CCAR Staff Members

Virginia Adams, Volunteer Coordinator, Bridgeport

Info to come

Ken Aligata, Community Educator

Ken Aligata, past Board President of CCAR, joined CCAR as the Community Educator in July of 2011, building on over 11 years as a CCAR recovery community volunteer. Ken has over 22 years of personal recovery, and is passionate about training and sharing his lessons learned about the link between addiction recovery, health and wellness. Ken also worked for the past 5 years as Provider Relations Director at Advanced Behavioral Health, Inc. in Middletown, CT. where he demonstrated his commitment to enhancing collaboration with community providers and delivering exemplary customer service. He brings over two decades of sales, marketing, and program promotion in the healthcare arena.

Ken is a certified CCAR Recovery Coach Trainer of Trainers. In 2008 Ken received a citation (CCAR Bronze Award) from the State of Connecticut's Attorney General in recognition of his service to the community and volunteer efforts with the Pardon Training, and Recovery Walks! Most recently, Ken has been providing volunteer Recovery Coach Supervision and Training support to youth in recovery. He also volunteers as acting board secretary for Connecticut Turning to Youth and Families, a youth and family recovery community organization started with the help of CCAR's leadership.

Ken believes strongly in family recovery and sharing his family recovery story with others, as he lost his 39 year-old brother to this disease. Ken and his wife Donna reside in Marlborough, CT and have four children. Ken loves to cook, garden, fish, bicycle and host recovery drum circles around the camp fire!

Michael Askew, Recovery Community Center Manager, Bridgeport

Michael is a gifted presenter and has given numerous presentations on recovery advocacy around the state and country. He is passionate about his own recovery, since May 28, 1989, and believes his position with CCAR is an opportunity to "give back what was so freely given to him". Before joining CCAR staff in January 2000, Michael joined as a volunteer in Feb. 1998. At that time, he worked with Weed & Seed, a federally funded organization, which provides Community Service Projects. He worked as Youth Coordinator and received a Commendation from the U.S. Attorneys Office for his volunteer work within his community and being a mentor with the Drug Education For Youth (DEFY) Program.

In 2000, Michael developed chapters of CCAR in Bridgeport, Norwalk and Stamford. He was instrumental in organizing transportation to the Recovery Walks! over the years to many communities. Michael attended The New England School of Addiction Studies yearly and co-facilitated "Understanding and Utilizing 12-Steps" and promoted both CCAR and Recovery Walks!

Diana Desnoyers, Recovery Oriented Employment Services Coordinator

Diana has worked in the nonprofit sector all her life because she believes that one person can make a difference. She is very excited to be part of CCAR's recovery community and has been an ally for people in recovery for the last ten years. Diana graduated from the School for International Training with a BA in Community Studies. She has used her life experience and academic study to create education materials for: teaching youth leadership and conflict resolution; tutoring and mentoring homeless youth; and originating a holistic health program for at-risk women that combine life skills with early recovery. Diana is a board member of Hartford based PaxEducare, a nonprofit organization which in part, teaches Hartford youth communication skills for conflict resolution.

As the ROES Coordinator, Diana has designed a series of eight trainings to assist individuals in recovery to gain employment. She is also working in the Hartford, Willimantic, and New London areas to educate businesses on the positive strengths and values those in recovery (recoverees) bring to their work. Through these efforts, CCAR plans to collaborate with businesses to connect recoverees with job opportunities.

Michael Dunne, Employment Educator

Michael joined CCAR in 2011 as an employment educator, instructing CCAR’s Recovery Oriented Employment Services in four locations – Willimantic, Hartford, New London and Norwich.

He is very committed to CCAR’s employment program because it addresses the unique challenges of finding a job faced by those who are in early recovery and sometimes, who also have a criminal background. Michael believes the employment services offered at CCAR is an important program and he is proud to be a part of it.

Michael graduated from the Central Connecticut State University Graduate School with a professional teacher certification and the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford. His career has included teaching art education in Enfield and Springfield, Mass. and as an airbrush artist creating custom designs in Colorado and here on the East Coast.

Andrea Gaines, Volunteer Coordinator, Hartford

Andrea been in recovery since June 2008. She started with CCAR as a volunteer. Andrea is determined, outgoing and always willing to help. She is also a mother and is happy to have her family in her life. She is looking forward to living a good clean life.

Yolibel Lebrón (aka Yoly), Director of Administration, HRO

Yoly joined CCAR in 2002 as an Administrative Assistant. Although she is not in recovery, she is a family member and still connects with people in recovery. She likes working for an organization where everyone is trying to accomplish the same goal. It’s also very rewarding in knowing that people are being helped and lives are being saved. Yoly enjoys spending quality time with her husband and two children.

Cheryle Pacapelli, Director of Recovery Services

Cheryle comes to CCAR with a strong business background and has wealth of knowledge regarding the addiction and recovery field. Cheryle graduated with Honors from Albertus Magnus College obtaining her B.S. in Business Management.

She is the founder of Stepping Stone House in Meriden Connecticut. Stepping Stone is a form of transitional housing that provides a 12-step recovery setting. It is a drug-free and safe environment for adult men.

Cheryle's interest in recovery is of a personal nature. She has been a recovering addict since 1989 and has learned that she can only "keep what she has by giving it away." Cheryle is extremely active in her 12-step community. She has sponsored women for the past 15 years and has remained actively involved with teaching, mentoring and providing support to many women in recovery throughout Connecticut. Recently, Cheryle co-chaired a women's retreat, served on several subcommittees within her recovery program and donated a CCAR Recovery quilt for the Windham Recovery Community Center.

Diane Potvin, Recovery Community Center Manager, Windham

After being one of the CCAR "founding members", Diane was hired in November 2000 as Area Coordinator for the Windham and New London area. Diane likes to point out that her sobriety date is on Valentine's Day 1987 - the day she started loving herself and loving life. Diane was one of the key Windham residents who worked tirelessly to change Windham from being labeled "Heroin Town" by The Hartford Courant in October of 2002 to being referred to today as "Recovery Town".

So on February 20, 2004 Windham opened Connecticut's first Recovery Community Center in Willimantic which provides a safe, welcoming and positive place for those who are in recovery or support the recovery lifestyle. Since July 2001, Diane has co-hosted the recovery/community support TV show "Positive Faces".

Phillip Valentine, Executive Director

Phillip Valentine is the Executive Director for the Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR). He has been an integral component in this Recovery Community Organization since January 1999. An accomplished speaker and presenter, he has gained recognition as a strong leader in the recovery community; in 2006 the Johnson Institute recognized his efforts with an America Honors Recovery award. In 2008, Faces and Voices of Recovery recognized CCAR with the first Joel Hernandez Voice of the Recovery Community Award as the outstanding recovery community organization in the country. In 2009, the Hartford Business Journal named him the Non-profit Executive of the Year. Currently, he is spearheading CCAR’s effort to build a statewide network of Recovery Community Centers that feature innovative peer recovery support services like Telephone Recovery Support, All-Recovery Groups and Recovery Works! Employment Services.

Mr. Valentine has been instrumental in the development of CCAR’s highly-acclaimed videos "Putting a Face on Recovery!", “The Healing Power of Recovery” and “Legacy of Hope: Recovery Elders Video Project” all produced by Jim Mattingly of Rapid Exposure, LLC,. He served as CCAR’s point man for the first seven “Recovery Walks!", annual walks held for those in support of recovery from alcohol and other drug addiction. He has designed and facilitated several trainings including the "Recovery Perspective – Beyond the Treatment Episode" and "The Language of Recovery".

Kathleen Wyatt, Volunteer Coordinator, Windham

CCAR’s huge impact on my life began way before I came to Willimantic. At the end of my eighth and a half year sentence for motor vehicular manslaughter in Connecticut’s only state prison for women, I was housed in a low security unit named Charlotte Perkins Center (CPC). While I was at CPC, Diane Potvin would come in and speak every month, sometimes with Laurie Fresher or another guest speaker. I was blown away by Diane’s honesty, her passion for recovery and the recovery community. Her enthusiasm for putting a positive face on recovery equaled my want, my need to put a face on recovery for incarcerated females. The average female offender is not who society envisions her to be. During my incarceration I was educated in depth about incest, domestic violence, sexual abuse, physical abuse and emotional abuse to name some of the horrors that 90% of incarcerated women have endured during theirs lives. It seemed to me no one was asking why a little girl would grow up to be a heroin addict and a prostitute. Even more distressing was that no one thought that she could change or that she even wanted to. Of course she wanted a different life! And why didn’t our communities know this! I saw the answer in Diane Potvin. Change is possible and with CCAR that message was carried into the community. I had to be part of that! As I was preparing to be released to a halfway house I requested to be placed in Willimantic at a program whose reputation is brutal and hard. The reason behind the request is that Diane Potvin is the manager of CCAR in Willimantic. I knew it would be a safe place for me, that positive people worked there, people like me who had an addiction and now lead happy and healthy lives. I needed that. I wanted what they had and the best way to acquire a character trait you admire is to be around it, to watch and learn. I asked staff to Google a map to show me the location of my new program to CCAR. I memorized the route and tucked the paper away. I still have that map and will keep it as a reminder of where I was and where I wanted to be. I was accepted into the program and after six months of working in the local newspaper’s collating department a position opened at CCAR. I applied for it and by the grace of God I was blessed with it. My job amazes me every day. I watch lives become manageable. I see families reunite. I am able to share my story of tragedy and of liberation to help others. I am a better human being because of CCAR. Every day at the center I witness one human being giving another human being the gift of hope. I hear it on the TRS phone calls. I see it in All-Recovery Meetings. I am part of it during every event held at the center regardless of how big or small. One person in recovery is incredible, a room full is miraculous and miracles happen at CCAR everyday! And I am proud to say that I, Kathleen Wyatt, has been clean and sober since March 19, 2001.

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