Monday, March 28, 2011

Conference 2011: Meet our Keynote

NAMI Southwestern Pennsylvania's 11th Annual Education Conference is scheduled for Saturday, April 30 at the Pittsburgh Airport Marriott.

Keynote speaker Alex White, 24, was born and raised in southern Colorado. Diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder at the age of 14, Alex has used filmmaking as a means of both creative expression and therapy. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Film from Montana State University, earned numerous awards for his first short film and worked in the New York City film industry. He is currently serving with the Peace Corp in a small rural village in northwestern Kazakhstan.

Alex is flying from Kazakhstan to Pittsburgh to tell his story in a keynote presentation titled "More Than An Illness: Growing Up With Intolerance." Alex will share his inspiring story of growing up with a mental illness that was misunderstood by the people around him. How did he come to understand the illness when his family, doctors and community each defined it differently? How did the ignorance of a well-intended community affect his ability to heal? How did he transcend this environment and begin a life of recovery? And, perhaps most important, how can intolerance teach us to be more tolerant? Alex’s story will resonate with anyone who has been misunderstood and show that each of us is “more than an illness.”

Click here for information on our schedule, speakers, panelists and more! Just interested in getting a registration form? Click here. Registrations can be faxed to our office at 412-366-3935.

Visit the NAMI Southwestern Pennsylvania website for more information, or call us at 412-366-3788. We hope to see you there!

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