Malia Fontecchio, MSW

Malia L.J. Fontecchio, MSW, is a mental health advocate, trainer, speaker, and survivor. She is the program coordinator of the peer-run agency Project Return Peer Support Network located in Los Angeles. Malia is the California lead for the Honest Open Proud program, and her recovery story has been published in Coming Out Proud: To Erase the Stigma of Mental Illness. She is also a contributing author of "Diminishing the Self-stigma of Mental Illness by Coming out Proud," which was published in Psychiatry Research. She has spoken at UCLA, USC, SDSU, the Alternatives conference, the CASRA conference, and many other mental health events. Malia graduated from UC Berkeley with her BSW, and the University of Southern California with her Master of Social Work.