April Fitzpatrick – Tallahassee

April Fitzpatrick (she/her) is a registered art therapist, self taught visual artist, and CCO of Pineapples with Purpose, LLC, a preventative initiative that expands art therapy tools and resources to marginalized communities that have been impacted by race-based traumatic stress and lack sufficient support to address mental and emotional challenges. April is also the supervisor of an Expressive Arts Therapy Program that provides music and art therapy to clients experiencing crisis in the Big Bend Region. April is most interested in the arts' role in mental wellness and accessibility. Her art practice marries contemporary abstraction and African influence with experimental narrative to produce paintings and collages that explore objectworlds and lifeworlds through the lens of Blackness, racial trauma, oppression, and the pineapple. Her art process and professional endeavors often coincide as seen in her recent accomplishments as an Arts in Medicine Fellow, the city appointed practicing artist for the Council on Cultural and Arts Board of Directors, and recipient into the Baldwin for the Arts Residency. Fitzpatrick’s principle purpose is to help individuals uncover, assess, and externalize challenges that affect their wellbeing. April holds a B.A. in Psychology from Tougaloo College and a M.S. in Art Therapy from Florida State University.