16th Annual Eating Recovery Conference on Eating Disorders and Pathlight Conference on Mental Health

Dr. Elizabeth Wassenaar is the Regional Medical Director for the Mountain and West regions at Eating Recovery Center and Pathlight Mood & Anxiety Center and a Clinical Instructor at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She is Board Certified in Adult Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Obesity Medicine and completed triple board training at Cincinnati Children’s and the University of Cincinnati in Pediatrics, Adult Psychiatry, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.  Prior to her clinical career, she completed a Master of Pharmacology from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Wassenaar has completed advanced psychotherapy training in psychodynamic psychotherapy, family-based therapy for eating disorders, and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. She was previously the Medical Director at the Williams House Adolescent Residential Program at the Lindner Center of Hope in Ohio and on the faculty at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Ileana Calinoiu is an Adult, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Dr Calinoiu completed her adult residency at Albert Einstein Medical Center and her child and adolescent fellowship at University of Washington. This training informed her deep regard for both evidence based treatments and optimum multidisciplinary team function. Prior to joining the Eating Recovery Center, Washington team, Dr. Calinoiu served as Assistant Clinical Instructor at the University of Washington and was the attending psychiatrist at the Eating Disorders Clinic at Seattle Children’s, as well as the attending psychiatrist for the adolescent residential program at the Child Study and Treatment Center in Lakewood, WA.

Dr. Calinoiu opened her own private practice after graduation from her fellowship training. She has been recognized as a Top 10 Psychiatrists by State and honored with the Patient’s Choice Award and the Compassionate Doctor Award yearly since 2008. Dr. Calinoiu has served the professional community as President (advocacy issues) for the Washington State Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Association in charge of advocating for mental health funding and parity in front of Senate and House representatives in Washington, DC.

Dr. Nitsch became the Medical Director of ACUTE in 2023, after serving as the Assistant Medical Director of ACUTE since 2020. She loves caring for ACUTE’s medically and psychiatric complex patients and advancing their care through research.

Dr. Allison Nitsch obtained her Bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. She then matriculated to Texas A&M Health Science Center where she completed her Doctor of Medicine. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at The University of Colorado Anschutz, where she was honored to stay on an additional year as a Chief Medical Resident.

Like many physicians, Dr. Nitsch had no exposure to eating disorder treatment in her medical training, thus, after completing her Chief year she worked as a hospitalist at the Denver VA and then as a Primary Care Physician at Kaiser Permanente Colorado. Fortunately, a position at ACUTE came available as she was looking to make a change back to the hospital setting from the clinic. Within a few weeks of joining ACUTE, Dr. Nitsch knew this is where she is meant to be. She loves caring for ACUTE’s medically and psychiatric complex patients and advancing their care through research. Dr. Nitsch became Medical Director of ACUTE in 2023. In her spare time. Dr. Nitsch enjoys cooking, baking and spending time with her husband and child.

Dr. Bauschka earned her medical degree at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. She completed her adult psychiatry residency at the University of Utah School of Medicine and Affiliated Hospitals. After completing residency, Dr. Bauschka worked for 2 years as an adult inpatient psychiatrist at the University Neuropsychiatric Institute, which is now known as the Huntsman Mental Health Institute, at the University of Utah. She then joined Eating Recovery Center and Pathlight Mood & Anxiety Center in Chicago in 2019, followed by a transition to Denver to work with the ACUTE Center for Eating Disorders & Severe Malnutrition team, and is now primarily practicing at ERC Denver. She has experience treating adults with mood and anxiety disorders, eating disorders, psychotic disorders, PTSD, personality disorders and substance use disorders.

Dr. Bauschka is committed to educating the next generation of physicians and has held an Assistant Professor faculty position at Rush Medical College in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (2019-2021), an Adjunct Assistant Professor faculty position in the Department of Psychiatry, Adult Division, at the University of Utah (2019-present) and an Instructor faculty position at the University of Colorado School of Medicine (2021-present).

She is a member of the American Psychiatric Association and the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (iaedp), and obtained her CEDS (Certified Eating Disorders Specialist) certification through iaedp in 2022.

Ellen Astrachan-Fletcher, PhD, FAED, CEDS-S, is Regional Clinical Director, Eating Recovery Center and Pathlight Mood and Anxiety Center. She has a wealth and breadth of experience treating adults and adolescents with mood, anxiety and eating disorders. She is Lecturer at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago. 

She has over 30 years of clinical and teaching experience in the field of eating disorders and women’s mental health issues and has taught and supervised Psychiatry residents and fellows as well as Clinical Psychology interns and externs for over three decades. She was named Teacher of the Year by the Clinical Psychology Internship and Fellowship Program at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 2013. 

Dr. Astrachan-Fletcher is a senior RO DBT clinician, training directly under Tom Lynch and she is a nationally recognized expert in the field of DBT, FBT (Family-Based Treatment), and is a frequent presenter at national eating disorders conferences. Dr. Astrachan-Fletcher has helped to make empirically based and innovative treatments translatable for the private sector. She co-authored The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Bulimia: Using DBT to Break the Cycle and Regain Control of Your Life (2009), which is used at eating disorders treatment facilities throughout the country. She also recently co-authored the Radically Open DBT Workbook for Eating Disorders: From Overcontrol and Loneliness to Recovery and Connection (2022). 

“Our focus is on helping create change from the inside out – and not simply from the outside in.” – Ellen Astrachan-Fletcher, PhD, CEDS

Anne Marie O’Melia, MS, MD joined the medical staff at Eating Recovery Center in 2014. She served as the company's Chief Medical Officer from 2019 to 2023. She is a Triple Board trained physician, with board certifications in Pediatrics and General Psychiatry. She also holds subspecialty board certifications in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and in Psychosomatic Medicine. Prior to attending medical school, she earned her Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Kentucky College of Education and then practiced as a psychologist in rural regions of Kentucky. She earned her MD with Distinction from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and completed her residency training at the University of Utah Triple Board Program. Dr. O’Melia has co-authored multiple articles and book chapters on eating disorders and served as a co-investigator for various clinical trials related to psychopharmacology in the treatment of eating disorders and mood disorders. Dr. O’Melia has been listed as one of the “Best Doctors in America” every year since 2007.

Prior to moving to Denver and joining the staff at Eating Recovery Center, Dr. O’Melia was a dual appointed Assistant Professor first in the University of Utah and then in the University of Cincinnati Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics. Both at the University of Utah and the University of Cincinnati, she has served as Medical Director of programs that serve children and adults at all levels of care and with a wide range of complex medical and psychiatric comorbidities.

Dr. Brady is the founder of Kitsap Peninsula OCD And Anxiety Services in Silverdale, WA. He is a nationally recognized board-certified clinical psychologist who has helped people conquer anxiety since 1992. In April of 2020, he left his positions as associate professor in the University of Cincinnati's Department of Psychiatry and Director of the OCD and Anxiety Services program at the Lindner Center of HOPE and moved to the Kitsap Peninsula.

He started the Lindner Center's OCD & Anxiety Services program in 2008 and served as clinical director of the Center's outpatient services, leading more than 40 psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, and advance practice nurses to provide over 35,000 annual patient visits.

In addition to helping to launch and serving as vice-president of OCD Midwest, a regional affiliate of the International OCD Foundation, Dr. Brady has served as faculty for the IOCDF's Behavioral Therapy Training Institute and is a frequent presenter at the national conferences of the IOCDF and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

Dr. Matthew Pierson is the medical director for ERC Pathlight in Maryland. He earned his MD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed his residency training at Duke University Hospital, where he trained in psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, and neuromodulation. He is board certified in Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Dr. Pierson’s areas of expertise are in child and adolescent psychiatry, treatment resistant mood disorders, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and ketamine treatments. He has co-authored publications on the use of ECT in adolescents and novel treatments for depression.

Prior to joining ERC Pathlight, Dr. Pierson was Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Utah, where he treated children, adolescents, and adults with severe mental disorders. He served as medical director of the Comprehensive Assessment and Treatment program, where he diagnosed and treated youth with complex presentations in a specialized 6-week inpatient setting. He was the lead physician for TMS and administered ECT, TMS, and ketamine treatments to patients in the Treatment Resistant Mood Disorders clinic. Dr. Pierson lectured extensively and twice received the Award for Clinical Teaching for his work with trainees.

LEAH YOUNG, LCPC is a Clinical Manager at Eating Recovery Center and Pathlight Mood and Anxiety Centers. Leah has been with ERC Pathlight since 2016. Leah earned her Master’s from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology in 2007. Upon graduation, Leah was hired at Resurrection Behavioral Health as a clinician, running evening IOP groups for patients with substance use disorders. She was promoted to the position of Program Manager at the re-named Presence Behavioral Health which she ran for several years before coming to ERC Pathlight in order to reconnect with clinical work. She lives in Chicago with her exuberant daughter and their cat, Hank, all of who enjoy some good punk rock music. Maybe with the exception of Hank.