Cecilia A. McGough (she/they)
🏳️🌈 queer, autistic, schizophrenic
🗽 New York, New York
💼 @studentswithpsychosis
🌎 @globalshaperscommunity
MAILING ADDRESS: 99 WALL STREET #1246, NEW YORK, NY 10005
“People living with psychosis are tired of the lack of accurate and respectful representation in media, politics, academia, and the workplace. The world needs neurodiverse perspectives unless we limit the world to the current neurotypical bias of today.”
Cecilia McGough (they/she) is a New York City-based mental health activist, nonprofit executive director, consultant, and former radio astronomer. McGough is autistic and also happens to have schizophrenia, but she does not let her diagnoses define them. McGough is the founder and executive director of the global nonprofit Students With Psychosis. McGough’s story has been viewed over 35 million times across multiple platforms. McGough is a TEDx speaker, three-time SBSK interviewee, Anthony Padilla interviewee, CBS This Morning national news feature, and PBS Documentary “Mysteries of Mental Illness” feature currently found on Amazon Prime. McGough has been featured in Glamour UK, The Boston Globe, Women’s Health Magazine, twice in Forbes, USA Today College, Astronomy Now, Healthline, Daily Mail, The Indian Express, MTV University, Parade, WGBH, Mental Health America, etc. McGough currently serves as a member of the Global Shapers Brooklyn Hub and a task force member through the World Economic Forum. McGough finds it essential to connect with health advocates across a wide range of diagnoses and is currently a Lightbulb ambassador, served as a 2020 and 2022 conference advisor for Healthevoices, and is currently on the planning committee for the Women’s Mental Health Conference at Yale 2023. McGough collaborates with industry leads, mental health researchers, and clinicians; for example, McGough was a 2020-2021 think tank participant organized by One Mind to focus on early screening for Psychosis in youth. McGough is an UNLEASH talent who traveled to Denmark in August of 2017 to be an active voice to attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ensure people with Psychosis are represented. McGough was a keynote speaker for the 2022 Congress of the Schizophrenia International Research Society in Florence, Italy. At 17, McGough co-discovered PSR J1930-1852 with the largest known orbit around another neutron star. This discovery led to opportunities such as being published as a co-author in the Astrophysical Journal, helping represent the United States in the International Space Olympics in Russia, and being a Virginia Aerospace Science And Technology Scholar through the NASA Langley Research Center. McGough’s story as a radio astronomer through the Pulsar Search Collaboratory, rebranded as the Pulsar Science Collaboratory, can be seen in the documentary Little Green Men.