1. Russell D. Pierce, J.D.
85 East Newton Street
Boston, MA 02118
617. 834. 1140
Russell.pierce98@gmail.com
CAREER OBJECTIVE
To transition into an increasingly more public policy role in behavioral health, academe, the
non=profit sector or corporate setting where I can use my strengths to bridge differences
among people through high impact speaking,, writing , personal example and engagement to
influence leaders and society at the highest levels.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2013-Presnet
Director Office of Recovery and Empowerment, Department of Mental Health, Massachusetts
To serve as a member of the Executive Team and to optimize peer voice in the mental health
service delivery system and to incorporate peer principles into all aspects of Departmental
planning and design of services; and to champion and develop a robust peer workforce, to
initiate dialogue between consumers, families, providers and other stakeholders, and to lead an
office of others with lived experience whose personal histories exemplify recovery.
• Keynote Address, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) MA Annual State
Convention, Lowell, Mass, October 2014
https://www.facebook.com/GONAMIGBCAN
http://www.namimass.org/events/convention2014
• Keynote Speaker, Celebrating Heroes: A Community Recognition Event,
Braintree Town Hall Cahill Auditorium, November 19, 2014
• Keynote Speaker, Martin Luther King Celebration, “An Original Narrative Poetic
Essay in Celebration of Black History,” Transitions of Boston Clubhouse, Metro
Boston Recovery Learning Community and Peer Education Resources Center, as
joint sponsors, January 17, 2015
• Invited Panelist, The Pillars of Peer Support, Invitational National Conference, Atlanta,
Georgia, The Carter Center, 2014

2. • Presentation, The Recovery Ethos: Some Personal Reflections, Psychiatric Residents,,
Fellows and Faculty, Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital (WRCH), DMH Training
Program involving Harvard, Tuft, Boston University and Massachusetts General Hospital,
August 20-21, 2014
• Presentation, National Perspectives on Issues in the Recovery movement,
Massachusetts General Hospital, Community Psychiatry Program, Didactic Learning,
September 3, 2014
• Manage and monitor the Transformation Center Contract, which is DMH funded in
excess of $800,000, that provides training for those individuals with lived experience
who want to work in the mental health service delivery system
• Member, with the Commissioner, State Leadership Policy Academy on Smoking
Cessation Planning Committee
• Provide oversight to the 6 Recovery Learning Communities (RLCs), which focus on
community re-integration through mutual support activities to include suicide
prevention, with a budget in excess of $2,000,000
• Contributor, The Frames Debate Project, exploring the intersections of mental health,
addiction recovery and justice policy through art and narrative
• Moderator, Peer Professionals and the Evolving Workforce, Panel Discussion
• Appointed by Commissioner to serve on Communications Strategy Work Group
• With the Commissioner attend and participate in SAMHSA-sponsored Veterans and
their Families Behavioral Health Policy Academy
• With the Commissioner attend and participate via invitation from SAMHSA
Administrator Smoking Cessation and Behavioral Health Policy Academy
• Supported by the Commissioner to attend Pillars of Peer Support Conference on Whole
Health Action Meeting in Atlanta, GA
• Represent the Commissioner and the Department as an invited speaker of the
Massachusetts Behavioral Partnership Recovery Conference speaking on the vision of
peer support
• Participated in the screening of the documentary Anonymous People and provided
commentary and selected for interview with the co-creators of the Frames Debate
Project, which will explore the intersection of justice, mental health and addiction
recovery
• Keynote Speaker NAMI Massachusetts Convention on the topic of Composing Self and
Community Through Peer Support
• Speaker, Sulfolk University School of Law on the topic of Mental Health Access and Self-
Determination
• Interviewed on the origins of the Consumer Rights Movement, in the Sulfolk Law
Journal, Bearing Witness
• Speaker, Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital, on Inspiring Hope and Wellness
• Speaker, Massachusetts General Hospital, on Recovery in and Beyond the Treatment
Setting, Public and Community Psychiatry Seminar
• Speaker, Cambridge Senior Center, Recovery Is Real, a panel discussion
• Writer, DMH Connections Newsletter
OTHER SIGNIFICANT PRESENTATIONS

3. • Commissioner’s Statewide Manager’s Meeting, A Report of Recovery Through Smoking
Cessation Through Recovery Policy Academy: The Peer Perspective, Challenges and
Opportunities for Improving Health Outcomes with Choice
• Celebrating Wellness and Mental Well-Being,, The Transformation Center 5K Run, Brief
Remarks
1996-2006
Manager Grant Development/Consultant to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration
Member, CMHS National Advisory Council and Chair Consumer/Survivor Subcommittee
Inauhttps://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/mhconsumer-ma/conversations/topics/95gral Chair,
The Sixteenth Annual Rosilynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy: Reducing
Disparities, Ethnic Minorities and Mental Health, Atlanta, GA November 9 and 9,
2000, Planning Committee Member
Served as principal consultant to SAMHSA to support states and local governments in
addressing substance abuse and mental health issues among under-represented
individuals
Reviewed and scored 250+ grant solicitations and proposals targeting healthy choices for
students and schools, juvenile justice issues, suicide prevention, using social norms
marketing
Served as both a primary and secondary grant proposal reviewer
Fielded core responsibility to guarantee accurate recording of strengths and weaknesses in
applications submitted by state mental health program planners
Directed a panel of researchers, academics, state mental health planners and family
members through review processes that resulted in grass roots programming
Consulted on program development with middle and higher echelon leadership at federal
agencies, including Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, National Institutes of
Health, National Alliance for Mental Illness, and Mental Health America to facilitate
systems improvement
As Chair of the Center for Mental Health Services Block Grant Review Panel for four years,
represented best thinking on consumer issues to assure monies allocated to the states
were responsibly apportioned to consumer needs.
Participant, Consumers and Psychiatric Nurses in Dialogue, July 26-27, 100, Washington, DC
Member, Planning Committee, Rosalyn Carter Mental Health Symposium on Racial and
Ethnic Disparities
Peer Support and Minority Participation, Challenges and Opportunities , A personal
perspective on the Research Literature, Blazing New Trails: A Consensus Conference
on psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, December 5 & 6, 2002, San Antonio, TX
Spring to Action: A National Mental Health Symposium to Address Discrimination
and Stigma, Contributor and Speaker, Moving Toward a Common Future:
Lessons from the Civil Rights and Disability Movements, March 26 and 27,
2001, Renaissance Harbor Place Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland

4. Fairfax Government and Pathway Homes, Inc June 2007-July
2009
Regional Coordinator of Recovery and Inclusion Services
Understanding Social inclusion: From Life on the Margins to Life in the Community,
Speaker, Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), March 30, 2009, Rockville, MD
Allocated more than $250,000 in mental health consumer mini-grants in the areas of
business enterprise, leadership and development and educational opportunities
Authored contract and concept paper for Peer Specialist Training Program to establish and
support use of consumers on treatment teams in state government human resource
systems
Acted as lead in concert with a 42-member consumer advisory board and a five-county
executive management team to develop and score for approval first-ever applications
for more than 120 individual assistive technology grants.
Programming at these two organizations resulted in consummation of some 4000 contacts
Reviewer, SAMHSA VOICE Awards
Center for Substance Abuse Prevention December 2003-June
2007
Public Health Advisor
National Community Anti-Drug Coalition institute: CADCA Got outcomes Coalition of the
Year , Panel Reviewer, October 19, 2006
Monitored more than 40 Drug-Free Communities Grants and conducted more than 18 on-
site reviews to assess progress on the local war on drugs with the backing of the White
House Office on National Drug Control Policy
Served as principal participant on team to assess the state’s progress in combating drug use
with the use of proven strategies such as program alternatives and enforcement of drug
laws
Awarded Internal Service Award for teamwork and attention to grantees as customers
Served as Judge for the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America best performing grantee
Authored paper for Agency Director on Self-Directed Care as a preferred strategy in
advancing consumer self-advocacy
Oversaw the development of outcome measures for the DFCSP (Drug Free Communities
Support Program) resulting in reports that showed non-drug use falling by 20 to25
percent
Member, Selection Committee on Best Drug Free Support Program, nationwide
Center for Mental Health Services June 2001-May
2002
Public Health Advisor/U. S. Representative, World Congress on Mental Health, Santiago Chile.
1999
Represented professional constituency on 20-person American contingent to a gathering of
provider and consumer representatives from as many as 35 countries world-wide
Moderator, Hand in Hand: National Summit on Best practices for Mental Health in the
Workplace, Ronald Reagan Building and international Trade Center, Washington, DC,
October 9, 2001
Lent expertise to debate among world mental health planners of what constitutes best

5. practices in terms of treatment in managed care environments
Contributed input for recommendations included in the United States Surgeon General’s
Report
Conducted 13 on-site reviews in 6 states to assess use of dollars allocated through federal
grants to support mental health, wellness and recovery programs
Authored report on the use of federal allocations to assure appropriate and effective use of
program funding and compliance with grant parameters
Speaker, Self-Determination and Community, University of Illinois at Chicago, Research
Center on Psychiatry and Policy
Nebraska Training Center May 1996-June
2001
Community Liaison
Created concept paper for minority inclusion in State’s disability movement
Partnered with Urban League and collaborated with other community stakeholders to reach
into African American community and expand their input into the disability cause
Designed and presented cultural competence workshops for church groups and youth-
serving organizations held over a 12-month period
Coached community organizations to enhance diversity at the Center
Served as community liaison and represented the Center at a National Conference on
Disability in Albuquerque, NM
Offered recommendations to attendees including methodology for enhanced inreach and
outreach efforts to bolster minority representation within the disability cause
Speaker, Consumers and the Promise of Olmstead, National Press Club
PROFESSIONAL VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE
Nebraska Advocacy Systems August 1996-
May 2001
Board vice Chair
Contributed to deliberations to set policy in support of an expanded, more inclusive board
Increased the number of under-served clients by 15 percent
Josiah H Beeman Mental Health Commission Sept 2007-Sept
2008
Commissioner
Determined how the mental health system in Fairfax County –Falls Church could become
more recovery-themed and data driven
Served as a subject matter expert on recipient services and outcomes
Served as cultural competence subject matter expert
Publications and Citations
Progress in Public Mental Health: How the recovery movement is transforming a
society’s view of mental health, Grinnell College Alumni Magazine, Winter Edition, 2014
Day to mark mental health progress and challenges: Governor Dukakis cites work to be
done, Lowell Sun, October 11, 2014, Lowell, MA

6. An original poem celebrating whole health, DMH Connections Newsletter, November
2014
A narrative of hope: coping with illness, Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, Spring, 2004,
Volume 27. Number 4.
An advocate becomes a leader, Dialogue: The Newsletter of the Human Resources
Division, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Spring/Summer 2014
Empowering mental health survivors: interview with Russell D. Pierce about the
consumer rights movement, Bearing Witness: A Journal of Law and Social
Responsibility, Spring 2014, Volume 2
Race must be used in education formulas, Another Point of View, Omaha World-Herald,
July 5, 1978
Hinckley Coverage missed points, The Public Pulse, Omaha World Herald, July 8, 1982
EDUCATION
University of Iowa College of Law, Juris Doctorate
Speaker, Recitation, of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Dream” Speech, National Holiday
Honoring His Memory, Living the Dream Ceremony, with Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young
Member, Black American law Students Association
Participant, Appellate Advocacy
Writer, Independent Research Project, The Relevance of Facts and Principles in Judicial Decision:
An Analysis of Judge Robert H. Bork’s Adjudicative Technique in Dronenberg v. Zack, with
Professor Steven J. Burton, as advisor
Grinnell College, Bachelor of Arts
Writer, Independent Research Project, Comparative Slave Societies: An
Historiographical Perspective , Professor Randolph Roth, as advisor
Member, Student Newspaper, Scarlet and Black
Member, Forensics Team
Drake University
Winner, Drake Advocacy Award

7. AWARDS HONORS
Distinguished Service Award (Team) for work on the President’s New Freedom Initiative
Healthy-Steps USA Citation for Grant Panel Review Performance
Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) Internal Service Award Teamwork
Nominee, Hancher-Finkbine Medal for Campus Leadership, University of Iowa