Aisha McDonald - 2020 Health & Wellness Panelist

Aisha T. McDonald is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor who has worked with marginalized populations within South Florida specifically those with severe and persistent mental illness, forensic population, individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, youth in the welfare system, and individuals who are involuntarily hospitalized. She is currently the Lead Trainer for the Mental Health First Aid program in Broward County where she facilitates an 8 hour course on mental illness and crisis intervention and have trained over 600 individuals since January 2019 to present.

Additionally, she facilitates monthly trainings on mental health and substance use for the Crisis Intervention Team for the local sheriff's department and municipal police agencies as well as community wide trainings for service providers. The work she does also focuses on addressing system issues and she developed and facilitates a training workshop on Racial and Ethnic Trauma to providers in the Broward County system of care continuum.

She has presented workshops on Classism and Racism in the Caribbean at a statewide conference for the Caribbean Student Association with over 30 universities in attendance. Most importantly, the intersectionality of her identity as a Black Immigrant Caribbean woman who has lived with mental health concerns, it has been important for her to promote awareness of the reality of mental illness and how it is impacted by generational trauma, personal experiences, and societal factors.