Katherine Ponte, BA, JD, MBA, CPRP is the recipient of NAMI-NYC’s Ending the Silence Award. She is an award-winning mental health advocate, best-selling author, and nonprofit leader. She is also an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. Katherine has lived with severe bipolar I disorder with psychosis and extended periods of suicidal depression for over twenty-five years. Since reaching recovery in 2018, she has committed herself to helping people with mental illness reach recovery through her ForLikeMinds peer support platform, nonprofit program, writings, and other thought leadership. Katherine has a BA and JD from leading Canadian universities and an MBA from the Wharton School. She is also a Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner and NY Certified Peer Specialist-Provisional. 

Katherine evolved ForLikeMinds into an online community of over 150,000 and a range of recovery-oriented initiatives. Katherine created Psych Ward Greeting Cards, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and developed it into a leading psychiatric hospital outreach program that has reached over 25,000 psychiatric unit patients. Katherine also provides one-on-one coaching to families through her Serious Mental Illness Recovery Coaching practice.   

She is the author of ForLikeMinds: Mental Illness Recovery Insights, Your Mental Health Recovery Workbook, and Loving Someone With a Serious Mental Illness. Her videos, writings and social media work has reached millions. Katherine is a board member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness-New York City and a member of Fountain House. She has been a speaker at various industry conferences and seminars and interviewed by CBS, CNN, INSIDER, and WebMD.  

Katherine is based in New York City and the Catskills where she lives with her spouse and tremendous supporter, Izzy.