Ruthie Poole, BA, CPS: Director of Advocacy, Transformation Center, Roxbury, MA
Ruthie Poole has worked as the Director of Advocacy at the Transformation Center for the last eight years and is a person with lived experience of mental health diagnosis. The Transformation is a statewide mental health peer-run training, policy, advocacy and technical assistance center. Prior to working at the Transformation Center, Ruthie was hired at the Northeast Independent Living Program (NILP) by Pat Deegan in 1989 to work as a community organizer to organize people receiving services from the Department of Mental Health. As one of the first paid peer workers in MA, Ruthie helped folks form Lawrence Organizing Voices for Empowerment (the LOVE Group). At NILP Ruthie became the Program Director of Services to Mental Health Consumers/Psychiatric Survivors, a position she held for twelve years.
Ruthie has a BA from Tufts University and is a proud Certified Peer Specialist. Currently Ruthie is the President of the Board of Directors of MPOWER.
Ruthie loves being part of the Peer Movement as she believes it’s a liberation movement similar to the Gay Liberation and Civil Rights Movements. She credits her strong commitment to social justice & fighting oppression to her parents who are faith-based activists involved in anti-racism and anti-homophobia efforts. One of Ruthie’s favorite quotes is by Fredrick Douglass, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
