Identifying Potential serves as the parent organization and umbrella for work rooted in human development, strategic consulting, and systems growth. Steady Resilience is the trauma informed and resilience centered side of that broader mission. As Founder and CEO of Identifying Potential LLC, I look forward to helping break down the organizational silos that can limit understanding of mental health recovery. Through collaboration with people who carry lived experience with courage and clarity, this mission is here to elevate authentic voices, deepen understanding, and promote the potential within individuals and communities too often taught insignificance.

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     Together, these platforms form an integrated framework. Steady Resilience centers personal and community resilience. Identifying Potential expands that work into leadership, systems development, and institutional strategy. This work is rooted in a simple belief: resilience is not rare, potential is not reserved, and systems should evolve to reflect the strength already present within the people they serve. I will be back with new content, deeper collaboration, and a focus on identifying potential at a grassroots level, creating change through community, communication, and contribution. Resilience is not the absence of pain or setbacks. Resilience is persistence, staying steady in love and compassion as life ebbs and flows.

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     I also want to share genuine gratitude. This work reflects not only individual effort, but collective commitment. Special thanks to Danette Veahman, whose resilient leadership and commitment to dignity and recovery continue to keep me anchored and motivated; Angela Elliston, CPS, Recovery Specialist and Community Wellness Team member, whose systems knowledge, steady hope, and ability to hold joy in the middle of hard realities has been a guiding light for me; and Sheila Rankin, CPS, whose lived experience and courage helped me learn that mutual respect matters, even when communication styles are different, and that shedding self judgment is part of authentic leadership in recovery advocacy.

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     I am also grateful to Community Care Behavioral Health Organization for the support, training, and real human touch they bring to this community, and for the opportunities to learn from them and build real relationships with people doing the work. Thank you to Allegheny County Collation for Recovery (ACCR) for its unique ability to bring everyone to the table, ask the right questions, keep searching for answers, and help create solutions together. Appreciation to the Peer Support and Advocacy Network for professional development, continuing education units, and a commitment to creating opportunities for growth for anyone who wants to be part of the solution. Gratitude as well to UPMC, AGH, and the Allegheny County Department of Human Services Office of Behavioral Health, and to the countless professionals and peers who create opportunities to connect, learn, grow, and witness both the depth of community need and the strength of those rising to meet the challenge. Special appreciation to Dr. Chrissy Whiting Madison, PhD, CRC, CPRP, whose work reminds us that small, intentional shifts can create meaningful, lasting change, and whose courage to believe in me, especially when I struggled to hold that belief in myself, helped shape how I show up with steadiness, optimism, and purpose.

 

With gratitude,

John A. Ellis

February 16, 2026

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