Aside from a stint in journalism with The Chicago Tribune, in the last fifteen years I’ve held jobs in mental health: Psychiatry at the University of Chicago, Thresholds Psychosocial Agency, DuPage County Health Department. Now I’m aiming to switch gears and work in a creative field.For two years I worked in a program called ACT (Assertive Community Treatment) both in DuPage County, Illinois, and in Chicago. I don't know which of the two jobs was more tragic or mesmerizing. I'm not really cut out for working one-on-one with clients that needy, so I left ACT with only a little regret. I admire people who can dedicate themselves to the homeless and underprivileged. In fact I would continue to work with that population but not in a case management capacity. Perhaps the most life-changing event in my career was joining the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at The University of Chicago in 1996. Coming from an academic family, I was thrilled to work at a distinguished university. There I helped edit an academic journal, "Psychiatric Rehabilitation Skills," and a literary journal "The Awakenings Review." Today, 14 years later, The Awakenings Review is still published. We've reached poets and writers with mental illnesses across the U.S., and in several foreign countries. Before all this I had started a small business as a freelance writer/reporter/photographer. Why did I leave the work I truly enjoyed? U of C offered much better compensation. There was no choice but to go there. Today I satisfy my writing urges by writing plays and writing publicity for the local community theatre, The Village Theatre Guild of Glen Ellyn. In fact, I've gotten back-to-back awards for the publicity work I've done there.