Mission
Safe Space Radio inspires courageous conversations, reduces stigma, shame and isolation, and fosters compassion and public health.
Founded in 2008, Safe Space Radio is a public health intervention on the air. We have broadcast over 300 episodes and received numerous national awards for mental health, stigma reduction, social justice and radio production. The first season of our four-part miniseries, Can We Talk?, broadcast in May 2019 for Mental Health Awareness Month. Our second season is broadcasting throughout 2020 and 2021 in response to immediate need. Two long-form specials, Out-Takes, on suicide prevention among LGBTQ teens, and Still Here, on caregiving and dementia, both broadcast nationally in 2016. Our podcast is used in training programs for healthcare professionals, therapists, and teachers as they learn to address the needs of underserved populations.
Our Staff
Dr. Anne Hallward is the host and founder of Safe Space Radio and a board certified psychiatrist in Portland, Maine. She is passionate about creating spaces for people to talk about the subjects they hide, rather than leaving people isolated with their worst struggles. Formerly on the faculty at Harvard Medical School, she co-designed and taught courses on death and dying, cultural humility, sexuality, and psychiatric interviewing. She’s also published on death and dying, cultural identity and bias in medicine, sexuality, and causes of hunger in the Philippines and Bangladesh. Anne is the recipient of the Ulrich B. Jacobsohn Lifetime Achievement Award from the Maine Association of Psychiatric Physicians, the Jeanne Spurlock Social Justice Award from the Association of Women Psychiatrists, and an Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). She has also been recognized for her work in radio with a Gracie Award for Best Host of a Local Radio Show. Anne speaks internationally on emotional courage, stigma and shame, traumatic silence, and voluntary vulnerability as a form of leadership.
Anne’s Safe Space Radio Manifesto
What makes you feel most alive? For me it is when we finally can talk about the thing we haven’t been talking about. That is such a thrill: it makes you feel that, yes! it’s going to happen, and things are going to change. Things will feel real. Read and listen to the complete manifesto here.
Anne’s Ted Talk at TedxDirigo
Mary Quintas is Safe Space Radio’s Senior Producer. Her previous work includes hosting and producing (Press)ed – a podcast about democracy and the media for The Public’s Radio, and creating and producing The Junction, a Murrow-Award-winning radio series about the revitalization efforts of an Alabama community.
Sara Powers is Safe Space Radio’s Education Coordinator. Sara is a resident physician in psychiatry at Maine Medical Center. She is a native Mainer and returned to Portland for residency training after attending Harvard Medical School. She began her work at Safe Space Radio while still in medical school, researching stigma about mental illness. She is interested in promoting education and discussion about difficult subjects
Sophie McNulty is Safe Space Radio’s Assistant Producer. She is a recent graduate of Stanford University, where she studied English literature and digital humanities. There, she fell in love with audio storytelling, winning a Braden Storytelling Grant to produce a podcast on the relationship between religion and mental health. In the fall, Sophie will attend the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, specializing in radio and podcasting.
Our Board
Anne Hallward, MD, Executive Director
Phil Walsh, President, is executive director of Maine Initiatives.
Marilyn Bronzi, LCSW, Treasurer, was initially a guest on Safe Space Radio, experiencing the freedoms that come with publicly telling one’s story in the hope that the liberation spreads. She has worked in both mental health and insurance, as well as many non-profits and foundations. Marilyn has a gift for seeing what is outside the center of attention, such as what is not being said, or does not fit, and what might be possible.
David Moltz, MD, Secretary, is a psychiatrist who has worked for over 40 years with individuals with mental health challenges and substance use problems. He has seen first-hand the power of owning and expressing one’s truth.
Kate Manahan, LCSW is a creative person who loves to play in many mediums. She is a radio producer and host of a community radio program called New Mainers Speak. You can often find her outside floating on the river in her kayak, watching the birds and turtles being birds and turtles.
Thierry Ndabahagamye is an actor, and film-maker from Burundi who makes films to reduce the stigma of mental illness, and to address public health concerns.
P Lynn Ouellette, MD, is a psychiatrist who has been in private practice for almost 30 years with a special interest in women’s mental health and the impact of child bearing. She believes that it is the relationship, which supports truth telling and compassionate listening, that is the most powerful tool of healing in psychiatry. She is also a mother, an artist and photographer, and a regular volunteer in Kenya.
Joelle Rutembesa is a public health student with a special interest in mental health. She is originally from Rwanda, where she worked for CDC programs and with children with mental disabilities.
Our Creative Advisors
Libby Gordon, Samar Post Jamali, Sara Lennon, Sandy Lovell, David Moltz, Maggie Murphy, Thierry Ndabahagamye, Prisca Niyonzima, Alice Spencer, Phil Walsh.
