Lisa St. George, M.S.W., C.P.R.P.

Lisa St. George, M.S.W., C.P.R.P.

Lisa St. George, MSW, CPRP, is the Director of Recovery Practices at RI International and RI Consulting. With over 34 years of social work experience, Lisa is a leading expert in developing recovery-focused systems. Ms. St. George has provided leadership and start-up of many recovery programs in Arizona, California, and New Zealand. She has supervised and developed effective and sustainable peer workforces for more than 20 programs and over 600 peer support workers. Her work has transformed multiple systems of care to have a strong recovery focus and vision while working within existing processes and procedures. Wherever she goes, she brings unending belief in the inherent courage, wisdom, and strength of people in recovery. Over the years, Ms. St. George has authored or co-authored seven well-known books, and many articles, and trainings with a recovery focus. She has been instrumental in the planning, development and start-up of many of the Peer Support, and she has provided training and consulting services extensively as an expert in developing a recovery focused culture in systems providing mental health care. As the Regional Vice President of Recovery Innovations of California, she brings unending belief in the inherent courage, wisdom, and strength of people served by the mental health systems of California. Ms. St. George's diverse career has taken her from child oncology social work, to child welfare, to family systems wellness, to a faculty associate at Arizona State University, where she taught “Mental Illness, Recovery, and Social Justice” to graduate students in the School of Social Work. She is a consultant for mental health systems as far away as New Zealand. She has written four books and developed many tools, and articles that support mental health care from a recovery perspective. She has worked with children who have been physically, sexually or emotionally abused and their families. She participated in the start up of the first Islamic School in Phoenix where she taught second and third grades and acted as the first assistant principal. She worked in print, runway and commercial modeling as well as television production for twenty-two years before becoming a social worker. Ms. St. George is a member of The National Association of Social Workers, The Islamic Social Service Association of the United States and Canada, The International Association of Psycho-Social Rehabilitation Specialists, and the Arizona Society for Clinical Social Work and Psychotherapy. She also conducts seminars that are geared to helping people have a better understanding of Muslims and Islam. "I bring a unique gift with me to [my work], the first hand experience of serious mental illness. My knowledge and a kind gentle heart take the traumatic experiences of my life and turn them into a gift. I use this unique perspective to help others with a diagnosis and my professional peers understand the devastating effects of mental illness and the possibilities for recovery. "It is my opinion that life and recovery are enhanced by giving back and the giving that comes from one who has walked the same path increases the receiver's ability to view themselves as capable of recovery."