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Dr. George Woods is a practicing physician, specializing in neuropsychiatry. His private practice focuses on neurodevelopmental disorders, acquired neurocognitive disorders, cognitive impairments secondary to neuropsychiatric disorders, traumatic brain injury, ethnopsychopharmacology and workplace safety. In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Woods consults with legal teams dealing with complex criminal and civil litigation. He has been on the faculty of Morehouse School of Medicine and Berkeley Law. For nine years he was a lecturer with Jenny Johnson at Berkeley Law – University of California, teaching Mental Health and the Law.

Victor Espinosa is a sociologist, ethnographer and curator. He is an assistant professor in the Sociology Department at The Ohio State University. His research combines theoretical approaches and qualitative methodologies from sociology and the humanities to study the intersection of migration, arts, and culture from a transnational perspective. (In addition to providing guidance on vulnerable communities throughout the podcast, Victor is a co-producer on Episode 1).

Andrew Scull is a British-born sociologist who researches the social history of medicine and the history of psychiatry. He is a distinguished professor of sociology and science studies at the University of California, San Diego. He is the recipient of the Roy Porter Medal for lifetime contributions to the history of medicine and the Eric T. Carlson award for lifetime contributions to the history of psychiatry.

Dr. Ruth Shim is the Luke & Grace Kim Professor in Cultural Psychiatry and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Shim’s research focuses on mental health disparities and inequities, and she provides clinical psychiatric care in the UC Davis Early Diagnosis and Preventative Treatment (EDAPT) Clinic. She is a member of the board of trustees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Dr. Joel Braslow is a psychiatrist and historian whose work focuses on the social, cultural, and scientific constitution of therapeutic practices in medicine and psychiatry. His work examines twentieth-century American psychiatric practices, employing historical and health services research methods. He was a faculty member in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences from 1992, and the UCLA Department of History from 1996, until his move to Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry in 2023.

Dominic Sisti is an associate professor in the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. He directs the Scattergood Program for the Applied Ethics of Behavioral Health Care and holds secondary appointments in the Department of Psychiatry, where he directs the ethics curriculum in the residency program, and the Department of Philosophy. Sisti's research examines ethical and policy challenges in mental health care, including long-term psychiatric care for individuals with serious mental illness and clinical ethics issues in correctional settings.

Craig Haney is a social psychologist and distinguished professor in the Psychology Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He holds J.D. and Ph.D degrees from Stanford and served as one of the principal researchers on the highly publicized “Stanford Experiment” in 1971. Among other research areas, he has specialized in the assessment of institutional environments, especially the psychological effects of incarceration, as well as study of the social histories of persons accused or convicted of serious violent crimes.

Lori Ashcraft is the Executive Director of Resilience, Inc., co-founded with her life partner and collaborator Gene Johnson. During her 40 year behavioral health career, she has had a strong interest in the therapeutic effects of self-determination, choice, and personal freedom. She is committed to furthering the recovery movement and the development of resilience in crisis services, as well as peer support in all settings including community care, prisons and hospitals.

Gene founded Recovery Innovations in Arizona in 1990 to create a better future for individuals living with serious mental illness. Learning from those with lived recovery experiences, he eliminated the practice of seclusion and mechanical restraint at his crisis centers. In 1999, he added a new discipline of “Peer Support Specialist” to all his service teams, employing over 500 people with lived experience to work alongside other mental health professionals delivering crisis response, housing, employment, education and peer support. After leaving Recovery Innovations in 2014, Gene and Lori created Resilience, Inc., bringing their experience to organizations seeking to implement and embed recovery and resilience principles and practices in their organization and services.