Print

Certified Peer Specialist Information

Meet the CPS Five Day Basic Training Team

CCSR/WSU contracts with Certified Peer Specialists from various organizations across the State in addition to its in-house staff to conduct three regional trainings per year. The team continues to revise and shape the core curriculum which was developed by Appalachian Consulting Group and then updated with Kansas-specific information, material and State competencies. Each trainer brings a unique perspective to the material; our lived experience with recovery informs our work. At the same time, every training has its own unique character due to the stories and experiences of the participants. We are all learning all the time.

While you may not meet all of us at every training, each one of us is working – sometimes behind the scenes -- to make every training successful and to help implement peer services in Kansas. For example, Petra often moderates the exam in Kansas City and provides invaluable representation of the Team on various statewide committees. Cherie, in her role as a CPS supervisor puts the training into practice, and provides feedback in ongoing development. Nancy is the Team’s newest trainer and a pro at assembling materials. Jean assists with the application process and data input while Nathan’s focus includes the ongoing evaluation of the CPS exam. Beth and Randy provide a lot of the technical assistance, and the entire team is vital to the development of curriculum, workshops and Advance Training. We change hats all the time, that’s why we are a team!

Cherie Bledsoe, CPS
Cherie is the Service Coordinator for Certified Peer Specialist at Wyandot Mental Health Center and the Executive Director of SIDE, Inc., a consumer run organization located in Kansas City, Kansas. Cherie also serves in the capacity of Assistant Director of the Kansas Consumer Advisory Council for Adult Mental Health, Inc. (CAC). She is a member of the Governor’s Mental Health Planning Council representing adult consumers. Cherie serves as co-chairperson on the National Leadership Committee of the UPENN Collaborative on Community Integration. Cherie has presented at numerous local, state, national and international conferences, workshops and trainings. She is the National 2003 Eli Lilly Award Winner (Inspirational Category) and 2007 Esperanza Hope Memorial Award Recipient. States Cherie, “I desire to role model to my peers that people with mental illness can make a demonstrable difference in the lives of others. I advocate for the fundamental rights and opportunities often denied person with mental illness and to be a bridge builder to narrow the line that separates people until it is not a line at all. My continued goal is to inspire hope in somebody and watch them take their first step towards recovery.”

Cherie has three wonderful adult children and five fabulous grandkids that keep her on the go.

Nancy Jensen, CPS
Nancy is a mental health survivor for the past 30 years. She is an advocate for those who are being abused, neglected or exploited by mental health providers. In 2006, she received the Voice Award from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services for speaking out about crimes committed against her and others by Arlen and Linda Kaufman while in residential treatment. In addition to being a key witness at their trial in federal court, Nancy successfully lobbied for the establishment of the Kansas Attorney General's Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Unit.

Petra M. Robinson, CPS
Petra M. Robinson, CPS is Coordinator, Leadership Development for Mental Health America of the Heartland. In this position, she is responsible for leadership development and technical assistance across multiple agency programs. Mrs. Robinson has always held an interest and passion in mental health and found her way to Mental Health America through the Consumers as Provider’s Training Program (CAPs) internship. Shortly after her internship ended, she was hired as a Wellness and Support Advocate (WASA) at MHAH where she worked with consumers as a peer advocate in a supportive housing site. Mrs. Robinson has also worked as a Program Coordinator for MHAH’s Compassionate Ear Warm Line. In August of 2007, Mrs. Robinson was one of the many pioneers to take the first Certified Peer Specialist Training in the State of Kansas and uses her skills to enhance the recovery of many of her peers.

Randy G. Johnson, CPS
Randy serves as Senior Director of Advocacy and Recovery Services at Mental Health America of the Heartland (MHAH). Randy’s professional experience in the mental health field spans direct service, policy and program design, and advocacy work. His first personal experience with the mental health system was in 1980. Randy’s professional experience focuses on leadership development and the preservation of the voice and rights of those diagnosed with mental illness. Randy served five years as the Consumer Affairs Officer for the State of Kansas Mental Health Department, held the position of Vice-President on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Consumer/Survivor Mental Health Administrators, and is a contributing author of Pathways to Recovery: A Strengths Recovery Workbook. He and his family live in Lawrence, Kansas, where he enjoys reading, gardening, cooking, parenting, and the making of homebrewed beer and wine.

Nathan Swink
Nathan has been a full-time research associate at CCSR since August 2008. He joined the CPS Training Team as a researcher, then expanded his role to include trainer/facilitator when he identified his own lived experience with mental health services. His educational background includes military service, a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Southwestern College, and a Master’s degree in Community Psychology from Wichita State University. Nathan has contributed to research in a number of college psychology labs since 2001.

In August 2003, he began graduate school at WSU where he joined the research team headed by Dr. James Snyder, who studied “deviancy training” in children 5-7 years of age on the playground, as well as the lab of Dr. Louis Medvene who focused training of “person-centeredness” as a means to the institution of an on-going “culture change” in geriatric care where nursing homes are trying to be seen as the homes of people of value, as opposed to clinical and emotionless hospital environments.

Currently Nathan’s workload includes responsibilities to the Certification Exam Committee for the Kansas Certified Peer Specialist Program as well as training facilitation and participation in team-based training-evaluation/modification.

Outside of work and school Nathan is a board member two local nonprofits, an environmental activist, and a regular at local spoken-word open mics. He values the time and point of view of others and can often be found engrossed in deep personal conversation with long-time friends and strangers alike.

Beth Filson, CPS
Beth joined CCSR/WSU as a Peer Educator in December 2007. She is deeply inspired by the strength and innovation of the consumer, survivor, ex-patient community in Kansas. She brings to her work the personal experience of the transformative power of peer support in personal and community change.

Beth is deeply dedicated to strengthening community and systems understanding of the impact of trauma in the lives of most mental health consumers. In 2005 she piloted the Peer to Peer Trauma Initiative in Georgia as a peer support service provided by trained CPSs, and worked with SAMHSA/CMHS on peer involvement in crisis planning and response after hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast States. Beth currently serves on the Steering Team of the National Center for Trauma Informed Care.

As a self-taught artist she has shown her work in numerous galleries in Georgia. She holds an MFA from the University of Iowa’s Writers Workshop. Beth works with other mental health consumers, survivors and ex-patients to develop and self-publish their writing and art.

Jean M. Higbee, CPS
Jean is a very committed advocate for persons with mental illness. She now considers herself to be a thriving consumer, no longer just a survivor or victim of personal past traumas and previous experiences in the mental health system.

Jean now works for the Mental Health Consumer Run Organization Network of Kansas, Inc. (MHCRONK) as Office Assistant. She previously worked at CCSR/WSU as a Peer Educator, co-facilitating the CCSR 5-Day Basic Training for Certified Peer Specialists. She has also served on the Sedgwick County Department of Mental Health Advisory Board, advocating with legislatures in Topeka and in the local area. Jean has also been a COMPEER Group Volunteer (thru MHASCK) and co-facilitated a psychosocial group for abused women. She also helped to develop the therapy group (STARS) for abused women at the local mental health center for community support services. Jean has also worked as Assistant Director at Project Independence, Inc., Wichita’s consumer run organization for persons with mental illness, and has also worked as a Screener for the Kansas SRS Continued Stay program, interviewing consumers in the Nursing Facilities for Mental Health, helping to support residents ready to move into the community of their choice.

She has also been a past contributor to the Pathways to Recovery Workbook developed by the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare, and is now working on editing a new book (part of the Pathways project) to be released by KU.

Jean lives with her beloved cat, Smudge, and loves reading, watching movies, playing computer games, and occasionally writes poetry.