Core Team
Silen (they/he)
Peer Supporter, Director & Co-founder
Silen is a sculptor of sound, artist of people, gender liminal shapeshifter, mercurial name collector, restless poet, and storyteller, among other things. They found their way to wholeness and self-love through mostly "alternative" means, namely: guided rites of passage journeys, performance art, unhinged-unfettered-unapologetic dance, and connections with fiercely humble Elders & mentors who shared some of Silen's marginalized identities.
Silen is a white settler living on Cheyenne, Arapaho & Ute lands seeking to unsettle himself & constantly develop greater awareness and humility, listening to be in the right relationship with the land & advocating for racial justice. A lover of thresholds, Silen is transgender & queer experiencing varying degrees of (quasi-spiritual) madness sometimes self-labeled as neurodivergent and is otherwise abled.
Silen is endlessly grateful to have found their way to peer support work, is a certified peer support specialist, and facilitates some of Yarrow's Alternatives to Suicide & trans/nonbinary groups in addition to grant writing, budget managing, and overall directing.
Lucrecia (she/her/ella)
Harm Reduction & BIPOC Program Director
Lucrecia is a Latinx woman who was born and raised in Fort Collins, Colorado. She is a wife and a mother to three children ages 3-10. She has lived experience with life-interrupting substance use, trauma, the criminal justice system, incarceration, problem-solving court programs, and more. Her life experiences gave her medicine and wisdom to create spaces for people of color, drug users, people in recovery, and people wanting to find liberation from oppressive systems. She is an activist who loves to continue learning and fighting for our collective liberation. She is rooted in family and love. She deeply values ceremony, ritual, and her connection to the land. She co-founded and co-facilitates all harm reduction groups and Yarrows groups in the Larimer County Jail. She is also a co-founder and co-facilitator of Unity in Community. She is a certified Peer Support Specialist, and as the Harm Reduction & BIPOC Program Director she oversees the Harm Reduction work. Lucrecia loves to hike, run, travel, being with her family, and continuously manifesting her reality.
Geena (she/her)
Administrative Director & Co-founder
Geena is a local wife and mother with lived experience of life-interrupting substance use, trauma, psychiatric diagnosis, local judicial systems, problem-solving court programs, and more. She unceasingly works on living a balanced life by embracing several models/programs of recovery and alternative approaches that heal the body, mind and spirit. Geena continues to rise up from what felt like a “seemingly hopeless state” by learning to embrace the universe’s curveballs with the people that she loves. She has become aware that everyone recovers differently and there is no “one-size-fits-all” model when it comes to healing. Rather than focusing on what only works for her, she strives to find alternatives so that anyone can find a path of healing and that their journey is of minimal resistance.
Geena was invited to join the guiding council before Yarrow was named Yarrow, and currently serves as Yarrow Collective’s Administrative Director whose main duties are to help smooth the organizational side of this emerging and always changing collective.
Ashleigh (she/her)
Training Director and Family Services Coordinator
Ashleigh Jones (she/her) is Yarrow Collective’s Training Director and a co-founder. Ashleigh has lived in Fort Collins for the past 13 years. She is the mother of 2 wonderful children that are the joy of her life. Ashleigh has lived experience with life interrupting substance use, childhood trauma, eating disorders, self-harm and is a suicide attempt survivor. She also has lived experience with both the foster care system and the criminal justice system. Ashleigh has been a peer support worker for over 5 years. She is now one of the Training directors and family support advocates for Yarrow Collective . During her time as a peer worker, she has found her voice as an advocate and an activist. Ashleigh is passionate about peer support in its truest form: the beautiful connection between folks who are struggling and those who have had similar lived experiences.
Melissa (she/her)
Melissa is a long time Fort Collins resident. Having attended elementary through high school in Poudre School District she feels rooted in and committed to supporting her hometown. She is the Mother of 4 children ranging in age 7-17. Some of her most valuable education has come through her lived experiences. She is passionate about creating opportunities for underrepresented identities to come together to practice embodied, compassionate, integration while in community. As a multiracial woman, Melissa continues to grapple with identity concepts. As she practices welcoming the many parts of her to coexist she feels alignment and peace. Sitting in circle with Melissa feels soft and centered. She blends her 7 years of experience sitting in and facilitating community peer to peer support circles, Art of Groups facilitator training and Xinachtli facilitator training. She is on the journey to remember and practice her lineages medicine. Currently Melissa is supporting and facilitating ECHO, youth alternatives to suicide circle. She co-founded and co-facilitates Unity in Community, a space for BIPOC and multiracial community members to gather and offer non-clinical peer support. She offers her time weekly as a community member to Poudre Global Academy’s high school mindfulness circle. Melissa loves to collect books, plants and rocks. Melissa enjoys coffee, a great playlist and deep conversations.
Youth & BIPOC Program Coordinator
Sam (they/them)
Sam found their way to Colorado after living, studying, and working in the state of Delaware. Their background is in psychology and research, with a passion for art, science, and the humanities. Influenced by works of Carl Jung, Alan Watts, Buckminster Fuller, and other greats, they endeavor to bring empathy and understanding into daily life through individual and collective narratives tied into advocacy.
Outside of Yarrow, Sam is integrating yoga and Brainspotting to work 1:1 with folks wanting a more somatic approach to moving through stress stored in the body.
Program Evaluation Coordinator
Kyle (he/him)
Kyle is an advocate for social justice in the criminal justice system. Kyle has personal lived experience in the prison industrial complex and life-interrupting substance use. He is a confident team player, strong leader and is over 4 years removed from addiction. Kyle has over a year of experience working with persons experiencing Substance Use Disorder as well as working with those experiencing the challenges of re-entering society from prison. As a new member of the Yarrow Collective, working with the Re-Entry population, Kyle aims to assist those facing the unique challenge of Re-Entering society by providing resources as well as a listening ear and shoulder to lean on. Kyle is motivated be his freedom from the system both physically and mentally and hopes to help other’s experience this same type of freedom.
In his free time he enjoys lifting weights, playing basketball, hanging with friends and most of all Fighting the power.
Harm Reduction Coordinator & Re-Entry Navigator
Mia (they/them)
Peer Support Program Coordinator
Mia is a second generation Chicanx, non-binary person from south Texas. They moved to Fort Collins to pursue college in 2019 and completed a Bachelor’s Degree in environmental horticulture and ethnic studies at the end of 2023. Mia joined the Yarrow Collective after becoming a part of the Latine and BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) community in Fort Collins through participating in local events and facilitating Unity in Community. They are passionate about creating spaces that are comfortable for Queer folks of color that foster liberatory conversations and action. Mia is passionate about celebrating queer experiences, encouraging community building, centering healing through cultural connection, and cultivating vital plant knowledge. They facilitate a variety of groups for youth and intergenerational audiences.
Zalena (they/she)
Family Services Peer Advocate
Zalena Ferguson (they/she) is a queer, "highly sensitive," and neurodivergent individual who has navigated chronic thoughts of suicide since childhood. After experiencing hospitalization due to suicidality in 2016, Zalena became deeply committed to creating spaces where humans can express thoughts of suicide without fear of punishment or repercussion. Their journey has also been shaped by profound experiences with traumatic loss and grief, which have fueled a passion for grief work that honors the complexities of loss and the need for communal healing.
In their daily life, Zalena contends with challenges stemming from experiences commonly associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety, depression, and chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. However, they choose not to pursue formal diagnoses, instead focusing on self-understanding and community care.
Zalena is a fierce advocate for the abolition of systems that perpetuate racism, misogyny, ableism, and homophobia. They believe that thoughts of suicide often reflect systemic oppression rather than individual "mental illness" or abnormality. Since 2018, they have been actively involved in peer-based mental health services, with a particular passion for creating accessible, peer-run, and holistic alternatives to traditional mental health care.
Peer Support Group Facilitators
Alison (they/them) one of Yarrow's co-founders, is a neurodivergent, disabled queer person who has experienced extreme states and emotional distress since childhood. Since a traumatic psychiatric incarceration in 1987, one of their lifelong goals has been fighting for a more accessible humane world for folks with extreme states, mental health struggles, disabilities, neurodivergence, and other marginalized identities. They have worked for over 2 decades as an individual advocate and a systemic activist for folks who our system has left behind such as those who are: disabled, neurodivergent, unhoused, low-income, LGBTQ+, and more. As their physical disabilities have worsened throughout the years, they have become a fierce advocate for changes in the way our medical system treats folks with chronic pain/illness, particularly those with marginalized identities. They are proud to be a co-founder of Yarrow’s Chronic Illness and Disability Peer Support Group and also co facilitate the in person Alternatives to Suicide group(and occasionally the virtual). Being involved on the ground floor of Yarrow Collective has fulfilled their lifelong dream of creating a robust peer-led alternative to our traditional mental health system.
Rocky (he/him) is an artist, theater nerd, and most certainly; a Storyteller. Through his struggle with suicidality in himself and the people around him, he's found hope, family, and purpose. He spends much of his time writing stories, exploring emotions and fascinating concepts from every corner of the human experience.
Cynical and sarcastic, Rocky continues to bring the stories of strugglers to light through the peer support movement. He dreams to create spaces for people of every creative corner to tell their stories.
Rocky helps facilitate Yarrow's ECHO teen group and is a Youth Advocate supporting our youth programming.
TJ (he/they) is a passionate 18-year-old nonbinary individual who strives to help their communities. He has worked with the local LGBTQ+ youth in Fort Collins as well as supporting teen mental health. They are neurodivergent and have faced suicidality throughout much of their life. TJ finds creativity as a helpful outlet in which to cope with their struggles, such as through poetry and drawing. He believes his purpose is to help others who struggle and to advocate for others' needs as well as their own. They are a facilitator for the teen support group, ECHO.
Sam (she/they) is a white, queer person who has experienced psychiatric labels, life interrupting trauma, and coercive treatment spaces. Their path to well-being has been rooted deeply in spiritual and community healing and organizing practices. She is passionate about holding space for individuals to create their own meaning and understanding of suffering and committed to the importance of autonomy, options, and choice in mental health treatment spaces. As an Alt2Su facilitator, they aim to create a space where all people can show up as their full selves and be supported in community without judgment. Sam is on our ECHO teen and Alt2Su adult group teams.
Xander (they/them) is a co-founder and facilitator of the chronic illness and disability support group, where they are pushing back on the narrative that being disabled means a small, isolated life. Xander is an abolitionist facilitator, writer, potter, dancer, story collector, body worker and spiritual and relationship coach. They most love to work in the intersections of disability, queerness and spirituality. They have been living with chronic pain and physical challenges since they were young, which contributed to them repressing their anger, sadness and pain, trying to hold up a life where they would be seen as capable and viable, at all costs. Eventually their body and mind were in an untenable state of pain and anxiety, which led them to come back to their body and feelings, and start to shift long-held emotional patterns. Xander has been learning what it means to feel capable and valuable, while recognizing and tending their real challenges. This hasn't always come easy for them, and they love the mutual healing that can come from spaces where people can be honest about their full range of feelings and experiences (including the pain that is so often hidden).
My name is Shaka and I'm very excited to be joining effort with the Yarrow Collective. I've been brought into the team as a harm reduction peer facilitator. As a QTBIPoC adoptee, raised in Colorado, who is now a single momma with two children of my own, the concept of peer-led community connection is extremely important to me. I hold a degree in Social Work from CSU and ample first hand experience with systemic colonialization and oppression, and their symptoms. I feel very privileged and prepared to be able to participate in this vital kind community care and harm reduction in action.
My life time spent growing and learning, in community with others throughout the state of Colorado, [especially deep in the healing medicine of the forests and mountains] has given me a plethora of real life, feet-on-the-ground experience to excel in this role. I look forward to learning from everyone around the intentional vision, here at Yarrow. It's about Our collective health!I'm privileged to be in this position to serve in community, on the ancestral lands of the Tséstho’e (Cheyenne), Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, hinono’eino’ biito’owu’ (Arapaho), and Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute) Nations; aka Fort Collins
Destiny (she/her) is a proud queer, neurodivergent Latina who has faced a wide range of adversity throughout her life. Her upbringing in Texas provided her with a strong appreciation for culture and family. Living with chronic anxiety and depression, suicidal ideation, and BPD - she has continued to achieve her goals as a first-generation student, earning a Master of Public Health degree, and competing in sports where she can utilize her grit (wrestling, BMX, powerlifting). She strives to be an example of strength for underrepresented identities and those who feel like their mind works against them. She has lived in Fort Collins since 2021 and finds joy in the open space of Colorado nature, the changing seasons, biking, and community.
Destiny lives by the saying, "you make mistakes, but your mistakes never make you". Surviving a difficult past, Destiny is filled with sympathy, compassion, understanding, and hope. She believes that we all have a meaning in this life and change is possible if you want it. Destiny values love and respect - if people can't remember her, they'll remember love. She currently helps to uplift and share youth voice surrounding topics like mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health by offering an open third space away from school and home to pursue hobbies/interests and build community at the Teen Activity Center (TAC 212).
Destiny supports with Yarrow Collective's new youth program Eclipse at TAC 212, and will be supporting with youth programming in the school district.
Partnership Team
Shannon Hughes, PhD (she/her)
Development Director and Co-founder
Shannon was an Associate Professor at CSU in the School of Social Work and ran the Alternatives for Mental Health and Healing Lab for the past 10 years. She helped to form the Yarrow Collective as part of a dream to develop new non-clinical, non-coercive alternatives in Larimer County and Colorado. Shannon has been passionate about alternatives to medicalized systems of care for more than a decade, and is actively involved in supporting peer support movements in Colorado with a particular interest in the development of peer respite and other psychosocial alternatives to hospitalization for persons experiencing crisis or extreme states. In her free time, Shannon likes to read, be in nature, travel, lay in a hammock, and hang out with friends.
Board of Directors
Jess Stohlmann-Rainey (she/her)
Chair
Jess Stohlmann Rainey is a curriculum designer, trainer, and systems consultant. She combines academic expertise, living experience, and practical experience in crisis services to support organizations in developing responsive, liberatory, programming that meets the needs of their communities. She has an MA in Education and is an Instructor at the University of Denver School of Professional Psychology PsyD Program. Jess has spent nearly 20 years working at the intersections of research and practice in crisis, suicidology, and peer support. She has worked in the entirety of the suicide prevention to postvention continuum, most recently spending six years Directing Colorado’s telephonic and online emotional support crisis systems including 988/Lifeline, Colorado Crisis Services, RAINN, Human Trafficking, Sexual Assault, Intimate Partner Violence. Jess and her work have been featured in USA Today Mad in America, Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Centers, Postvention in Action: The International Handbook of Suicide Bereavement, Crisis, Death Studies, and The Suicide Prevention Resource Center. She collaborates on a podcast called Suicide ‘n’ Stuff with Dese’Rae Stage from Live Through This. Some of her current relevant work includes collaboration with/on: American Association of Suicidology’s Crisis Worker Certification and Crisis Center Accreditation, National Action Alliance National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, SAMHSA Competencies for Peer Support Workers in Crisis Services; State-Level Crisis System Consultation, University Crisis Response, Community Based Alternatives to 911, Mental Health Association for Chinese Communities Warmline.
Nze Okoronta (they/them)
Secretary
Nze Okoronta is a writer, speaker, harm reductionist, facilitator, and community organizer currently based in Madison, WI. Their work includes consultation around crisis alternatives, peer run respites, peer run warmlines, peer support supervision & harm reduction. They are passionate about alternatives to policing, decolonial practices and liberatory mental health.
Nze is currently the Director of Solstice House Peer Run Respite & Peer Run Warmline. Currently, Nze is studying deathwork and conflict transformation with the intention of supporting people navigating grief, change and loss. Nze feels most whole when surrounded by trees. After many long afternoons spent at work in the community, they can be found hiking in the woods alongside their dog familiar (Pluto) or stargazing in a field.
Mary Beth Swanson (she/her)
Treasurer
Mary Beth Swanson is currently the director of The Willow Collective, a non profit mental health agency serving young children and their families. As a social worker for 25+ years, she is committed to social justice and creating a world where kindness rules. Mary Beth has two young adult sons, two dogs, and a kitty.