The Mental Health Association in Santa Barbara County will hold its Heroes of Hope Awards ceremony in May, honoring Steve Lopez and Elyn Saks, two leading advocates whose accomplishments support the association’s mission of removing the stigma associated with mental illness.
Recognized for their efforts in destigmatizing mental illness through their work, Lopez and Saks will recount their personal and professional journeys.
The Heroes of Hope event and awards ceremony will be held May 21 at the Lobero Theatre. Special guest Joe Pantoliano, Emmy Award-winning actor and producer, will introduce a special screening of his documentary No Kidding Me Too.
Lopez is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He has been an editor-at-large for Time magazine and also has written for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Soloist is his fourth book, but his first nonfiction work. The memoir grew out of a series of columns he wrote about a gifted violinist, Nathaniel Ayers, while writing a series of columns about Skid Row and homelessness in Los Angeles.
Saks is a success by any measure: She is an endowed professor at the prestigious USC Gould School of Law. She has achieved this in spite of being diagnosed as schizophrenic and given a “grave” prognosis — and suffering the effects of her illness throughout her life.
In her memoir, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness, Saks discusses frankly and movingly the paranoia, the inability to tell imaginary fears from real ones, and the voices in her head insisting she do terrible things — as well as the many obstacles she overcame to become the successful woman she is today.
For more information and available sponsorship opportunities for Heroes of Hope event, click here or call 805.884.8440.
The Mental Health Association in Santa Barbara County is a private, nonprofit organization providing support, housing and advocacy to adults and families affected by severe mental illness.
— Daniella Elghanayan is a publicist.