About our Founder

Kristina-Monique Cortez is the Founder and the Executive Director of Creative Recovery Collective, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to supporting creatives and beauty professionals navigating mental health challenges and addiction recovery.

With over 2 decades of experience in the beauty industry, Kristina-Monique has worked closely with thousands of artists, entrepreneurs, and professionals in high-pressure creative environments. Through her leadership, mentorship, industry involvement and rebuilding her professional career as and recovery, she recognized a critical gap in accessible, mental health and recovery support specifically tailored to creatives.

Kristina-Monique founded Creative Recovery Collective to address this need by providing financial assistance, recovery resources, and partnerships that help individuals stabilize, heal, and rebuild sustainable careers and lives.

Her work is driven by a deep commitment to restoring dignity, stability, and opportunity for creatives in recovery. She believes that recovery is not only possible, but that creatives can emerge stronger, more purposeful, and capable of building abundant, meaningful futures.

As Executive Director, Kristina-Monique leads the foundations strategic vision, partnerships, and program development, working to expand access to recovery support nationwide. Her mission is to help creatives heal, rebuild and thrive.