BEAM (The Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective) is a national training, movement building, and grantmaking institution dedicated to the healing, wellness, and liberation of Black and marginalized communities. BEAM envisions a world where there are no barriers to Black healing. In pursuit of this vision, BEAM has made it their mission to remove the barriers that Black people experience while gaining access to or staying connected with emotional healthcare and healing. BEAM achieves this through Healing Justice-based organizing, education, training, grant making, and advocacy.
Team Members
Dr. Meag-gan O’Reilly
she/her
She previously served as a Staff Psychologist and Coordinator of Outreach Equity and Inclusion at Stanford University where she created the first satellite clinic for Black undergraduate and graduate students and co-created the Outreach and Social Justice Seminar in 2016, which trains clinicians to be culturally conscious and justice-oriented. Dr. O’Reilly has taken the TEDx stage and is the creator of therapeutic Healing Circles for Black employees in partnership with companies such as Google, The San Francisco Ballet, Virgin Pulse, and the United Negro College Fund STEM Scholars Program. Her research and writings focuses on social justice, and she is the author of Systems Centered Language: A Necessity to Speaking Truth to Power During COVID-19 and Confronting Racism.
Natalie Patterson
she/her
Natalie can best be identified as a Teaching Artist, she uses her dynamic range of expertise to masterfully make tangible abstract concepts. Natalie has the unique ability to bridge one’s personal experiences with the larger cultural occurrences using art, performance and custom workshops. Over the last 18 years, Natalie has crafted time-tested approaches to fostering cultures of growth, curiosity, compassion, and integrity. As a poet and educator, she has worked extensively in non-profit, higher education and with major brands like Sephora, Uproxx, The United Way, Summit, Darling Magazine, Adidas Women, TASTEMADE and SoulPancake. She speaks her mind, from inspiration to social justice she is equally inspired.
Yolo Akili Robinson
he/him
CMHEP Role: BEAM Ancillary Support, CMHEP Collaborative
Yolo began his career in public health supporting Black communities as an HIV/AIDS counselor. He then branched into violence prevention, working as a family intervention counselor with Black men and boys for Men Stopping Violence. In addition to his emotional health work, Akili has written for numerous publications including the Huffington Post, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Ebony and Everyday Feminisms.