again…. I could,
and I WILL fight back, if I ever want to be ‘myself’ again.
It takes a lot of hard
work to pick yourself up and pull all the pieces in, and put that back where
they belong again. But it’s in all of us to have the ability to reach beyond
our boundaries and through the fear, to begin advocating for ourselves both
internally (by staying positive and winning small battles at a time), and
external, using our voice and experiences to speak out and reach those who
cannot, or who haven’t discovered their own way back yet… their own voice
yet.
The Mental Health Board
is one of those places where we meet people who work very hard day in and
day out to make things better for everyone, as well as those who are just
grasping their first breath on the long journey back, from a place too many
of us are familiar with. One battle, one victory at a time….Mr. Porfido joined the
board in September 2015. Over the next few weeks, he will share his
biography.
Terezie "Terry" Bohrer, RN, MSW, CLNC
Seat #4
Public Interest Seat
Appointee of Supervisor Aaron Peskin
Terry Bohrer is a Nurse, Social Worker, and Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, with expertise in mental health public policy. Prior to moving to San Francisco in 2011, she worked for ten years as a professional consultant specializing in Disaster Mental Health, Veterans Mental Health, Suicide Prevention, Peer Support, and non-profit agency organizational development and grantsmanship. For over 20 years Mrs. Bohrer was employed in directing and managing local and state government agencies and programs, including Director of the Maryland Patients’ Rights program, Director of the Prince George’s County Health Department Disability Support Services and Director of the Prince George’s County Core Service Agency (the local mental health authority).
Her numerous volunteer activities over the past 45 years include: President and Board Member of the Maryland Mental Health Association; President of Community Crisis Services, Inc. (a suicide prevention hotline serving five Maryland counties); Board member and Government Affairs Chairperson of the Prince George’s County Mental Health Association and Mental Health Association of Maryland; Member League of Women Voters; Member Association of University Women; President of the Women’s Political Caucus of Prince George’s County; Coordinator for the American Red Cross National Capital Area, Mental Health Lead (worked 9/11 at the Pentagon, DC floods and many local disasters); Member NAMI; and from 1978 to 2011, member of the Maryland Governor’s Mental Health Advisory Committee (a committee with a similar purpose to the San Francisco Mental Health Board).
Mrs. Bohrer was a sought after trainer in Maryland, providing Mental Health First Aid Train-the-Trainer training when it was first adopted in the United States; mental health disaster planning and preparedness training for the National Mental Health Association (now Mental Health America); training for the American Red Cross in Psychological First Aid and Disaster Mental Health Services and most recently in ASIST, a nationally recognized suicide prevention training program. Her recent activities in San Francisco include volunteering for the Mental Health Association of San Francisco as Public Policy Committee Coordinator, and counselor at the San Francisco Suicide Prevention Center. Mrs. Bohrer is married to Dr. Norman K. Bohrer--they have four daughters (two live in California, one in Hawaii and one in Virginia) and three adult grandchildren living in California.
Carletta Jackson-Lane, JD
Seat # 3
Public Interest Seat
Appointee of Supervisor Jane Kim
Ms.
Jackson-Lane was appointed on April 17, 2017. Her bio will be available in a
few weeks.
Judy Zalazar Drummond, MA
Seat #11:
Public Interest
Appointee of Supervisor Jeff Sheehy
Judy Zalazar
Drummond is a retired teacher. She worked for the San Francisco Unified
School District, mostly at Paul Revere Elementary and Horace Mann Middle
Schools. After 38 years teaching, she moved to teacher training at the
University of San Francisco for seven years, 3 years at Teach for America,
and is currently back with the SFUSD working with HHI - Hospital/Homebound
Instruction.
Ms. Drummond
has been a community activist since 1969 when she was part of the Los Siete
de la Raza Defense Group, supporting and eventually exonerating seven young
Latino males accused of killing a police officer. The group organized the
Mission community and began studying police brutality, racism, affordable
housing, and loss of jobs. She has continued that work on many levels, and
is currently a board member of the Bernal Heights Community Foundation and
Horizons Unlimited.
Ms. Drummond
has a weekly political commentary radio show on KPOO 89.5 FM, “Connecting
the Dots,” that airs Thursdays from 1-2 P.M.
Wendy James
Seat #1
Consumer Seat
Appointee of Supervisor Ahsha Safai
Ms. James is originally from Southern California, then spent a number of years in Louisiana before
moving to the Bay Area. She has been in San Francisco since 1996. She has a grown daughter, three
grandchildren and one great grandchild.
In September 2010, Mayor Newsom appointed Ms. James to the Mayor’s Office on Disability. There and on
the Mental Health Board, Ms. James is a strong advocate for seniors.
Ms. James is a panelist for “SOLVE”, Sharing Our Lives, Voices, and Experience, hosted by the Mental Health
Association, and a NAMI educator with a certificate in peer-to-peer mentoring and self-help.
Gregory Ledbetter
Seat #7
Consumer Seat
Appointee of Supervisor London Breed
Mr.
Ledbetter was appointed on 6/16/2017. His bio will be available in the next
few weeks
Judith Klain, MPH
Seat #5
Family Member Seat
Appointee of Supervisor Katy Tang
Judith Klain
spent 20 years working at San Francisco Department of Health, but it wasn’t
until her son became a user of the mental health system that she really
understood the challenges people face in accessing care.
Recently
retired (2014), Judith worked 30 years for the City and County of San Francisco;
twenty of those years at SF Department of Public Health. She worked at the AIDS
Office during the height of the epidemic, at SF General Hospital, at the MHRF,
at Community Programs and at Laguna Honda Hospital. She was the founding
Director of Project Homeless Connect, a best practice model of care for working
with complex individuals, which has won numerous national and local awards and
which has been replicated around the world.
Since
retirement, Judith continues to consult for San Mateo’s Pubic Health system, but
spends most of her time painting, training to do expressive arts therapy,
playing with her grandchildren and advocating for her son, currently in a city
funded residential treatment program.
Toni Parks
Seat #12
Consumer Seat
Appointee of the Board of Supervisors
Toni Parks is
a native of Denver, Colorado and a graduate of University of Denver with a
major in Art. She moved to San Francisco in 1974 because she visited once
and left her heart here, so she returned, which was one of the best
decisions she has ever made. She arrived at the beginnings of the gay
movement and got involved with women’s support groups, Harvey Milk’s
supervisorial campaign, and performance art. She spent decades as a health
care worker for hospitals, non-profits and private doctors.
A victim of
eviction from an apartment of 25 years is how she ended up being a consumer
of the system rather than a provider. Currently her interests are connecting
the technology community with the reality of the needs of San Francisco, and
to use their resources to assist with the disenfranchised.
She expands
her interest in technology by being a computer graphic artist.
Angela Pon
Seat #14
Family Member Seat
Appointee of the Board of Supervisors
Ms. Pon has
lived in San Francisco and in various Peninsula cities all her life. She has
three adult children with whom she has experienced the myriad challenges as
well as great joys of parenthood. When a loved one is diagnosed with a
serious mental illness, the journey to recovery for the entire family can be
not only challenging but harrowing – a road untraveled.
Her
professional background has included work in the airline travel industry,
also as administrative support for a real estate/mortgage broker, and most
recently in healthcare with Kaiser. She is looking forward to contributing
to mental wellness from the sensitive perspective of an informed Family
Member. She is honored to be chosen to work with the diversely dedicated,
well-credentialed Board Members of MHBSF who have extensive backgrounds in
mental health service.
Family
recovery can begin with NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness),
particularly with Family-to-Family education, where reassuring communication
is shared without judgment among those with similar experiences. SFDBSA (S F
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance) is another ongoing support network
for consumers and all family members. Both organizations have been
instrumental in her family's recovery.
Ms. Pon plans
to advocate for those searching to find resources for effective mental
health treatment. Early intervention and educated options are crucial to
recovery. Providing access to mental wellness services will give Hope to
Cope. Success in full remission can indeed be a possibility.
Richard Slota, MA
Seat #09
Family Member
Appointee of Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer
Richard Slota sought
to serve on the Mental Health Board because his adopted, African-American,
22-year old son is paranoid schizophrenic. He refuses all help and is
homeless on the streets of San Francisco. Mr. Slota ran out of things he
could do to help his son. His son wouldn’t trust him to give him money, buy
him a cell phone, a gym membership, a rent him a room. An important way Mr.
Slota hopes he can help his son is by serving on the Mental Health Board so
he can advocate for better services for people like his son.
Mr. Slota is a Vietnam
Era Vet. He earned a BA in Psychology and had a long career working in
mental health. He worked in residential treatment with disturbed adolescent
boys and on a acute psychiatric ward. He last worked for Dreamcatchers
Empowerment Network in Napa and Solano County as a Director of Community
Employment. He and his staff and were accredited through the California
State Department of Rehabilitation to help people with disabilities, mostly
mental, find and keep a job. He worked with a lot of young men very much
like his son. He is a licensed Career Development Facilitator. He attends
weekly NAMI (Natonal Alliance on Mental Illness) support group meetings. He
‘retired’ in 2013, but he seems to be working harder than ever.
He is a playwright,
novelist, non-fiction writer and poet. He earned an MA in Creative Writing
from San Francisco State. He once was a poet in the schools for 7 years.
Currently he is an Adjudicator for Theatre Bay Area and a member of the
Playwrights Center of San Francisco. Recently the Playwrights Center staged
a developmental reading of his new full-length play, Mascularity. He travels
to West Africa frequently to visit his daughter and son-in-law and do
research. Last year he co-authored a book on the kidnapping business in
Nigeria, called, Captive Market: Commercial Kidnapping Stories from Nigeria.
His first novel, Stray Son, is about a father and son seeking a difficult
reconciliation. It will be published this fall.
Mr. Slota has 2 other
adult children and a grandson. The son lives in Napa, California and the
daughter has homes in Lagos, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana.
Marylyn L. Tesconi
Seat #13
Family Member
Appointee of the Board of Supervisors
Marylyn Tesconi is a native San Franciscan with a strong
commitment to the city and its services, its providers and its consumers.
The unexpected mental health crisis of a close family member first brought
her attention to behavioral health services and crisis interventions. With
the help of numerous professionals, she and her family began an unexpected
journey revealing substance abuse and addiction, a mental health diagnosis
and numerous recovery models. Ms. Tesconi resolved to learn all she could
about dual diagnosis, alternative treatment options, and the often
incremental process of recovery. She enrolled in City College of San
Francisco, taking just one class: Drugs and Society. Three years later she
graduated with a certificate in Substance Abuse Counseling, and went on to
become a Certified Addiction Treatment Counselor through the California
Association of Drug and Alcohol Educators. Although this was gratifying and
important work, it seemed only to scratch the surface of deeper issues. This
motivated her to finish her BA, and in 2012 she completed a Masters Degree
in Community Mental Health, Counseling Psychology.
Concurrently, Ms. Tesconi spent nearly 10 years as an
intern/volunteer at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic, first as an addictions
specialist and counselor and later as an intern therapist working with
diverse and often marginalized populations. Through that experience she was
able to see the enormous responsibility of the mental health care system,
and the great vulnerability of the clients. She learned how to be an
advocate for client services, and to recognize when service goals fell
short. She also came to understand the importance of breaking the isolation
of a mental health and addiction dual diagnosis, and the significant role of
hope in the recovery process. In addition, she began working with families
of addicted children, founding a weekly12 Step meeting for parents, and
accepting an ongoing invitation as a guest speaker at Kaiser’s Chemical
Dependency Recovery Program 6-8 times a year.
Ms. Tesconi has also been a strong advocate for women in crisis,
and has worked with City College Women’s Studies Department over the last
five years on a Healing for Change event; as a workshop leader and organizer
of this yearly day long event, she is part of a team offering alternative
healing modalities at no cost to female trauma survivors of abuse,
relationship violence and neglect. Ms. Tesconi has a strong sense of social
justice and is interested in integrated treatment of addiction and mental
health issues which are inclusive of the family and surrounding community.
In addition, Ms. Tesconi has over 30 years of public service as a
manager in state government, and clearly understands the way bureaucracy
works, the way it sometimes does not work, and how to work within it to
reach a common goal.
As an appointee to the Mental Health Board of SF, she looks
forward to being part of a collective and proactive solution, contributing
to the wellness of our society and the betterment of our wonderful city. She
hopes to enhance public outreach and to help providers and consumers
maximize the benefits of available and developing services. She wants to be
part of a process that de-stigmatizes dual diagnosis, while educating and
protecting consumers, their families, and their communities. Ms. Tesconi
offers her time, education and experience to this effort, and is excited to
join this board of accomplished and committed individuals in service to this
community.
Njon Weinroth
Seat #2
Consumer
Appointee of Supervisor Norman Yee
I am a 20-year San Francisco resident. For the past decade, I’ve specialized in Administrative and Facilities Operations at a number of named tech start-ups. I was appointed to the Board of Directors of LifeRing Secular Recovery in 2011 and was subsequently reelected and appointed as board chair in 2014. Closer to home I have enjoyed volunteering for the North of Market Tenderloin Community Benefit District. In my free time I am an augmented reality games enthusiast and I write comedy.
My background as an employee, a consultant, and a non-profit administrator gives me a unique perspective on the needs of the often-overlooked working class. Several years ago, when it became apparent that I was having issues surrounding substance addiction, I experienced great difficulty finding a path that would lead me to the help I needed. I had enjoyed a semi successful period of sobriety many years earlier and knew that the one-size-fits-all solutions that have become society’s standard would not be effective in my case. Additionally, being neither wealthy nor enrolled in any public assistance programs, I was left to my own devices to sort through the disparate multitude of peer-focused organizations and treatment centers, each aggressively marketing their particular facility or program. I was finally successful in finding the services I needed, but at a great expense in the way of time and only after a few false starts with programs that were ill suited to my individual needs.
My goal for this term on the board is to facilitate the creation of a centralized, standardized and accessible database of local mental health service providers that can be leveraged by the public but also by affiliate and ancillary service providers.
Benny Wong, LCSW
Seat #8
Mental Health Professional Seat
Appointee of Supervisor Hillary Ronen
Benny Wong immigrated to San Francisco in 1998 and got his Master
Degree in Social Work in 2001. He has been working with immigrants, especially
Chinese senior immigrants, for over 15 years. Currently, Benny Wong is a
senior program director at SteppingStone: Golden Gate Day Health and a
licensed clinical social worker. His specialties are mental health issues
especially facing the senior immigrants. Because of this reason, Benny Wong
has conducted different research studies starting from 2001. For example, he
completed a research study, “Life satisfaction among Chinese Immigrant elderly
in S.F” in 2001. In 2005, He completed another research study, “A comparative
study of Chinese immigrant seniors’ and Caucasian-American seniors’ perception
of their mental illnesses in S.F”. In 2013, he coordinated a research study,
“Suicide in Chinese Older Adult”. Last year, he completed research regarding
dementia and Therababy Doll.
Benny is not only contributing his time on research but also
teaching different professionals such as social workers and nurses. He has
been a fieldwork instructor supervising social work interns from different
universities since 2004 such as San Francisco State University, San Jose State
University, University of California, Berkeley, California State University,
East Bay and the City University of Hong Kong. He has been giving different
presentations to the community regarding mental health and aging.
Benny is familiar with the mental health services for seniors and
adults in SF. Through his career, he has been very committed to advocating the
rights of Asian Pacific Islander seniors. For example, he convened Asian
Caucus in 2003. He was appointed to serve as a vice president for the Advisory
Council to the Aging and Adult Services Commission from 2006 to 2011 and
re-appointed as a Advisory Council to the Aging and Adult Services Commission
in 2014.
Due to his committed work, Benny Wong was selected as a recipient
in the category of “Community Hero” in the First Annual Asian Pacific Heritage
Award in 2007. He was selected again as a recipient in the category of
“Community Advocacy Award” in the California Association of Adult Day Services
Conference in 2010.
Benny Wong is appointed by Supervisor David Campos to serve the mental health
board of San Francisco devotedly.
vacant
Seat # 17
Appointee of the Board of Supervisors
Board Seats in Numerical Order
Wendy James
Seat #01:
Consumer
Appointee of Supervisor Ahsha Safai
Njon Weinroth
Seat #02:
Consumer
Appointee of Supervisor Norman Yee
Carletta Jackson-Lane, JD
Seat #03:
Public Interest
Appointee of Supervisor Jane Kim
Terezie "Terry" Bohrer, RN, MSW, CLNC
Seat #04:
Public Interest
Appointee of Supervisor Aaron Peskin
Judith Klain, MPH
Seat #05:
Family Member
Appointee of Supervisor Katy Tang
Gene Porfido
Seat #06:
Consumer
Appointee of Supervisor Malia Cohen
Gregory Ledbetter
Seat #07:
Consumer
Appointee of Supervisor London Breed
Benny Wong, LCSW
Seat #08:
Mental Health Professional
Appointee of Supervisor Hillary Ronen
Richard Slota, MA
Seat #09:
Family Member
Appointee of Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer
Harriette Stallworth Stevens, EdD
Seat #10:
Family Member
Appointee of Supervisor Mark Farrell
Judy Z. Drummond, MA
Seat #11:
Public Interest
Appointee of Supervisor Jeff Sheehy
Toni Parks
Seat #12:
Consumer
Appointee of the Board of Supervisors
Marylyn L. Tesconi
Seat #13:
Family Member
Appointee of the Board of Supervisors
Angela Pon
Seat #14:
Family Member
Appointee of the Board of Supervisors
Ulash Thakore-Dunlap, MFT
Seat #15:
Mental Health Professional
Appointee of the Board of Supervisors
Idell Wilson
Seat #16:
Family Member
Appointee of the Board of Supervisors
vacant
Seat #17:
Board of Supervisors
Appointee of the Board of Supervisors
