Families for Depression Awareness
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Staff

  • Julie Totten, President
  • Peter Ellsworth, Development Director

Board of Directors

Advisory Board

Clinicians

Family Members

  • Ellen Chulak, Co-chair
  • Kitty Dukakis, Co-chair
  • Dr. Edward J. Benz and Margaret Vettese RN, Ph.D.
  • Lisa Berman
  • Alec Berman
  • Merril & Dalia Berman
  • Heather Brower
  • Nell Casey
  • Allan R. Cohen
  • Frank Cullen
  • Michael Dukakis
  • Amy Fleming
  • Josie Green, MA, LMHC
  • Elizabeth Godrick
  • Mary Haskell Sandler
  • Rachel Krebs
  • Bill Lichenstein
  • Missy and Bill Nicholson
  • Nancy and Bill Noyes
  • David O'Leary
  • Sandra Palmer
  • June Peoples
  • Honorable Maurice Richardson (Retired)
  • Gary Sawyer
  • Linda Gray Sexton
  • Nancy Sharby
  • Anne Sheffield
  • Rose Styron

Photographer

Julie Totten, President and Founder. In 1990, Julie lost her brother, who was undiagnosed, to suicide. A year later, after learning about depression, she helped her father get diagnosed for this condition. Julie recently formed Families for Depression Awareness to help others understand depression and reduce stigma associated with the condition. Julie has built her career in marketing, developing strategic marketing plans and promotional campaigns for Internet companies, educational firms, and marketing organizations. Julie received her MBA from Babson College where she was a winner of the prestigious Douglass Business Plan competition. Julie received her bachelor of business degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1987.

Wally Higgins, Chair. Wally is a partner at the consulting group Shared Learning International. He has 30 years experience in organizational consulting, new business development, and new product delivery in both the U.S. and Latin America. At Polaroid for 23 years, Wally contributed to various new business development and technology start-up activities in the role of human resource and organizational professional. Wally completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Connecticut and received his MBA from Boston University.

Peggy Sexton, Treasurer. Peggy runs Changing Places, her own interior design consulting business, and teaches decorating at adult education programs. Prior to her design business, she spent many years managing the sales and operations of a real estate office. She is an active volunteer for Retired Senior Volunteer Programs, tutoring first graders in public school. She spent three years as a volunteer answering suicidal hotline calls at the Samaritans. Peggy lost her son (undiagnosed) to suicide.

Aimee Belisle, Clerk. Aimee is Miss Rhode Island, 2004 and an internal auditor at CVS. Aimee has made depression awareness her platform and will do all she can to promote the cause. Aimee first experienced depression in college and very much wants to help young people recognize and cope with this condition. She studies ballet and volunteers at the State Ballet of Rhode Island. She plans to pursue her masters degree in business. She graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Finance from Bentley College.

Lori Wassermann, Board Member. Lori currently is an administrator at Ingenix, a pharmaceutical company and division of United Health Care Services. Lori has extensive experience leading human resource organizations at a variety of companies, including: The Gillette Company, Analog Devices, BBN Software, Digital Equipment, MITRE, Prime Computer, The John Hancock, and Addison Wesley Publishing Company. She built HR functions, orchestrated and managed extensive organizational change, and counseled senior and other management. With a background in counseling, Lori has particular strength in human relations and communication. She managed career centers for Prime Computer/Computervision, Hewlett Packard, The John Hancock, and BBN. She is also a Big Sister (in 2001 named Big Sister of the Year in Greater Boston). Lori holds a BA in English from Bucknell University, and an M.Ed. and a C.A.S. in Counseling Psychology from Harvard University.

Doug Banks Douglas Banks is associate editor of the Boston Business Journal, overseeing the weekly newspaper's real estate coverage and its special supplements. He has also been a staff editor at Fast Company magazine and has been published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Boston Globe, Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal, the National Law Journal, and the Daily Hampshire Gazette of Northampton, Mass., among others. Doug has also taught communications at Boston University and has taught writing at the University of Pittsburgh, Endicott College, Massachusetts Bay Community College and Northern Essex Community College. He is also a board member of Tri-City Family Housing Inc., a Massachusetts nonprofit that provides housing for homeless families.

Advisory Board Clinicians

Scott Aaronson, MD. Dr. Aaronson is the director of clinical research programs at the Sheppard Pratt Health System. Dr. Aaronson has nearly twenty years of experience treating patients with affective disorders at the New England Psychiatric Group (a clinic he founded), McLean Hospital, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and Saint Anne's Hospital. He has also taught psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He specializes in treatment-resistant affective disorders.

He conducts research to further the treatment of depression and has published many articles in psychiatric journals, including Biological Psychiatry and the Archives of General Psychiatry. He serves on the advisory panels and speaker's panels of several pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, SmithKline Beecham, Forest Laboratories, and Wyeth-Ayerst and Sepracor. He has also served as a psychopharmacology consultant for Medco Containment Services. In 1981, Dr. Aaronson was the recipient of the Sirgay Sanger Award for excellence in psychiatric research. Dr. Aaronson received his MD from Harvard Medical School and his B.A. from Columbia University.

William R. Beardslee, MD. Dr. Beardslee is the Physician-in-Chief and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Children's Hospital, and Gardner Monks Professor of Child Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He received his BA from Haverford College and his MD from Case-Western Reserve University. He trained in general psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and in child psychiatry and psychiatric research at Children's Hospital in Boston. He has a longstanding research interest in the development of children at risk because of parental mental illness. He has been especially interested in the protective effects of self-understanding in enabling youngsters and adults to cope with adversity and has studied self-understanding in civil-rights workers, survivors of cancer, and children of parents with affective disorders.

Dr. Beardslee has received the Blanche F. Ittleson award of the American Psychiatric Association for outstanding published research contributing to the mental health of children, has been a Faculty Scholar of the William T. Grant foundation, and in 1999, received the Irving Philips Award for Prevention and the Catcher in the Rye Award for Advocacy for Children from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Currently, he directs the Preventive Intervention Project, a NIMH-funded study to explore the effects of clinician-facilitated, family-based preventive intervention designed to enhance resiliency and family understanding for children of parents with affective disorder. He is married and has four children.

Dr. Rebecca Brendel. Dr. Brendel is currently a Chief Resident in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and a resident physician in psychiatry at Massachusetts General and McLean Hospitals

Andrea Charbonneau, MD is a primary care physician at the General and Geriatric Medicine division of University of Kansas Medical Center. Dr. Charbonneau is actively involved in suicide prevention, having lost her sister to suicide. Her research interests lie in the diagnosis and treatment of depressive disorders in primary care settings. She is the recipient of the 1997 James Hagadus Good Physician Award, New York Medical College. Dr. Charbonneau received her bachelor's degree from Columbia University, her medical degree from New York Medical College, and her master's of science in epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health.

Dr. David Fassler. Dr. Fassler is a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He is also a Trustee of the American Psychiatric Association, Vice-Chair of the Assmebly of Regional Organizations of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and a member of the Board of the Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health.

Genevieve Conlin. Genevieve Conlin is the department administrator for Nursing and Patient Care Services at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to ensure safe, quality cancer care for all patients. Gen is also the president of the UMASS Amherst Alumni Club of Greater Boston. She is involved with the state nursing organizations, serving on committees for MONE and MARN. Gen plans to pursue doctoral studies within the year, focusing on health policy issues surrounding access to quality mental health services.

Brian French Brian is an attorney at the law firm of Ruberto, Israel & Weiner, P.C., where he practices commercial litigation. Brian began his career at Gulfcoast Legal Services, Inc. in Clearwater, Florida, where he represented children and adults from low-income families in education and disability-related litigation, including various civil rights cases. He is an active member of the American Bar Association and a number of other professional and community organizations. Brian received his undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his J.D. from Boston College Law School.

Dr. Mary Fristad, PhD. Dr. Fristad is a professor of psychiatry and psychology at Ohio State University. As well as being the co-author of Raising a Moody Child: How to Cope with Depression and Bipolar Disorder, she is also the Director of Research and Psychological Services Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Jay Geyer. Jay is a clinical social worker with 30 years of experience working with children, adults and families in school and medical settings, as well as in private practice. He provides evaluation and psychotherapy services to children, adolescents and families at the Center for Children with Special Needs at Tufts- New England Medical Center. He also works at the Therapeutic Learning Center for Children providing consultation and therapy services to children and families. Prior to this, Jay was Coordinator of Sexual Abuse Services in Child Psychiatry at T-NEMC and developed a group treatment program for juvenile offenders. Jay received his BA degree from Gordon College, his M.Ed in counseling psychology from Northeastern University, and his MSW from the BU School of Social Work.

Carol A. Glod, Ph.D. Dr. Glod is Associate Professor of Nursing at Northeastern University Bouve College of Health Sciences, Director of Nursing Research at McLean Hospital, and Lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She has conducted many studies on depression and trauma in children and adolescents and sleep behavior disorders. She is currently principal investigator for the National Alliance on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) study on the treatment of adolescent depression. Dr. Glod received her Ph.D. and M.S. from Boston College and her B.S.N. from the University of Rochester.

Dr. Glod is the author of Contemporary Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: The Brain Behavior Connection. She has been published in numerous chapters of psychiatric books, and nearly 100 refereed articles, book reviews, and abstracts in journals such as the Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Journal of Psychiatry, the Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. She is a frequent recipient of awards, including the NARSAD Independent Investigator Award, the N.E. American Psychiatric Nurses Association Grayce Sills Service Award, Northeastern University's Excellence in Teaching Award, and the NIH National Research Service Award. She is a member of various nursing and psychiatric associations and faculty committees. Dr. Glod is also a consultant for ABC News, the Big Sister Association of Boston, Bedford VA Hospital, and the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership.

Steven E. Hyman, MD is Provost of Harvard University and Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School.

Howard King, MD is a pediatrician at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and on the faculty of Harvard Medical School.

Beth Murphy, MD, Ph.D. Dr. Murphy is attending physician at McLean Hospital and on inpatient and clinicial evaluation units. She is also an instructor at Harvard Medical School. She received her medical degree and a doctorate in pharmacology from Yale University in 1999. Dr. Murphy spent seven years conducting doctoral laboratory research at Yale University. Her research findings have been published in a number of publications, including the Journal of Neuroscience, Psychopharmacology, and Journal of Neurochemistry. She also has volunteered at the Columbus House Health Clinic, (a homeless shelter), and Fellowship House, (a community mental health rehabilitation center), both in New Haven, Connecticut. She is a member of the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, and Massachusetts Psychiatric Society.

Laura Rosen, MD is an instructor in clinical psychiatry at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. She is also the author of When Someone You Love is Depressed.

Noreen A. Reilly-Harrington, Ph.D. is an instructor in psychology at Harvard Medical School and is on the staff of the Harvard Bipolar Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania and Temple University. Dr. Reilly-Harrington is a Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy and has received research awards from the Society for Research in Psychopathology, the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, and Massachusetts General Hospital for her work examining the role of life stress and cognition on the course of bipolar mood disorders. She has lectured both nationally and internationally on the topic of cognitive therapy for bipolar disorder and is a Pathway Leader for the National Institute of Mental Health's Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder, the largest study of bipolar disorder ever conducted. She is also a co-author of a recent book entitled Bipolar Disorder: A Cognitive Therapy Approach.

Alexis Henry, SC.D. Dr. Henry is the author of Parenting While You’re Depressed.

Margaret Howard, Ph.D. Dr. Howard is the director of Postpartum Disorders at the Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island.

Anthony J. Rothschild, MD. Dr. Rothschild is the Irving S. and Betty Brudnick Professor and Director of Clinical Research, Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester, Massachusetts. Dr. Rothschild has published his work in numerous scientific journals, including the American Journal of Psychiatry, Archives of General Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, and others. His latest book (for which he is co-editor with Lloyd Sederer, MD) is Acute Care Psychiatry: Diagnosis and Treatment. His clinical and research interests are in the areas of mood disorders and psychopharmacology and in particular, psychotic depression and sexual dysfunction side effects of anti-depressants.

A fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychopathological Association and a member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the American College of Psychiatrists, American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology, and the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology among other professional associations. Dr. Rothschild has received many research grants and has presented at numerous local, national, and international meetings. He is on the Editorial Board of Depression and Anxiety and serves as a journal referee for the American Journal of Psychiatry, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Harvard Review of Psychiatry, and others. Dr. Rothschild has been named the Best of Doctors of America (Northeast Region) and Boston Magazine, Best of Doctors of 1997. Dr. Rothschild received his bachelor's degree from Princeton University and his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Matthew Ruble, MD. Dr. Ruble is Associate Training Directory of Psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School. He also treats adults with depressive disorders at his practice on Cape Cod. Dr. Ruble recently received a Resident of the Year award at Harvard University Medical School. He received his medical degree from University of Iowa College of Medicine and completed his internship and residency at Harvard Medical School. He has also done charitable work for Helping our Women (HOW), an organization providing resources and referrals to women with chronic and life threatening/disabling illnesses.

Linda Zamvil, MD. Dr. Zamvil is a Child Psychiatrist for Advocates Community Counseling Services.

Gigi Kaeser, Photographer. Award winning photographer, Gigi Kaeser, is cofounder of Family Diversity Projects, started in 1996. Gigi has toured in four traveling photo-text exhibits around the country to great acclaim. Her work has been published in the books, Of Many Colors: Portraits of Multiracial Families and Love Makes a Family: Portraits of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Parents and their Families. Gigi is the photographer for the Families for Depression Awareness Family Profiles project.


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