ALBIE GUTIERREZ

Albie Gutierrez (she/her/ella), also known as Miss Albe or Albe, is a bilingual (English/Spanish) art therapist, group facilitator, and special projects lead at CTC who works with clients and organizations seeking LGBTQIA+ affirming care and consultation. She holds a Master of Arts in Art Therapy and Counseling degree, MAATC, from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, BFA, in Studio Art from the University of New Mexico. When working with Albe, the process is a collaborative experience designed to enhance personal insight, coping skills, and communication techniques through various avenues of self-expression. Her approach to therapy and treatment is an integrative one, combining expressive arts modalities with psychodynamic and client-centered methods that incorporate Positive CBT to promote a trauma-informed environment for growth.

ALEXIS MARTINEZ

Alexis Martinez (she/her) is a Chicago Therapy Collective Board Member, Assistant Trainer and Co-Founder of Hire Trans Now a Chicago neighborhood-based campaign to reduce anti-Trans hiring stigma and create pipelines to Trans-affirming jobs. As a prior business owner of 20 years Alexis shares her wisdom about the demands of running a small business in Chicago and caring for a diverse staff. As a former victim of multiple anti-Trans employment incidents, Alexis is passionate about shedding light on the unique discrimination and marginalization that Trans Women of Color in particular face when seeking and retaining employment. In addition to her work with CTC, Alexis is a long-time Chicago Dyke March organizer, coordinating numerous radical pride events. Alexis works Full Time as a Court Specialist for the Transformative Justice Law Project, processing hundreds of name changes in the state of Illinois a year. Alexis is a well-known activist in the Trans community, wood worker, a proud grandmother, and 40 year Andersonville resident.

ANG NORDSTROM

Ang Nordstrom (they/them) is a Chicago Therapy Collective Assistant Trainer and an unapologetically Black, Indigenous, Two-Spirit force to be reckoned with as both a person and LGBTQ+ advocate. Ang serves as the President and Anti-Discrimination Coordinator on the Chicago Board of Directors for the National LGBTQ Workers Union Center. They also serve as a Hire Trans Now Representative, and manages Chicago Therapy Collective’s Hire Trans Now Job Board. Finally, Ang has also been serving as the Community Advisory Board for Howard Brown Health for a number of years. They understand the centrality of mental health in LGBTQ+ and Serve as Vice President for the GLBT-Chicago chapter of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA). Last, but certainly not least: they are a powerful poet, lyricist, writer, and spoken word performer. They use their personal experience and love for words and performance to weave storytelling into their LGBTQ+ trainings.

DEVIN NIECY

Devin Niecy (he/him) is a facilitator for Chicago Therapy Collective and one hell of a force of nature. He has transcended many obstacles from a tragic house fire that shifted his biological family’s life, navigated and escaped white suburbia as a young Black, trans and queer lad and experiences the daily void of a deceased mother. Devin is most inspired by his queer family that crosses rivers and lakes. His relationship to his chosen family has sustained him even when the darkest days produced little light. Devin is an international speaker, artist and poet. He enjoys speaking about the intersections of his identity and how his travels around the world have connected him deeper to his ancestors. In 2017, Devin began his medical transition from female to male and is active and open to co-create conversation in the community that will empower change. Devin founded two trans masculine community groups on the South Side of Chicago, Envision and Enlighten that supports other trans masculine folxs and their journey’s. Devin’s passion for diverse people is undeniable, he is truly humbled and honored to witness other folxs journey, which has laid plenty of bricks for him to walk his own.

*IN LOVING MEMORY* ELISE MALARY

The late Elise Malary (she/her) was a Chicago Therapy Collective Board Member and Co-Founder of Hire Trans Now. She was thrilled to be a part of the collective as she was extremely passionate about advancing social justice for the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC community, especially trans people of color. Elise understands on a personal level that the mental health needs of Trans community members is deeply connected to access to affirming jobs and healthcare. Elise wants to see Black Trans Women thrive and greater inclusion of LGBTQ+ Black people on the northside. In 2016, she received her Bachelor’s degree in Communication from the University of Illinois at Chicago which is where she began her work with LGBTQ organizations. She brought her years of experience in advocacy, community organizing, communications, administration, nonprofit development, and sales to this role. She also served on the community advisory group for Equality Illinois and helped fundraise for other community organizations.

IGGY V LADDEN

Iggy V Ladden, LCSW (they/them) is Chicago Therapy Collective’s Founder and Executive Director. A social worker at heart, Iggy is dedicated to advancing the mental health and wellbeing of LGBTQIA2S people across Illinois through both micro and macro level interventions. While predominantly focused on directing Chicago Therapy Collective’s programs, Iggy continues the highly meaningful work of providing one-on-one psychotherapy to their small caseload of clients and facilitating group wellness classes. Iggy also provides regular consultation to fellow healthcare practitioners and organizations wanting to improve their LGBTQ+ affirming policies and practices. As Executive Director Iggy has the great privilege of working along side an incredibly talented team of individual, group, and organizational change agents. Iggy and their colleagues are dedicated to delivering quality, compassionate care in order to promote positive change in people, organizations, and institutions. Iggy is thrilled to be doing the work they love, in a city and state they love, and believes that together we can solve problems that we could never dream of solving alone.  

 J SILAS LESLIE

J. Silas Leslie (they/them) is a Chicago Therapy Collective Trainer, data analyst, and Coordinator of Hire Trans Now. Silas provides employer-focused training and best practices grounded in an understanding of business operations, sustainability, profitability, and growth gained from a decade in retail and hospitality management. As a biracial, queer, trans, and neurodivergent individual, Silas is deeply committed to an intersectional approach to training that addresses the systematic barriers and personal biases that impact employment equity for LGBTQ+ individuals. Outside of their work with Get Trained, Silas volunteers as a Medical Advocate–providing in-person crisis support at Chicago hospitals to survivors of sexual assault and abuse –and serves as a Community Representative on their neighborhood High School’s Local School Council.

KJ WHITEHEAD

Kujichagulia Juniper Whitehead leads CTC’s social media and maintains CTC’s Hire Trans Now job board. KJ is also a Steering Committee Member on the Trans Accountability Project, a partnership between CTC, Task Force, and Howard Brown that works to improve employment opportunities Black and Latina women of Trans experience. When CTC is present at an event, you can find Ms. Whitehead at our table, speaking with the public and providing information about our programming. In her own right, she is a nationally known comedian with performances in several comedy festivals throughout the country.

LINDSAY L DOYLE

Dr Lindsay Doyle (she/her) is an LGBTQ+ affirming Licensed Clinical Psychologist and leads CTC’s clinical programming.  Her diverse training in hospitals, residential treatment, community clinics, college counseling centers, torture treatment centers, and private practice has afforded her opportunity to develop skill in navigating our mental health care system from many different vantage points; she is especially interested in issues of access to therapies of depth, meaning, and insight for those traditionally and systemically underserved or displaced by the field of mental health. After serving as the Clinical Director for a large LGBTQ+ focused group practice in Chicago, her time is increasingly devoted to a combination of direct therapy provision to survivors of trauma and other therapists and activists, and community based work focusing on economic justice, suicidality, access to care, training & supervising other clinicians, and community psychoanalysis.  Her clinical and community work centers the needs of the LGBTQ+ community, with special dedication to transgender peoples. Lindsay currently practices and organizes as a member of Chicago Therapy Collective where she coordinates their clinical programming. Additionally, Lindsay donates time to support the asylum claims of LGBTQ+ torture survivors; consults and teaches on suicide & intergenerational trauma healing initiatives in Belfast, North Ireland; and is a member of Chicago’s 606 Project, which is working to advance access to non-carceral, human and meaning centered care for those experiencing psychosis and extreme states. 

MIRZA SHAMS

Mirza Shams (they/them) is a Chicago Therapy Collective administrator, educator, and healer. They are passionate about creating authentic and loving spaces for the Trans community, and believe thoughtfully curated community events spaces can be a conduit for community connection and healing. Mirza is a queer/gender-fluid Egyptian artist, musician (under their stage name NAXÖ), therapist, queerness/gender advocate, and LGBTQ+ asylum seekers/refugees activist. They have a degree in General Medicine and Surgery from Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt. Mirza incorporates social, mental and emotional justice through mindfulness, queerness and cultural intersectionalities into their music and mental-health work. They focus their activities on helping their queer-migration communities around Chicagoland towards healing paths and true-self journeys.

NAKO OKUBO

Nako (they/them) is a Chicago Therapy Collective Board Member and has been a part of the Chicago Queer community in a variety of ways for about 20 years now. In the past, they’ve dabbled in queer performance/production and for almost a decade, ran Formerly Known As, the queer Northside dance party. Since then, Nako has taken to a more behind-the-scenes community involvement as a member of the Chicago Therapy Collective board. During work hours, Nako is a creative director in a Chicago ad agency, always pushing for more authentic representation in even the most day-to-day advertising. Outside of work hours, they enjoy spending time in Evanston with their partner and twin 4-year-olds and practicing building random things out scrap wood. Nako was the talented designer behind our beautiful “Blooming Beyond the Binary” Midsommarfest graphic.

NAT NADHA VIKITSRETH

Nat Nadha Vikitsreth, LCSW (she/her) supports social justice curious families in their efforts to practice social justice in their parenting while re-parenting their inner child. As a decolonized, somatic, and licensed clinical psychotherapist and transgender rights community organizer, Nat supports the Chicago Therapy Collective by facilitating workshops and co-producing and various LGBTQIA+ community events such as  Trans Day of Resilience, Hire Trans Now activations, and LGBTQ+ public advocacy events in partnership with elected officials such as Mike Simmons, Kelly Cassidy, and Precious Brady Davis. Nat founded Come Back to Care and hosts the Come Back to Care Podcast as a radical (un)learning and healing space for families to re-imagine family building to be deeply decolonized, exquisitely embodied, and intentionally intergenerational. Nat also delivers keynote presentations and organizational training to educators, home visitors, doulas, mental health providers who want to put anti-racism and anti-oppression into action. In 2021, she received the Zero to Three Award for Emerging Leadership where she was nationally recognized for her innovative work at Come Back to Care. Her most recent publications include an academic article in the June 2022 Zero to Three Journal and an op-ed piece in Condé Nast’s Them.  

S SIMMONS

S Simmons “S” (he/him) is a Lead Chicago Therapy Collective Trainer with over a decade of experience working on college campuses in the U.S.. S has developed an engaging, informative educational experience for units, departments, and divisions. S’s approach is one of challenge and support. As a Black, queer, trans*, first-generation, temporarily able bodied, upwardly mobile, spouse living in Chicago, S’s various identities and the associated structures that label and influence them inform how S shows up and how S educates. S believes that who we are influences how we know and what we know. S’s epistemology is deeply rooted in recognizing the influence of systems of power, privilege, and oppression in how we know and what we know as knowledge is often filtered through these systems. As such, S believes in the value of experience as knowledge and the importance of centering marginalized (lost) voices. S’s dissertation literally made visible the trans* educators in his study, and possibly others, through portraiture methodology. S connects in a lot of ways to CRT, Black Feminist Thought, and newly conceptualized Trans Epistemology. This deeply informs his methodological and pedagogical practices. Freire asserts “No pedagogy which is truly liberating can remain distant from the oppressed by treating them as unfortunates and by presenting for their emulation models from among the oppressors. The oppressed must be their own example in the struggle for their redemption.”

PARKER HAINES

Parker (they/them; aka Switch the Boi Wonder) brings over 20 years of experience in the Drag and Burlesque communities combined. Their passion lies in helping to create spaces for underrepresented voices to shine. They use their art to tell the story of their own journey to authenticity and to hold the doors open for others to tell theirs as well. In addition to being an artist and story teller, Parker is a Board Member of Chicago Therapy Collective and speaks regularly on the importance of LGBTQIA+ mental health and wellbeing. A champion of Hire Trans Now Parker helps allies and organizations better understand their vital role in creating more affirming work environments for trans and queer job candidates and staff. Parker received their certification in DEI through eCornell in 2020. They are thrilled to continue using their platform to facilitate change on and off the stage. 

VANESSA SHERIDAN

Vanessa Sheridan (she/her) is a Lead Chicago Therapy Collective Trainer, insightful corporate consultant, pioneering author, inspiring professional speaker, and a premier transgender awareness trainer. Vanessa has been speaking, writing, and researching on transgender issues for major corporate clients and government agencies across the country since 1991. As a recognized leader and prominent voice for Trans inclusion within the national business community, her extensive knowledge and experience help her clients to more fully understand their present and effectively live into their future. Vanessa literally wrote the book(s) on Trans in the workplace. Her latest groundbreaking book is titled “The Complete Guide to Transgender in the Workplace,” continues to be a must-have resource for HR professionals and gender-diverse employees alike. she offers strategic planning and consultation on trans healthcare/insurance, workplace transition assistance, policy development, and expert guidance on creating a gender authentic, trans-inclusive workplace culture.