Viviana Bonilla López is an enthusiastic and driven joymonger and storyteller looking to find innovative solutions to the current challenges in our mental health system.

A San Juan, Puerto Rico native, she majored in journalism and minored in entrepreneurship at the University of North Caro Read more...

Viviana Bonilla López is an enthusiastic and driven joymonger and storyteller looking to find innovative solutions to the current challenges in our mental health system.

A San Juan, Puerto Rico native, she majored in journalism and minored in entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. In May 2014, she earned her Bachelor of Arts and graduated with the highest distinction.

Starting August 2014, Viviana will attend New York University School of Law as a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar.

In the journalism field, she has experience as a writer, photographer, videographer, researcher, translator, and editor.

Her love of storytelling has led her to interview a shopping mall rapper, a mental health consumer turned filmmaker, an artisan at an Argentinian fair, and a rural doctor living in the Galapagos Islands. Her work has been published in The Daily Tar Heel, Hypervocal.com, Noticel, El Nuevo Dia, Logon, Ego, Demotix.com, USA TODAY College, and the Center for Investigative Journalism of Puerto Rico, as well as referenced in a report to the Untied Nations.

In August 2011, inspired by a loved one’s personal story, she co-founded Rethink: Psychiatric Illness, a student organization aimed at raising awareness about mental illnesses and winner of UNC’s 2012 Diversity Award for Student Organization.

Leading Rethink, working closely with mental health consumers through an internship with Clubhouse International, and volunteering with Club Nova heightened her interest in the mental health system. After earning an Online Counseling and Suicide Intervention Specialist certification with the support of UNC Student Government’s Jon Curtis Student Enrichment Fund, Viviana continues to work in this area.

In the future, she hopes to work in mental health policy and disability advocacy, to continue to tell stories using a camera and a pen, and to one day found a clubhouse for mental health consumers in Puerto Rico.

www.vivianabonillalopez.com