President
Michael Thompson, FSA, MAAA, has over 20 years of experience in health care and employee benefits strategy development and implementation, design, financing, pricing, operations and analysis. He is currently a principal in the human resources services practice PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and serves as the company's national leader and speaker on health and performance strategies. Prior to joining PwC, Michael served as an executive with a managed care organization, leading up their operations, underwriting and national accounts. He is currently a fellow of the Society of Actuaries and serves on a number of committees, including the Federal Health Committee.
 
Vice President
Barbara Ricci understands the crucial role that an organization such as NAMI-NYC Metro plays for families and individuals living with mental illness. In the late 1980's while attending medical school, her younger brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Since then, she has become actively involved in mental health advocacy, both in Pennsylvania and New York; today she is a primary benefactor for NAMI-Lancaster, PA, and a lifetime member of NAMI-NYC Metro. For six years, she and her family provided housing and funding for the volunteer-run mental health drop-in center ICAN, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Aside from her responsibilities as a mental health advocate, Barbara is a managing director at Deutsche Bank in New York.

Vice President
Julissa Viana-Hernandez rejoins the NAMI-NYC Metro board after serving as first vice president and gala committee chair from 2000 to 2005. Ms. Viana-Hernandez brings extensive experience as a healthcare communicator having led integrated communications programs on both the agency and corporate side.  She has also served as a spokesperson for the American Red Cross of Greater New York, where she developed media campaigns to reach diverse audiences. She is committed to sharing her communications expertise with NAMI-NYC Metro to broaden the organization's reach and deliver its messages to those who may not be aware of its services. Ms. Viana-Hernandez's dedication to NAMI-NYC Metro and her professional focus on mental health issues have been motivated by her brother, who suffered for more than nine years with schizophrenia until he took his own life in 2004.

Treasurer
Eric Leventhal, LCSW. Mr. Leventhal is a psychotherapist in private practice at Park West Associates.  He specializes in the treatment of adults in individual and group treatment.  Additionally, he is a senior social worker in the outpatient psychiatry department at BellevueHospital.  Prior to working as a psychotherapist, Mr. Leventhal was a certified public accountant and business consultant in the emerging business services department at what was formerly Coopers & Lybrand.  He has a B.S. from the University of Virginia, an M.S. from the Columbia University School of Social Work, and a certificate in psychodynamic psychotherapy from the NYU Psychoanalytic Institute at NYUMedicalCenter.  He received his clinical training at New YorkPresbyterianHospital and the EAP Consortium, an employee assistance program for the employees of five constituent hospitals.  His interest in advocating for and treating mental illness is based on his personal experience with his older brother Paul’s mental illness.  Mr. Leventhal has been an instructor for NAMI’s Family-to-Family Education Program.  In addition, he has lectured about the effects of schizophrenia on families.

Steven R. Coe has served as the executive director of Community Access (CA) since 1979. Over the course of his 26-year tenure there, he has transformed it from a grassroots, neighborhood housing organization to become a leader in the fight to provide affordable housing and employment opportunities for New Yorkers with psychiatric disabilities. A tireless advocate for individuals with mental illness, Mr. Coe was a founding member of the Association for Community Living, a state-wide trade association, and served as ACL's president from 2002 to 2006. He has also served as a board member of the Coalition for the Homeless and the Coalition of Voluntary Mental Health Agencies. In 1997, Mr. Coe served as the co-chair of the Campaign for NY/NY II, which successfully secured over $80 million in new funding for homeless people with psychiatric disabilities. Mr. Coe currently serves as chair of the New York State Campaign for Mental Health Housing, a new initiative aimed at securing a long-term solution to the housing shortage faced by people with psychiatric disabilities. Mr. Coe received his B.S. in urban and rural studies from the University of California, San Diego, and an M.A. in urban affairs and policy analysis from Milano Graduate School at the NewSchool.

Spencer Eth, M.D. Dr. Eth is a professor and vice chairman at the New York Medical College Department of Psychiatry and the medical director and senior vice president for Behavioral Health Services at Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers. Dr. Eth graduated magna cum laude from New YorkUniversity. After receiving the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, he went on to pursue graduate studies at WadhamCollege at OxfordUniversity. He then received his M.D. from UCLAMedicalSchool and completed a psychiatry residency at the New YorkHospital - CornellMedicalCenter and a child psychiatry fellowship at Cedars-SinaiMedicalCenter in Los Angeles. A prolific writer, Dr. Eth is the author or co-author of over 100 articles and chapters, and an editor of a four books on child and adolescent psychiatry.  In 2008 Dr. Eth was presented with the 2008 NAMI Exemplary Psychiatrist Award for contributing to the greater public understanding of brain disorders, working to eliminate stigma, fighting discriminatory policies, and caring for people who experience mental illness.

Cindy Freidmutter. Ms. Freidmutter is principal of CLF Consulting, a full-service consulting firm for nonprofit, foundation, and government clients. She provides strategic and business planning; program design, implementation and evaluation; grant writing and fundraising; project management and other services to not-for-profit organizations, including the Coalition of Behavioral Health Agencies, Institute for Community Living, and Brooklyn AIDS Task Force. Prior to opening her consulting firm, Ms. Freidmutter served as vice president for external affairs at LaGuardia Community College (CUNY), president of the Brooklyn Public Library Foundation, and president and chief executive officer of Managed Care Innovations, Inc., a nonprofit managed care organization comprised of 27 mental health providers in New York City. Under Governor Mario Cuomo, she served as director of housing development/associate commissioner in the New York State Office of Mental Health.  She is most proud of helping to launch the NY/NY program, which has provided services and housing to tens of thousands of homeless New Yorkers with serious mental illness since its inception. Ms. Freidmutter has a B.A. from Brooklyn College and a J.D. from New York University School of Law. She has been an active supporter of a sibling coping with mental illness, as well as an advocate for her son, who was diagnosed with special needs at age two.  Ms. Freidmutter is a lifelong Brooklyn resident, and currently resides in Park Slope with her 11-year-old son Daniel, whom she proudly reports is now thriving in public middle school with the help of supportive services.

Jessica Hunt. Ms. Hunt is senior vice president, life sciences, at the Gerson Lehrman Group, which operates a network of more than 250,000 experts who provide consultant services to financial services firms, consultancies, corporations, and nonprofit organizations. She manages a business providing scientific, clinical and commercial expertise to life sciences companies. She previously held positions in the company’s new markets and healthcare divisions. Prior to this work, Ms. Hunt was a teaching assistant at Yale University and a consultant at the Leakey Foundation, where she provided fundraising and business planning services. Ms. Hunt has a B.A. in biological anthropology from Duke University and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Yale. She has a family member who has struggled with mental illness.

Rebecca Jackson. Ms. Jackson works in the exchange traded derivatives business at UBS Investment Bank. She has broad experience in the financial services and investment banking industries, having also worked as a business analyst, compensation analyst, and tax consultant. She received a B.A. (Hons) in politics from the University of Sheffield (UK). An advocate of support and early intervention in the workplace, Ms. Jackson is the daughter and sister of family members who have suffered with depression and was herself diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in her early twenties.

Wendy Jones-Hayes. Ms. Jones-Hayes lends expertise in several areas of marketing and communications.  Ms. Jones-Hayes’ professional background has given her exposure to working with large broadcast groups and advertising agencies by creating, negotiating, and executing multi-platform advertising campaigns.  Ms. Jones-Hayes has been employed at Katz Media Corporation (Katz Radio Group) for 15 years.  Katz is the largest national broadcast rep firm in the country.  She oversees the national sales efforts of Cox Radio Group as Vice President Director of Sales and has created training programs that are used nationally to train sales managers across the country.  Ms. Jones-Hayes is committed to sharing her communications expertise with NAMI and getting the message out to those who are not aware of the organization’s services and support.   The loss of Ms. Jones-Hayes' brother to schizophrenia has motivated her to help individuals and families in need to find resources and services.

Linda Lee. Ms. Lee is the associate executive director of Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York, Inc., founded in 1973 as New York’s first community-based organization focused on the Korean community. The organization provides community services, including after school programs, an adult center and ESL classes; programs for the aging through three senior centers; and public health and research services, with centers focused on diabetes, hepatitis B, immunization and tobacco control, among others. Prior to this position, Ms. Lee worked in operations for the New York State Health Foundation and as a social work intern in the North Shore/Long Island Jewish Health System. Ms. Lee, who holds a B.A. from Barnard College and a M.S.W. from Columbia, has a close relative living with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Diane Lightbourne is a lifelong advocate and activist for the oppressed and underprivileged. She is the founder of several grassroots coalitions and newsletters. Since 2003, she has volunteered at NAMI-NYC Metro in their general office and in their Kenneth Johnson Memorial Research Library. From 1998 through 2006, she worked as a peer director and coordinator for Project Us Psychosocial Club, where she instituted a safer, healthier, and cleaner environment. Under her innovative direction, she increased attendance, and introduced several services including tax preparation, Saturday breakfasts, arts and crafts instruction, conflict mediation, a food pantry, a clothing bank, and chaperoned excursions, which she arranged. Ms. Lightbourne organized committees and petitions for consumer rights. She has the distinction of being the only person named as Director Elect in the club’s fifteen year history. Prior to joining Project Us, she worked as an editorial assistant at Street News in NY and was an Eligibility Specialist for the New York Department of Social Services.  She has also volunteered as a New York City Public Library Literacy tutor. Ms Lightbourne is an amateur writer, artist, and singer.

Jacqueline Martinez, MPH. Ms. Martinez is the senior program director at the New York State Health Foundation, where she plays a lead role in developing and managing the grant-making activities of the Foundation and the strategic and creative development of leadership and capacity-building programs with community-based organizations throughout the state. Prior to joining the Foundation, she was the director of the Northern Manhattan Community Voices Collaborative, a network of over 35 community-based organizations and institutions in Central Harlem and WashingtonHeights. Ms. Martinez has also managed programs for Alianza Dominicana, Beginning with Children, among other organizations serving the needs of economically disadvantaged communities. Ms. Martinez received her bachelor's degree in human development from CornellUniversity and a Master's of Public Health from ColumbiaUniversity. Working with NAMI-NYC Metro provides the opportunity to advocate for policies that increase access to culturally responsive mental health care for all racial and ethnic groups.

Jay Neugeboren, a NAMI-NYC Metro board member since 2002, currently serves as a vice president and chairs the Library Committee. He is the author of 17 books, including two about mental illness: Imagining Robert: My Brother, Madness, and Survival, a New York Times Notable Book of 1997, and Transforming Madness: New Lives for People Living with Mental Illness, recipient of a "Ken" Award from NAMI-NYC Metro in 2000. His latest novel, 1940, was published in the spring of 2008. He has received many other accolades for his novels and short stories. In addition, he serves on the boards of several organizations, including ColumbiaUniversity's Center for Prevention of Homelessness, Pathways to Housing, Genesis Clubhouse (Worcester, MA) and the Family Diversity Project. He was, for many years, professor and writer-in-residence at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, but has relocated, full-time, to New York City, where he continue to be active in projects that educate the general public about mental illness, and that advocate for those, like his brother Robert, who suffer from long-term serious and persistent mental illnesses.

Nathan Romano joined NAMI-NYC Metro in 2006 with a desire to help reshape society's negative view of mental illness and those it affects. As the only child of a single parent with bipolar disorder, Mr. Romano watched his parent struggle with the illness and its related social and economic issues. He also learned firsthand of structural issues inherent in a medical establishment that did not always have consumers' best interests at heart. Mr. Romano is a Managing Director at Credit Suisse. Prior to this position he was a Senior Managing Director at Bear Stearns & Co. and worked at Bain & Company in their private equity practice. He received his MBA with honors from the WhartonSchool at the University of Pennsylvania and his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California, where he was a walk-on for their nationally ranked tennis team. Mr. Romano currently serves on the board of Integrated Textile Group, an international textile group in the home furnishings industry, and acts as an advisor to On-Ramps, a recruiting and consulting firm specializing in workplace innovation.

Margaret Schweigert. Ms. Schweigert has served as a Helpline volunteer, Peer to Peer mentor, and Peer to Peer trainer.  Her work was recognized when she was honored as the 2008 Volunteer of the Year.  Ms. Schweigert possesses a wide range of skills which includes teaching young children and college students, selling investment and residential real estate, and working as a department store buyer.  She plans to use her sales background to fundraise during her tenure on the board.  Ms. Schweigert has been with NAMI-NYC Metro for over two years and credits her substantial recovery from mental illness with her association with the organization.  She hopes to both further her recovery and give back to the mental health community through her work on the NAMI-NYC Metro Board.

David B. Spanier, Esq., Vice President & General Counsel, Dextra Baldwin McGonagle Foundation, Inc., has been specializing and practicing in the employee benefits and tax-exempt organization fields since 1970. He has participated in the audit and self-correction of both employee pension and welfare benefit plans throughout his career, practicing with both private law and benefits consulting firms, including Curtis, Mallet, Prevost, Colt & Mosle, Greenberg Traurig, LLP and William M. Mercer, Inc. He is actively involved in ERISA litigation and administrative hearings, mergers and acquisitions and advice to ERISA plan fiduciaries, and, most recently, ERISA compliance related to HIPAA. His experience also includes corporate, estates and trusts and real estate transactions.  He has been a frequent contributor to chapters and articles in Employee Benefits Law, Employee Benefits Handbook, Health Care Benefits Law and the Journal of Compensation and Benefits. His interest in NAMI-NYC Metro is based on his personal experiences with mental illness and those of family and friends. Professionally, he has advised clients since the early 1990s in regard to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 and various related health laws (both state and federal) that have an impact on employee benefit plans, particularly with respect to the provision of healthcare benefits.  In addition to serving on the NAMI Board since 2005, David is a member of the Boards of Trustees of Premier Health Care/National Institute for People with Developmental Disabilities and the McGonagle Foundation.

Kimberly Tate-Brown. Ms. Tate-Brown is a graduate of the City University of New York School of Law. As an Attorney for the Mental Hygiene Legal Service, Ms. Tate-Brown advocates for the rights of people struggling with mental illness. She is a member of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, serving on the Mental Health Law Committee and singing with the City Bar Chorus, a pro bono musical outreach group. Prior to becoming an attorney, Ms. Tate-Brown enjoyed a 15-year nursing career. As a registered nurse on a cardiac unit, she developed an interest in the psychological ramifications of physical illnesses, co-leading a support group for patients and their families. Ms. Tate-Brown then earned a master's degree as a psychiatric nurse practitioner, working in both research and private practice. Currently, she is in the process of forming a non-profit organization to provide transitional services for the psychiatrically hospitalized. Ms. Tate-Brown's involvement with NAMI-NYC Metro stems from her dedication to her clients and to the community reintegration of people with chronic mental illness.