Author, speaker and activist for people with psychiatric disabilities

Penney is a long-time activist in the human rights movement for people with psychiatric labels. She is the co-author of The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic. The book and a traveling exhibit of the same name, which has toured the country since 2006, are based on the discovery of 400 suitcases, boxes, and trunks of personal items taken from patients when they were committed at Willard State Hospital in upstate New York.