Activities Staff

Administrative Staff

Finance

Human Resources

Information Technology (IT)

Communications

Admissions Staff

Clinical Social Workers

Erikson Institute Distinguished Faculty

Erikson Institute Staff

Faculty

Leadership

Nursing Staff

Remote Access Intensive Outpatient Program

Therapeutic Community Staff

Therapy Staff

Fellows

Psychology

BA in computer science (with a concentration in software development and a minor in cybersecurity) from Marist College

Nick Judson is an IT technician at the Austen Riggs Center.

Prior to working at Riggs, Judson completed an internship with the Walt Disney Company where he built upon his customer service skills while working as a Disney College Program cast member at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Upon returning from this internship, Judson worked on contract in the Help Desk for the Schenectady City School District. Here, he kept a knowledge base up to date and answered help desk inquiries for a district of 17 schools providing onsite support.

Outside of Riggs, Judson enjoys art, photography (especially film), and hiking, often with his two-year-old Husky-mix named Gus.

Nick Judson

IT Technician

Barbara Keegan is the Medical Office Building receptionist. 

Mrs. Keegan has extensive administrative and human resources experience, most recently at ServiceNet, a human services agency in Northampton, MA.

Barbara Keegan is the Medical Office Building receptionist at the Austen Riggs Center.

Barbara Keegan

Medical Office Building Receptionist

Courtney Littlefield is an executive assistant at the Austen Riggs Center.

Executive Assistant

MD from University of Miami School of Medicine

Residency through the Cambridge Hospital/Austen Riggs Center Combined Residency Program

Fellowship in psychoanalytic studies at the Austen Riggs Center

David Mintz, MD, is a staff psychiatrist who joined the Austen Riggs Center in 1996. He presently serves as the director of psychiatric education, the associate director of training, and as a team leader. He also is principal investigator for the research initiative in Psychodynamic Psychopharmacology and author of the book 

Psychodynamic Psychopharmacology: Caring for the Treatment-Resistant Patient

 (2022, American Psychiatric Association Publishing). Dr. Mintz also coordinates the Elective in Psychodynamic Psychiatry at the Austen Riggs Center.

Professional Affiliations/Organizational Memberships

American Psychiatric Association, former leader of the Psychotherapy Caucus

American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, Psychoanalytic Fellow and elected Trustee

Medical Student Education Committee member of the American Psychoanalytic Association

Teichner Scholar at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University Psychiatry Residency Program

Psychological aspects of taking and prescribing medications, psychodynamic aspects of medical education, professionalism, and clinical care of psychiatric patients with treatment-refractory conditions.

Director of Psychiatric Education/Associate Director of Training/Team Leader

MSW from Smith College School for Social Work

PhD in Social Work from Smith College School for Social Work

Graduate certificate program in Advanced Clinical Supervision at Smith College.

Cathleen M. Morey, PhD, LICSW, is the director of clinical social work at the Austen Riggs Center. She provides direct patient care, family consultation and family therapy, clinical supervision, education and training, case consultation, and administrative management of clinical social work staff.

Dr. Morey has previous clinical social work experience working in a wide range of mental health settings, including an inpatient psychiatric hospital, a correctional facility and community mental health settings.

Dr. Morey has been a volunteer with International Social Work Solutions for several years. ISWS has sponsored Dr. Morey to participate in several social work projects with international partner organizations. She has developed and presented a 2-day virtual Trauma Training Program for staff of a humanitarian NGO in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She has also partnered with a NYC non-profit agency to provide research consultation regarding data analysis of their work with under-resourced diabetic adults living in Uganda.

American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work

The International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis

Adjunct faculty of the Smith College School for Social Work

Austen Riggs social work consultant to the Association of Social Work Boards for social work continuing education accreditation

Organizational dynamics, system enactments, telehealth interventions, diversity, equity and inclusion, interdisciplinary treatment team functioning

Cathleen M. Morey, PhD, LICSW, is the director of social work at the Austen Riggs Center.

Cathleen M. Morey, PhD, LICSW

Director of Clinical Social Work

Maggie O'Connor is the data and marketing specialist at the Austen Riggs Center.

Ms. O’Connor has previously held positions at the Clark Art Institute and at Christie’s, Inc., where she enjoyed a 14+ year career in the Trusts, Estates and Appraisals department. Outside of work, she enjoys photographing family portraits, nature, and daily life, while exploring the Berkshires with her family.

Data and Marketing Specialist

PhD in clinical psychology from Derner Institute at Adelphi University

Postdoctoral fellowship in psychoanalytic studies at the Austen Riggs Center

Margaret Parish, PhD, is the director of patient care. A clinical psychologist, she provides and supervises psychotherapy, psychological assessment, and group consultation. Her previous experience includes crisis intervention, work with the homeless, consulting to community organizations, and teaching undergraduate psychopathology and social psychology.

International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations

American Psychological Association (APA) divisions 39 (Psychoanalysis) 29 (Psychotherapy) and 49 (Group)

Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems former board president and secretary

American Journal of Psychoanalysis editorial board

Psychoanalysis and the dynamics of social systems

Margaret Parish, PhD, is the director of patient care at the Austen Riggs Center.

Margaret Parish, PhD

Director of Patient Care

MD from the Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons

As the medical director/CEO of Riggs, which is a non-profit, Eric Plakun, MD, reports to a dedicated Board of Trustees. He is responsible for all areas of the institution from the provision of patient care to the operational mechanics and strategic planning. He has a particular interest in mental health advocacy, full implementation of the mental health parity law, access-to-care issues, and reducing health disparities.

Dr. Plakun was the director of admissions for 35 years and has dedicated nearly his entire professional career to Riggs (more than 40 years) and its unique way of looking at and treating mental disorders. Other roles have included treatment team leader, psychotherapy supervisor, and co-principal investigator of a prospective, longitudinal study of treatment outcome.

Dr. Plakun has long been active in the American Psychiatric Association as a voice advancing the importance of psychotherapy as part of the identity and skills of psychiatrists, and as a member of the Assembly Executive Committee and Board of Trustees. He served as Plaintiffs’ expert on adult mental disorders in the landmark Wit v. United Behavioral Health federal class-action. The strong plaintiffs’ verdict was hailed as a “game-changer” in the implementation of the mental health parity law by Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy.

 (APA) - APA Board of Trustees member representing New England and Eastern Canada

Psychoanalytic Fellow and former Trustee of the 

American Academy of Psychodynamic Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis

 and member of its College of Research Fellows

Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry Psychotherapy Committee

National Association for Behavioral Healthcare

Board-certified psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, researcher, and forensic psychiatrist

Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association

2003 Massachusetts Psychiatric Society “Outstanding Psychiatrist in Clinical Psychiatry”

2017 Honored by American Psychoanalytic Association for “Championing psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy treatment within American psychiatry and paving the way towards a return to a more individualized treatment model”

Diagnosis, treatment, longitudinal course, and outcome of patients with borderline personality disorder and treatment-resistant disorders

Medical Director/CEO

Donna Plankey is the accounts receivable & insurance billing coordinator at the Austen Riggs Center.

Accounts Receivable & Insurance Billing Coordinator

Cheryl Puntil, MN, APRN, PMH-CNS, BC, is the chief nursing officer at the Austen Riggs Center. The Austen Riggs Center specializes in the long-term treatment of persons with psychiatric disorders with intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy promoting resilience and self-direction in adults (18+) with complex psychiatric problems.

She has more than 40 years of psychiatric mental health (PMH) experience and has worked in specialty areas such as geriatric, medical, and adult psychiatric nursing. Her expertise lies in caring for: those who have diagnoses of depression, dementia, and delirium; those at risk for suicide; and those receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). She was a clinical nurse specialist (CNS) at the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA for more than 20 years and was most recently an instructor at Hawaii Community College, where she was on the tenure track teaching ASN/LPN students.

Ms. Puntil has a passion for advocating for nursing professionalism in the healthcare arena and the practice of psychodynamic nursing.

American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) member

Berkshire Coalition for Suicide Prevention (BCSP) board member

Lead trainer in the APNA facilitator suicide prevention training

Served on a task force for the APNA Education Committee to develop registered nurse (RN) competencies for the assessment and management of individuals at risk for suicide in the in-patient setting which resulted in publication and curriculum course development (Advocates of Hope)

Partnered with other experts to be a part of the APNA Transitions in Practice (ATP) certificate program, co-teaching risk assessment and mental status exam

APNA Annual Award for Distinguished Service / 2017

Suicide prevention, ECT, counter-transference and transference (boundaries), depression, open setting residential care, therapeutic community

Chief Nursing Officer

BS in psychology from the University of Texas

PsyD in clinical psychology from George Washington University

Predoctoral internship at Pathways Community Health in Missouri

Fellowship in Psychoanalytic Studies at the Austen Riggs Center

Board Certified by the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis

Jeremy M. Ridenour, PsyD, ABPP, is the director of psychological testing, associate director of admissions, and a staff psychologist at the Austen Riggs Center. He is also the chair of the Erikson Scholar Search Committee.

He has written and presented on schizophrenia, paranoia, personality disorders, and psychological testing.

Psychotherapeutic treatment of individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders with a particular focus in understanding how targeting mentalization (i.e. how people think about self and other) can be an important focus for recovery. In addition, he has conducted psychological assessment research on personality disorders and psychosis

Jeremy Ridenour, PsyD, ABPP, is the associate director of admissions and the director of psychological testing at the Austen Riggs Center.

Jeremy Ridenour, PsyD, ABPP

Associate Director of Admissions/Director of Psychological Testing

BA in operations management from the University of Massachusetts

MS in project management from Boston University

Marketing and Communications at San Ignacio De Loyola University–Lima Peru

Nestor Riva, MSPM, PMP, CSL, is the director of facilities at the Austen Riggs Center and is responsible for directing the execution of critical capital projects. He provides leadership to the facilities department and oversees the functioning of all buildings and systems including maintenance, housekeeping, and contractors. Mr. Riva is appointed by the medical director/CEO as the safety manager of the Center. In addition, he is chair of the Environment of Care Committee and responsible for compliance with the Joint Commission, federal, state, local and other regulatory agencies.

Mr. Riva is a strategic operations and project management professional with many years of combined experience in facilities operations, project management, construction and leadership. He has expertise in multiple industries, and has led and managed multiple priorities and critical projects from inception to completion.

Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute

Construction Supervisor License (CSL) in the state of Massachusetts

Director of Facilities

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

Administrative Staff

Nick Judson

Barbara Keegan

Courtney Littlefield

David Mintz, MD

Cathleen M. Morey, PhD, LICSW

Maggie O'Connor

Margaret Parish, PhD

Eric M. Plakun, MD, DLFAPA, FACPsych

Donna Plankey

Cheryl Puntil, MN, APRN, PMH-CNS, BC

Jeremy Ridenour, PsyD, ABPP

Nestor Riva, MSPM, PMP, CSL

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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