NAMI CEO Daniel H. Gillison Jr. Joins the Austen Riggs Center Board of Trustees

Stockbridge, MA–November 16, 2022– The Austen Riggs Center is pleased to announce the appointment of Daniel H. Gillison Jr. to its Board of Trustees. Gillison is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), founder of the CEO Alliance for Mental Health, and former leader of the American Psychiatric Association Foundation (APAF).

Prior to his work related to mental health, Gillison held leadership positions at Xerox, Nextel, and Sprint. Austen Riggs Center Board Chair Dr. Lisa Raskin stated, “Mr. Gillison’s expertise in non-profit leadership, along with his dedication and commitment to advocating for people with mental illness, make him an excellent addition to the Riggs Board.”

“There is a real synergy between NAMI’s mission to ‘provide advocacy, education, support and public awareness so that all individuals and families affected by mental illness can build better lives’ and Riggs’ mission to ‘promote resilience and self-direction in those with complex psychiatric problems,’ which makes this feel like a natural fit,” said Gillison. “I look forward to joining this Board of leaders and advocates to help effect positive change.” 

Austen Riggs trustees draw from their experience in a range of fields including mental health treatment, research, and advocacy; higher education; public policy; law; finance; and publishing, to provide guidance to and oversight of the Center’s administration. Current members are: Lisa Raskin, PhD (Chair), John William Ward Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Amherst College; Meiram Bendat, JD, PhD, Founder and President, Psych Appeal; Emily Bernard, PhD, Julian Lindsay Green & Gold Professor, Carnegie Fellow, University of Vermont; Robert DeNoble, MBA, Advisor/Consultant to Innovative Healthcare Companies; Nina Gutin, PhD, clinical psychologist with a private practice in Pasadena, California, Co-Chair, Coalition of Clinician-Survivors; Joan Goodrich, BA, Retired Vice-President at Bennington College; Laurie Hall, JD, Lawyer at Goulston & Storrs; Dwight Jewson, PhD, Partner, Act3Holdings; Katherine Kennedy, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale School of Medicine; Chair of the Council on Advocacy and Government Relations for the American Psychiatric Association; Kimberlyn Leary, PhD, Senior Vice President, Urban Institute, Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital, Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; Andrew Lustbader, MD, FAAP, Associate Clinical Professor, Yale Child Study Center; Nancy McWilliams, PhD, Visiting Professor, Rutgers Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology; Julia Moore, MPPM, LMHC, Executive Coach and Therapist; Jack Po, MD, PhD, Founder of Ansible Health; John Santopietro, MD, Physician-in-Chief, Hartford HealthCare Behavioral Health Network; Senior Vice President, Hartford HealthCare; and Ileene Smith, MA, Editor At Large at Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

The Austen Riggs Center is a leading psychiatric hospital and residential treatment program that has been serving adults since its founding in 1919. Within an open setting, patients participate in an intensive treatment milieu that emphasizes respectful engagement. Individual psychodynamic psychotherapy is provided four times a week by doctors on staff. The Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy of the Austen Riggs Center studies individuals in their social contexts through research, training, education, and outreach programs in the local community and beyond. For more information, visit www.austenriggs.org.