NAMI South Suburbs of Chicago Board of Directors
President:
Marianne Bithos
Marianne Bithos is the president of NAMI South Suburbs of Chicago and the parent of an adult daughter who lives with schizophrenia.
Marianne first became involved with NAMI when she attended a Family to Family class to help her understand her daughter’s increasingly emerging symptoms and to learn about the various aspects of her daughter’s mental health condition. From that point forward, Marianne repeatedly found involvement with NAMI to be a saving grace for both herself and her daughter, especially with NAMI’s strong emphasis on the recovery aspect of living with a mental illness.
After taking the Family to Family class, Marianne began volunteering with NAMI South Suburbs and became trained as a Family to Family facilitator. The more she became involved with NAMI and the more she learned about mental health, the more Marianne realized the need for community outreach and advocacy for understanding mental illness and ensuring fair treatment of individuals who live with mental health conditions. This led to even more involvement, and Marianne began participating in mental health awareness meetings, panel discussions and advocacy groups focused on various aspects of mental health issues – symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, coping strategies, caregiving, self-help, recovery, public policy, etc. Eventually, Marianne’s involvement led to her becoming the president of NAMI South Suburbs.
Vice President:
Lisa Guardiola
Ms. Guardiola has a BA in psychology and studio arts from St. Xavier University. She has worked for Sertoma Centre for 9 Years and been a Community Outreach and Education Trainer for the last 7 years. She is certified in Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid, QPR, safeTALK, and ASIST, and earned her WRAP certification and is currently seeking her CRSS credential to become a Peer Support Specialist. Ms. Guardiola in the Vice President of the NAMI Illinois Board of Directors, Vice President of NAMI Illinois Alliance of Peer Professionals and Vice President of NAMI South Suburbs of Chicago where she is trained as a NAMI Connection support group facilitator and NAMI “In Our Own Voice” presenter. Lisa has been living with schizophrenia for the past 19 years. Passionate about helping others with mental illness, she writes a blog for WebMD on her experience of living with schizophrenia.
Secretary:
Threasa Kluever
Threasa “Tee Kaa” Kluever is the Secretary of NAMI South Suburbs of Chicago. She is a person with lived experiences of mental health concerns/disorders and a professional in the field of Mental Health. She first became involved in NAMI in college, when she served as an intern at her college’s local NAMI branch. It was there that she assisted in running NAMI Basic support groups and shared her mental health experience through NAMI In Our Own Voices, along with created a resource referral guide and other office and community based tasks.
Tee Kaa first struggled with mental health concerns in high school when she experienced symptoms of depression and anxiety, along with an eating disorder, self-harm and obsessive thinking. After seeking help for these concerns, Tee Kaa, adjusted to a life in and out of recovery, with not fully understanding what recovery and freedom from her symptoms really meant. In college, she experienced a trauma that led her to seek professional mental health help and a diagnosis of PTSD (Post-Traumatic stress disorder) and OCPD (Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder). When outpatient treatment was not enough, Tee Kaa went to Timberline Knolls Treatment center, a residential program with an option for step down into outpatient services. It was at this time Tee Kaa was diagnosed with a dissociative disorder; worked to gain an understanding and recovery from her eating disorder, self-harm, and other mental health symptoms while learning what recovery really meant and what it could look like.
Tee Kaa’s personal recovery and professional endeavors have led her to her current career position, severing as the Alumnae Program Coordinator at Timberline Knolls Treatment center. She carries out her passion for this work by helping other who have completed Timberline Knolls’ program walk the recovery path by providing support groups, supported online community forums, recovery focused workshops and other groups, and sharing her story of recovery with alumni members. Tee Kaa is excited to give back to the community in the South Suburbs of Chicago through her board position at NAMI South Suburbs of Chicago.
Consumer Affairs Director:
Nick Sundberg
Nick is a member of NAMI’s In Our Voice and is a speaker at various NAMI public functions which includes sessions with police and prison guards so they can make better decisions in dealing with the mentally ill. For Nick, this is all part of “giving back to the community” and most of all “to calm down the stigma against mental illness.” Nick speaks from experience, from the heart and yes, from intelligence. He applies all three to dealing with his own bipolar illness which sometimes entails “dark passages.” Nick acknowledges that “It’s a part of me; I wouldn’t be me without it.”
You can look at the bare bones of Nick’s life. He grew up in Park Forest with his father Richard, his mother Sunny, his sister Jamie. He graduated from Rich East High School in 2003. He followed his interest in photography and got an associate degree in graphic design from the Illinois Institute of Art. He is employed full time by Thresholds, an organization that helps people with “mental illness and substance use disorders.”
Nick got involved with NAMI because of his mother Sunny. Thresholds hires people who suffer from mental illness to provide peer support, so that was a strong factor for Nick to get hired. He also thinks his activism with NAMI helped as “doing community service can lead to getting a job.” Nick’s been with Thresholds for at least eight years and is now a Community Support Specialist at a drop-off center. Members, as clients are called in the program, live independently but need support. Each member belongs to a team. At the center, Nick teaches social and life skills. At the same time, he checks out how each member is doing with such things as keeping appointments and hygiene because “you tend to look how you feel.” Nick teaches mundane things such as cooking, social skills, balancing a check book. “You need to know the difference between want and need.” He teaches every aspect of normal life while one is living with a mental illness. He understands why some members don’t want to take medication. “I know what it feels like to be a guinea pig.” The process of finding what works is still hit or miss. Sometimes even when the medication works, the side effects can be terrible. Weight gain, involuntary movement, inability to sleep, pacing back and forth—these are just a few of the side effects. Some members have multi-diagnosis of mental illness which makes it even more challenging.
Nick remembers while attending college, after he went off his meds for two weeks, his bipolar kicked in and he yelled at a teacher. Once he got back on his medication, got back in control, he returned and explained and apologized. For most people with a mental illness, it is really difficult to talk about it. And who do you tell? “Your boss? Someone you love?” It’s not like you have a crippled leg. Mental illness is “a handicap you can’t see. When the mind is broken, it’s a lot harder.” Nick has decided that “my bipolar might at times get the best of me, but in the end it’s up to me what I do.” He tries to make good choices that works best with his life and his bipolar illness. He shares what he knows with NAMI attendees and at his job with members he teaches. He still feels that he has a lot to learn. Nick believes “sometimes the members teach me as much as I teach them.” Nick likes to keep his environment simple, uncluttered so that his mind stays uncluttered. He loves animals, doing computer graphics, photography and wants someday to own a little house. He doesn’t need material things, but wants, in his own words, “to be involved with something bigger than me.” Nick adds, “I need to do things that matter so that I feel alive. I focus on living.”
Membership Director:
Eric Cotton
Board Member:
Ron Balsewich
Ron Balsewich is an accomplished Human Resources executive and consultant, retired from Health Care Service Corporation (aka Blue Cross Blue Shield of IL, TX, NM, OK, and MT) after 33 years of experience and achievements. He completed his HCSC career in mid-2017 as Vice President Corporate Human Resources, directing compensation programs from executive through nonexempt levels as well as facilitating annual and long-term goal development. This included ongoing interaction at the senior executive and Board of Directors level. During his career, Ron led several areas of human resources, including employee/labor relations, leadership development, HR technology and service operations, budgeting and planning, policy management, merger & acquisition support, and subsidiary HR/board support. Prior to HCSC, Ron began his HR career with the City of Chicago.
With this broad experience and knowledge, Ron also has been a sought-after speaker at many Conference Board conferences, including Strategic HR Management, HR Metrics, and HR Technology. Not one to “sit on the sidelines” for long, he recently began providing human resources consulting services to organizations and has a strong network within the consulting field.
One of Ron’s passions is supporting people with disabilities, based on personal family matters. In his later years at HCSC, he chaired the company’s “In-Abled” resource group, providing outreach and services to current employees with disabilities as well as promoting the HCSC’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. He continues these efforts today for people with psychological disabilities and sits on the board of a Chicago Suburban chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI).
Ron has a BS degree, cum laude, in Psychology from Loyola University of Chicago and a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification. He lives in Evergreen Park, IL with his wife Cathy and has three sons, with one married and one in college, and two granddaughters. In his free time, he enjoys travel, theatre, community service, and family time - especially the grandchildren (and he hopes those types of activities soon can return for everyone).
Board Member:
Allison Jordan
Founder of Allison Jordan Promotions and made history on April 6, 2021 as the 1st African American women to promote a professionally sanctioned boxing fight with the UBO. She is the sole owner of Epic Arts & Entertainment, LLC Studio in Calumet City, IL. She is the Founder of Allison Jordan Events LLC , Producer & Beer & Wine Garden Director of the African Festival of the Arts in Chicago (16 years), the largest African - themed Festival in the world, welcoming over 450,000 attendees over 4 days. She is the Creator of Libations and Laughter, the official kick- off to the African Fest.
Allison is the Associate Producer of the Starz Network series; Martin Lawrence 1st Amendment Stand Up, CEO and Founder of Jordan Management (a talent, literary, and music Brand management and training company) representing some of Hollywood's biggest stars for over 39 years. In 2017 she joined the team of The 28th Annual Puerto Rican Festival and secured the World Series Chicago Cubs as a Title sponsor; bringing the Official World Series Championship Trophy to thousands of attendees to experience at Humboldt Park.
As a certified Chef, studying International Cuisine at The Art Institute in Chicago, she won the International Name That Sauce Competition by Sara Lee Corporation out of 5,000 chefs worldwide, she was inducted into the National Chef Federation, securing her winning sauce as part of their international product line for life. She is also the National Executive Producer of Real Men Cook.
While married to NBA World Champion Craig Hodges, Allison Jordan was general manager of the ABL's Chicago Condors, the premiere women's professional basketball league, making her the First African American female to run a professional women’s sports team and her franchise led in ticket and merchandise sales out of 13 states. Former President of Operations for MAMISI, an international E-Commerce Company founded by actor, Wesley Snipes, managing an international staff of over 300. Allison has also worked in literary for William Morris Agency. She was Asst. Special Events Director for the City of Chicago, Casting Associate, and Writer and Production Coordinator for HBO, Johnny Carson Productions, NBC and Fox Network shows.
Board Member:
Troy Siewert
Troy is a former police lieutenant, retired from the Orland Park Police Department after 30years of service. He is a certified Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Officer, CIT Coordinator, Crisis Intervention Specialist, and trained crisis negotiator.
Starting a successful CIT program in the Village of Orland Park was one of Troy’s major career accomplishments. The program trained officers to better respond to mental health crisis situations and established a network of stakeholders from throughout the community that collaborated on how to best connect individuals to the help they need. In 2017, the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and the United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) recognized his Department’s efforts of training staff and collaborating with mental health providers as a “Best Practice.”
Recognizing that still more could be done to serve the needs of individuals experiencing a mental health crisis, Troy successfully implemented a co-response program in Orland Park that provided for mental health clinicians to respond to the scene of mental health calls alongside a CIT officer from the police department. This program was expanded to five other southwest suburban police departments, virtually, in 2021.
Troy continues to promote better mental health training and response, through CIT programs and co-responder models, as a public speaker. He has given presentations at conferences throughout the United States.
In recognition of all his efforts supporting CIT, Troy was selected as CIT International’s 2021 CIT Coordinator of the Year.
Despite now being retired, Troy continues teaching both law enforcement officers and members of the community about mental health awareness and crisis response through several training classes, including Mental Health First Aid.