Lisa Archibald
(my pronouns are she/ her/ hers) moved back home to Scotland in 2020 after living and learning in New Zealand for 7 years where she supported the growth & development of their Intentional Peer Support Aotearoa NZ hub. Lisa first accessed peer support 20 years ago as a university student and has benefitted from accessing peer support to navigate a number of existential crises in the many years since. After graduating with a degree in psychology Lisa started to facilitate peer support groups then went on to manage peer services and eventually became a relationally informed trainer and co-reflector. Lisa was a UK Winston Churchill fellow in 2013 and a Yale University Let(s) LEAD fellow in 2019. She is currently an MSc Mad Studies student in Edinburgh and works part-time for IPS Central in an operational and trainer role. Lisa is a solo adult raising a teenager and a nearly teenager in the Scottish Borders, has a kiwi cat called Shadow and has been learning (slowly) Scots Gaelic for the past 3 years.
Liz Brosnan
Having spent years on the ‘outside’ as a service user, then exploring recovery and involvement work, progressing into academia, trying to make change happen on the edges of mental health systems, Liz is now working on the ‘inside’ in the heart of services to see what can be achieved with good allies. In a cv spanning decades, she has worked with many incredible people to bring service-user/survivor/persons with psychosocial disabilities/Mad voices out of the margins into the mainstream. She has worked in many arenas: local community activism, peer advocacy, user-led/survivor research, academic writing and publishing, training and education, disability rights research. Returning to work in HSE MHS mental health engagement, she is optimistic that Intentional Peer relationships, will allow us to create safe spaces within and without statutory services.