Maxine Harris is CEO for Clinical Affairs and Co-Founder of Community Connections, a private non-profit mental health agency in Washington, DC serving seriously mentally ill men and women. She is also the Executive Director of The National Capital Center for Trauma Recovery and Empowerment. In the past several years, Community Connections has specialized in treating women, trauma survivors, homeless persons, and substance abusers. Dr. Harris, in collaboration with investigators from Dartmouth Medical School, has been co-investigator on federally funded grants to study homeless women, substance-addicted homeless persons, and to implement vocational services for persons with serious mental illness. Dr. Harris is author of numerous articles and several books including Trauma Recovery and Empowerment: A Clinician's Guide to Working with Women in Groups (The Free Press, Fall 1998), co-author of Healing the Trauma of Abuse: A Woman's Workbook (New Harbinger Publishers, 2000), contributing author and co-editor (with Roger D. Fallot, Ph.D.) of Using Trauma Theory to Design Service Systems, New Directions for Mental Health Services #89 (Jossey-Bass, Spring 2001), and most recently, The Twenty-Four Carat Buddha and Other Fables (Sidran,Press, 2004).

“Dynamic, passionate and such a skilled clinician, Maxine truly inspired me!  She gave me a new framework and strategies for working with women which will make a real impact on their lives.  She’s a true leader in the trauma recovery field.”