OUR TEAM
Our class years range from 1988 to 2025, and we were brought together by this cause. Our homes are across the United States including South Dakota, New York, Massachusetts and California. We care deeply about the mental health of the current generation of students.
If you are a student who wants informal advice from alumni with shared experience, or just wants to be heard, we are here for you: FindUs@elisforrachael.org.
Rishi Mirchandani
YALE COLLEGE 2019
Rishi is a member of Yale College's Class of 2019. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in college, and he felt that the university’s policies and personnel significantly exacerbated his struggles. He earnestly envisions a world where every Yalie with a psychiatric disability feels welcome and supported on campus. Rishi graduated from Yale summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in mathematics. He is now based in New York, working as a multi-genre pianist. To learn more, visit rishimirchandani.com. See his 11/30/22 appearance on CNN Live discussing mental health disability rights. Contact Rishi at FindUs@elisforrachael.org.
Paul Mange Johansen
YALE COLLEGE 1988
Paul is grateful his psychiatric issues surfaced before and after – but not during – his Yale years, as he heard the same dark whispers about poor mental health services at Yale that have echoed across generations of students. He is a suicide attempt survivor, but knows too many who aren’t. It has taken many years of experience and therapy, but he is now the right-sized fish in the right-sized pond, working as a biostatistician in Berkshire County (MA). Contact Paul at paul.johansen@elisforrachael.org.
Alicia Floyd
YALE COLLEGE 2005
Alicia is an internal medicine physician working on inpatient floors and and ICUs in the midwest. She struggled with depression while in college and was hospitalized twice at Yale Psychiatric Hospital, withdrawing once. She completed her pre-medical coursework at Columbia and graduated from Icahn Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 2011. Alicia wants Yale to improve on its unkind mental health policies. She is dismayed to find so little change since her own painful experiences of two decades ago. Here are some words of encouragement from Alicia. Contact Alicia at alicia.floyd@elisforrachael.org.
Zack Dugue
CALIFORNIA INSITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 2025
Zack is currently an undergraduate at Cal Tech with an interest in artificial intelligence. He and Rachael met in high school as fellow finalists for the McDermott Scholars Program at UT Dallas.
Lily Dorman Colby
YALE COLLEGE 2010
Lily is a former foster youth and proud queer person who graduated from Yale with a degree in Economics. She attended UC Berkeley Law School and recently founded WithLivedExperience, aimed at helping those with marginalized lived experiences connect with each other and change the systems that impact them.
Willow Sylvester
Willow graduated from Yale as a first-generation college graduate with a major in Global Affairs and is currently studying human rights law in Geneva. Her work with Elis for Rachael started when she co-founded Mental Health Justice at Yale and worked on collaborations between the two groups. Willow met with Yale administration through the 2020-2021 school year to discuss MHJY's research and recommendations to little avail. She was also a first-year counselor in her residential college and advocated staunchly for better mental health culture on campus. Contact Willow at Willow Sylvester willowgsylvester@gmail.com.
YALE COLLEGE 2022
Hanna Dugue
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH DAKOTA 2022
Hanna is a senior at USD in Health Science and is also an aspiring realtor. She loved Rachael and advocates for change in her honor.
