Our Team
The City Voices Team
Helen (Skip) Skipper
Contact: [email protected]
Skip is a criminal justice advocate and scholar who has been working in peer support since her release from incarceration in 2007. She is now the Executive Director of the NYC Justice Peer Initiative, which focuses on helping her peers who are also systems survivors. In addition, she is a fellowship awardee at Columbia University and she studies at St. Francis College toward a Masters degree.
More About Me
Jenny Chan
Contact: [email protected]
Jenny Chan has been an artist for the past 12 years. She joined the Fountain House Gallery in 2016. Jenny graduated from NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study in January 1997 and has a degree in writing and art. She has been in over 65 group shows. One of her group shows was at the MOMA museum in February 2018. She began writing for City Voices in 2006-2007. Currently, she works with City Voices and the Fountain House Gallery artists for the art section of City Voices.
More About Me
Craig R. Bayer
Contact: [email protected]
Craig is a freelance writer/social activist/small-time publisher and all-around communicator. He has written for City Voices, The Fountain House Times, The Canarsie Courier and various passionately produced little rags. In addition to journalism, Craig has tried his hand at poetry and hopes to publish a collection of his poems called “The Extremist.”
More About Me
CARL BLUMENTHAL
Contact: [email protected]
Carl has been both a peer specialist and a volunteer for City Voices for over 17 years. Carl is an experienced professional writer/reporter who has written for local New York City newspapers. Being a Quaker, he applies the philosophy of loving kindness to his peer support work as well as patience and perseverance. Carl lives with his partner, a gifted gardener, and their feline friends.
More About Me
Christina Bruni
Contact: [email protected]
Christina has an MS in Library and Information Science from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. In 2016 she formed Christina Bruni LLC as a private resume writing and career help service for mental health peers. A number of her clients have gotten job interviews that led to job offers. Christina has been a columnist for City Voices for over 15 years.
More About Me
Dan Frey
Contact: [email protected]
Dan is the director of City Voices. He travels about spreading the City Voices empowerment gospel and, hopefully, in the process, attracts supporters. Mentored by the late Ken Steele from 1998-2000, he has been doing this work for over 15 years. He enjoys building relationships and never takes for granted his support system, which includes his partner and their four-legged son; may they live long and prosper together.
More About Me
Philip Yanos
Contact: [email protected]
Philip Yanos, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and Professor at John Jay College. He is the author of "Written Off: Mental Health Stigma and the Loss of Human Potential" (Cambridge University Press, 2018) as well as over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. He is committed to using his privilege and influence to help the peer-support movement in any way that he can.