Cecilia McGough

Cecilia McGough is a mental health activist, writer, media consultant, and radio astronomer. Cecilia also happens to have schizophrenia but does not let it define her. Cecilia is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Students With Schizophrenia and creator for the I Am Not A Monster: Schizophrenia project. As a TEDx speaker and Special Books By Special Kids interviewee, Cecilia’s videos have been viewed over 20 million times over multiple platforms across the globe. Cecilia is an UNLEASH talent who traveled to Denmark in August of 2017 to be an active voice towards attaining the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and making sure people with psychosis are represented. Cecilia has been selected as the keynote speaker for the Schizophrenia International Research Society 2020 Congress to take place in Florence, Italy. At the age of 17, Cecilia co-discovered PSR J1930-1852 leading to opportunities such as helping represent the United States in the International Space Olympics in Russia and also being a Virginia Aerospace Science And Technology Scholar through the NASA Langley Research Center. In addition, Cecilia has been protesting and giving a voice for the psychosis community in the gun violence debate since 2018 by marching alongside 200,000 people in Washington D.C. for the March For Our Lives movement.