August 19th Speaker Bio: Chandler Coggins

Chandler is from Jacksonville and works as a recovery specialist with Mental Health America of Northeast Florida. In this role, he provides services that support the recovery of people with mental illness experiencing homelessness. In addition, he is a facilitator of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Connection Recovery Support Group in Jacksonville, which meets every other week at the Riverside YMCA and brings together people living with mental illness in our community. He also served on the board of directors of NAMI Jacksonville for two years, and he recently returned to Jacksonville from the DC area, where he completed an internship in the Homeless Programs Branch of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). In his professional and volunteer activities, he is motivated by his own experience living in recovery from mental illness.