Activities Staff

Administrative Staff

Finance

Human Resources

Information Technology (IT)

Development

Communications

Admissions Staff

Clinical Social Workers

Erikson Institute Distinguished Faculty

Erikson Institute Staff

Faculty

Leadership

Nursing Staff

Online Intensive Outpatient Program

Therapeutic Community Staff

Therapy Staff

Fellows

Psychology

BA in clinical psychology from Rutgers University

MA in clinical psychology from Fairleigh Dickenson University

PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Arkansas

Pre-doctoral internship at Massachusetts Mental Health Center (a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School system)

Fellowship in psychoanalytic studies at the Austen Riggs Center

MBA from the University of Massachusetts Isenberg School of Management

Steven Ackerman, PhD, is a treatment team leader, a psychotherapist, a consultant to the 

, and the accreditation manager at the Austen Riggs Center. Dr. Ackerman is also the chair of the Austen Riggs 

Certified in psychoanalysis by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABAPsa)

Studying the therapeutic alliance through examining the interaction between personality, psychopathology, and psychotherapy process.

Accreditation Manager/Team Leader/Chair of the Austen Riggs Institutional Review Board/Staff Psychologist

Bachelor of Business Administration with an Accounting Concentration from the University of Puerto Rico

Melissa Agosto joined the Austen Riggs Center in January 2019 as the director of finance. In her current role, she is responsible for financial analysis, accounting internal controls, management of accounts receivable, accounts payable and payroll, preparation of financial reports, auditor liaison, as well as all financial and tax records.

Mrs. Agosto began her professional career in public accounting. Following the launch of her career, she continued to develop her skills in different aspects of accounting and finance including budget preparation, financial analysis and performance reporting, forecasting, inventory management, and others.

Melissa Agosto is the director of finance at the Austen Riggs Center.

Melissa Agosto

Director of Finance

Associates Degree in Accounting from Holyoke Community College

As the director of human resources, Jessica Arrowsmith oversees all the human resources and employee initiatives creating alignment with the Center’s mission, vision, culture and larger community.

Ms. Arrowsmith has nearly 20 years of HR experience with over 10 years of HR leadership in the non-profit sector. Her most recent role was director of people & culture at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. Her passion in the HR field is around organizational culture, employee engagement, and mindful leadership all with a focus and awareness around diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Outside of work Ms. Arrowsmith enjoys gardening, raising chickens, and enjoying the outdoors with her boyfriend Eric and their Golden Retriever, Daizy Mae.

Jessica Arrowsmith is the director of human resources at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA.

Jessica Arrowsmith

Director of Human Resources

Psychiatry residency at McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University

Psychotherapy training at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute

Marina Bayeva, MD, PhD, is the director of 

 and a staff psychiatrist at the Austen Riggs Center.

Recipient of the Chair’s Choice Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry

Honorable Mention by the NIMH Outstanding Resident Award Program

Marina Bayeva, MD, PhD, is the director of psychopharmacology and a fellow in psychiatry at the Austen Riggs Center.

Director of Psychopharmacology/Staff Psychiatrist

Dave Belliveau is the director of information technology at the Austen Riggs Center. He is an accomplished information technology (IT) leader with more than 20 years of experience focused on organizational health and senior executive advising, and has held leadership positions at Fortune 500 and startup companies such as GE and Wave Systems Corp. Using a cross-functional and international approach, he helps current and future leaders align their business and technology strategies and leverage opportunities.

Mr. Belliveau holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science, a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification from ISC2, and has earned a Certified Chief Information Security Officer (C|CISO) designation by the EC-Council.

Director of Information Technology

MA in philosophy and social policy from American University

Spencer Biel, PsyD, is the director of the 

 for college students and emerging adults in Massachusetts. 

After completing a four-year fellowship at the Austen Riggs Center, Dr. Biel was hired as a full-time staff psychologist and worked for eight years in the residential program, including in roles as assistant team leader, testing and psychotherapy supervisor, and associate director of the Therapeutic Community Program.

As the founding director of the Online IOP, Dr. Biel has shaped the program based on his expertise working with young adults and commitment to increasing access to treatment that promotes deep self-understanding and opportunities for lasting change. For nearly two decades, he has focused clinically on young adults’ efforts to grow from being a child in a family to an adult in the world, directing special attention to the interplay between family and social dynamics and emotion regulation. In the IOP, his staff applies a psychodynamic systems approach, integrating dyadic and social learning so participants can understand developmental influences on their social positioning, translate their symptoms into more straightforward, intelligible communications to others, and deepen authentic interpersonal engagement both inside and beyond the program. This team approach promotes key components of emerging adulthood such as epistemic trust, identity coherence and flexibility, agency, and social belonging.

Dr. Biel is also in private practice in Chicago, where he is a clinical supervisor and treats adolescents, adults, couples, and families. He has published and presented on psychological testing, suicidality, therapeutic communities, and psychodynamic systems approaches to treatment. Currently, he is investigating uses and misuses of hope in psychotherapy.

Clinical Associate Faculty, Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis

Director of Online IOP 

Chauncey Collins, MBA, started at the Austen Riggs Center in 1980 and has spent three decades working in various roles.

Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer

MA in clinical psychology from the University of Denver

PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Denver

Internship in adult clinical psychology at Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital

Two year-long fellowships at Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital in adolescent and family treatment and psychological assessment

Donna Elmendorf, PhD, is the director of the Therapeutic Community Program and the Activities Program at the Austen Riggs Center. Dr. Elmendorf also serves as a psychotherapist and a psychotherapy supervisor in the Center's Adult Psychoanalytic Training Program and Fellowship in Hospital-Based Psychotherapy. She provides group consultation and supervision and leads the Center's consultation service. She also leads the Human Development Initiative, bringing developmentally informed, relationship-based interventions to our local Berkshire community.

Dr. Elmendorf’s work as an organizational and group relations consultant supports her efforts to better understand the social dynamics of psychological disturbance within the Therapeutic Community at Austen Riggs. Prior to coming to Riggs, her experience at the Adolescent and Family Treatment Center at McLean Hospital as well as her work at the counseling center at Bard College at Simon’s Rock deepened her understanding of the developmental transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Dr. Elmendorf is actively involved in the Berkshire community, having served on the board of several local and state organizations involved with mental health, education, and environmental conservation. She is working with several colleagues to develop an understanding of how tuning into emotional experience and sharing such experience in relation to the task of a group or organization is an often overlooked and underappreciated aspect of leadership.

Professional Affiliations/Organizational Memberships

International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO)

Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems (CSGSS)

American Residential Treatment Association (ARTA)

Chair of the Leadership Committee of the American Residential Treatment Association (ARTA)

Certified Consultant, A.K. Rice Institute

Co-founder and Faculty, Leading from Experience

Anna Freud Educational Achievement Award from the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) (2017)

John Leopold Weil and Geraldine Rickard Weil Memorial Charitable Foundation, Inc. grant recipient (2017, 2018, 2019) in support of Human Development Initiative

Symptomatic behavior as interpersonal communication, competence and regression in group dynamics, and social cognition in young children.

Donna Elmendorf, PhD

Director of Therapeutic Community Program

MD from the American University of Beirut

Residency training in psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic Fellowship in psychoanalytic studies at the Austen Riggs Center

Samar Habl, MD, is the director of admissions and associate medical director at the Austen Riggs Center. Dr. Habl is a certified board psychiatrist, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and a team leader Austen Riggs.

Consulted at various leadership development programs in different business schools

The study of groups and social systems as it pertains to organizational life and the application of group relation theories to leadership development.

Director of Admissions and Associate Medical Director

David Jordan provides oversight of and direction for all dietary/food needs for patients and staff at the Center.

Director of Dietary/Executive Chef

MS in counseling psychology with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy from California Lutheran University

PsyD in clinical psychology from California Lutheran University

Fellowship in Infant-Parent Mental Health at the University of Massachusetts Boston

Daniel Knauss, PsyD, ABPP, is the director of training and a staff psychologist at the Austen Riggs Center. Dr. Knauss also coordinates the Grand Rounds at Austen Riggs.

Dr. Knauss has worked clinically in a variety of settings including private practice, community mental health, university counseling centers, medical centers, and residential treatment settings.

Dr. Knauss is an active presenter at national and international conferences and has published in peer-reviewed journals. He currently serves on the Editorial Board for 

, formerly served on the Editorial Board of the 

Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association

 and is vice-chair of the Austen Riggs Center Institutional Review Board. Dr. Knauss has a passion for education, having taught undergraduate and graduate level psychology courses at private and public universities and has experience providing clinical supervision to psychology graduate students.

Board Certified by the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis

Member at large on the Board of The Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (SPPP), Division 39, The American Psychological Association

Mentalization-informed approaches to treatment, infant and early-childhood mental health, and working with expectant parents.

Director of Training/Staff Psychologist/Grand Rounds Coordinator

PhD in clinical psychology from the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University

Pre-doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at Albany Medical Center

Katie C. Lewis, PhD, is the director of research and medical staff member at the Austen Riggs Center. Her research focuses on examining personality processes in adults diagnosed with complex psychopathology as they relate to suicidal and self-destructive behaviors. Her research has been supported by the Robert Wallerstein Fellowship in Psychoanalytic Research (San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis), a Young Investigator Grant through the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, an Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant through the NIMH, and the APF/Division 39 Marsha McCary Grant for Psychoanalytic Research.

She has published and presented on a wide range of topics including suicide and self-harming behaviors, personality psychopathology and assessment, and the ethics of confidentiality in clinical writing. Dr. Lewis is a licensed clinical psychologist in New York and Massachusetts and operates a small private psychotherapy practice in addition to her work at Austen Riggs.

Former graduate student representative on the Ethics Board of Division 39

Former Fellow of the American Psychoanalytic Association (ApsaA)

Former Fellow, Psychoanalytic Research Training Program, Yale University School of Medicine

Founding member of the College of Research Fellows at APsaA

Board of the Society for Personality Assessment Representative at Large (2023-2026)

Fellowship Committee member, American Psychoanalytic Association

Consulting editor and special section editor (Clinical Applications and Case Studies) for the 

American Association of Suicidology Professional Poster Award (2019)

PPRS Stuart Hauser Memorial Poster Award (2014)

Long Island University's Dissertation Award (2014)

Suicide, personality disorders, ecological momentary assessment, psychic pain, personality assessment

Katie Lewis, PhD, is the director of research at the Austen Riggs Center.

Katie Lewis, PhD

Director of Research

Meet the Austen Riggs staff of therapists, nurses, administrators, and other healthcare professionals who work as a team on behalf of our patients. 

Staff Directory of Therapists and Teams | Austen Riggs

For more information on our residential treatment programs, or answers to any questions, please feel free to contact us. 

Meet Our Team

Leadership

Steven Ackerman, PhD, MBA, ABPP

Melissa Agosto

Jessica Arrowsmith

Marina Bayeva, MD, PhD

Dave Belliveau

Spencer Biel, PsyD

Chauncey T. Collins, MBA

Donna M. Elmendorf, PhD

Samar Habl, MD

David Jordan

Daniel Knauss, PsyD, ABPP

Katie Lewis, PhD

Contact Us for More

For more information on our residential treatment programs, or answers to any questions, please feel free to contact us.

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