Ellen Pulleyblank Coffey, Ph.D.
Committee Co-Chair, Human Rights

Ellen Pulleyblank Coffey is a clinical psychologist in Berkeley, CA. Her private practice focuses on work with families, specializing with families facing catastrophic illness (Berkeley Family Therapy). She consults for local community agencies and is a member of the Kosovar Family Professional Education Collaborative, developing mental health services in Kosovo. She teaches graduate and continuing education courses on: Multigenerational Family Therapy and Aging, Family Therapy with Context at the Center of Practice, and Building Internal and External Resources with Families Facing Catastrophic Illness. Ellen is also a former faculty member of the Smith College School for Social Work and researcher at the Center for Innovative Practice in Western Massachusetts.

Ellen's book, Blowing on Embers: Stories for Hard Times, will be released in Fall 2007. She has a blog (www.blowingonembers.blogspot.com). Her most recent article was written with her daughter for the AFTA 2007 Monograph on Systemic Responses to Disaster. She is currently writing about feminist grandmothers. Other publications include: author of "The symptom is stillness: Living with and dying from ALS, a progressive neurological disease," in End of Life Care (Berzoff, J. & Silverman, P., Eds.) and "The heart of the matter 2: Integration of eco-systemic family therapy practices with systems of care mental health services for children and families," (Family Process); and co-author of "Pushing against the stream: Building community with Bosnian refugees in Oakland, CA" (AFTA Monograph Series) and "Gjakova, the first family-focused community mental health center in Kosovo" (Community Practice, Lightburn, A. & Sessions, P., Eds.). She is a former Vice-Chair of the Council on Contemporary Families.

Ellen has served AFTA as Chair of the Publications Committee (1999), Chair of the Connectivity Committee (1999-01), and an active member of the Human Rights Committee before assuming her current position.