Meet the Staff
Reasons Eating Disorder Center places high importance on utilizing highly skilled and trained eating disorder treatment professionals in our programs. We believe in a multi-disciplinary approach to treatment which includes doctors, nurses, dietitians, therapists, mental health workers, diet aides, and somatic and experiential therapies.
Nikki Rollo
Nikki has a Ph.D. in Depth Psychology, with an emphasis in psychotherapy and is a licensed marriage and family therapist in both California and New York State. She is also a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist- Supervisor. She has worked in various aspects of eating disorder treatment over the past ten years, utilizing her experience as a clinician and passion for the idea that relationships are healing to inform her efforts in program development, training staff, admissions, business development and clinical outreach aspects of her work. Integral to her clinical philosophy is her personal practice of yoga and meditation including completing a Yoga teacher training with an emphasis on trauma-sensitive mind-body movement. She is the founding chair of the International Association of Eating Disorder
Professionals, San Diego Chapter, and has served on several chapters over the past eight years. She currently serves in the role of National Director of Program Development where she is responsible for developing the Reasons philosophy and ensuring consistency across all programs through oversight of clinical and operations, as well as development and expansion efforts.
Norman Kim
Norman completed his B.A. at Yale University where he studied music and psychology, and was the recipient of a Mellon Fellowship for Research in Psychiatry. He completed his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at UCLA, where he was the recipient of an individual National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health to study the neurobiologic underpinnings of emotion recognition and understanding in Autism. Most recently he has been involved in a multi-site, longitudinal study of children and adolescents at risk for developing bipolar disorder.
In conjunction with his research, Norman has developed an expertise in treating and teaching about psychiatrically complex populations, multi-modal treatment, and diagnostic assessment. While rooted firmly in empirically supported approaches, he has incorporated practices emphasizing somatosensory integration and that draw from eastern and traditional medicine with our current knowledge of the neurobiologic and cognitive processes underlying anxiety, mood, trauma and eating disorders. He has endeavored to develop a clinical approach that focuses on the exploration of meaning as a path to healing and that honors an individuals’ own narrative and journey.
Norman is a frequent, national speaker and educator, and is a passionate advocate for eating disorder awareness and translating research into clinical practice. He is the co-chair of the People of Color Subcommittee of the African American Eating Disorder Professionals of IAEDP, the co-chair of the Transcultural SIG of the Academy for Eating Disorders, a founding member of the Behavioral Health Task Force of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, on the Board of Directors of the Eating Disorders Coalition, the Eating Disorder Advisory Council for the Joint Commission, and the Clinical Advisory Boards for the Multi-Service Eating Disorder Association (MEDA), Recovery Warriors, Spectrum CBT, and Tikvah V’Chizuk.
Lisa Arroyas
Lisa is a registered dietitian practicing in many areas of dietetics including eating disorders, chemical dependency, diabetes, PCOS and weight management. She graduated from California State University, Long Beach and has extensive experience working with female and male adolescents and adults with disordered eating and with issues related to weight management. She also has a background as a personal trainer, which allows her to use an approach that meets the unique needs of individuals struggling with poor body image and disordered eating. Lisa’s focus is on nutrition therapy using a non-diet approach, providing nutrition counseling and exercise education. She specializes in working with Athletes and Compulsive Exercisers, Food Addiction, Binge Eating Disorder, Obesity, Compulsive Overeating and Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). Lisa has been working with adolescents and adults with eating disorders for over 10 years in both inpatient and outpatient settings. She is the co-founder of the Reasons Residential Program and served as the Director of Nutrition for a multi-site substance abuse and dual-diagnosis program. She is extremely passionate and dedicated to helping individuals struggling with food and body issues.
Wakelin McNeel
Dr. McNeel received his BS in Chemistry from Central Michigan University, his MS in Neuroscience from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and his MD from the University of Michigan Medical School. He completed his Residency and Child Psychiatry Fellowship from the Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Center. He is board certified in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and has over 10 years of experience working with patients with eating disorders.
Dr. McNeel is an active research physician and is the principal investigator in numerous Phase I-IV Clinical Trials. He is currently the Medical Director of BHC Alhambra Hospital, and has been the Chief of Staff and the Medical Director of the Eating Disorder Programs for over 10 years. Dr. McNeel practices on the principle that respect of the patient’s individual beliefs on medications is of utmost importance and does not impose medications, rather makes recommendations which support the therapeutic process of recovery.
Christina Martinez
Christina brings her experience of depth psychological training and providing case management services to patients and families at our various levels of care. What stands out about Christina is her passion for advocacy and service to patients, families, and surrounding healthcare professionals. She draws her inspiration and reflection from music, nature and the creativity of daily life. We are certain when you meet her and have the opportunity to work together through the admissions and case management process for your patients you will be inspired by her commitment to going above and beyond for patients and families.
Fiona LaRosa-Waters
Fiona LaRosa-Waters is an experienced behavioral health marketing professional and community relations specialist, and the director of business development for Reasons Eating Disorder Center. She has been working in the eating disorders field since 2011 and has held positions as a professional outreach representative for eating disorder and substance use facilities, a counselor in a treatment center for adult women with eating disorders, and providing outpatient case management and treatment placement services for clients struggling with addictions and eating disorders. Prior to shifting to a career in behavioral health Fiona worked in special education coordinating the administrative and operational aspects of a residence of deafblind students ages 16-22. She is passionate about helping people locate resources to support treatment and recovery, advancing education about eating disorders and addiction, and connecting with the mental health community. Fiona graduated summa cum laude from Lesley University with a Bachelor of Science in Human Services. She enjoys traveling, public speaking, cooking, and hiking with her dog.
Claire St. John
Claire St John, MPH RD brings compassion and understanding to her nutritional counseling practice. Claire has worked with men, women and children suffering from eating disorders at all levels of care, leading guided meals, restaurant and snack outings, nutrition groups and multi-family nutrition groups. With a dynamic understanding of eating disorders and how they impact individuals and families, Claire is passionate about repairing broken relationships with food.
Claire holds a Master’s of Public Health Nutrition from Loma Linda University, and after completing her rotations at Eisenhower Medical Center, passed the exam to become a Registered Dietitian. Working with eating disordered clients from the outset, she has developed a method of practice that includes exposure and response therapy, motivational interviewing and compassionate understanding paired with firm encouragement.
Helping people reconnect with food and normalize their eating patterns is the most rewarding part of working with eating disordered patients for Claire. Encouraging people to be able to make peace with food, enjoy meals with loved ones and move through the world without fear is why Claire chose the field of eating disorders.
Claire enjoys reading and writing and hiking and cooking, and spent seven years as a newspaper reporter, covering the school beat and the City Hall beat. She enjoys learning about her clients’ passions — what they’re reading, what they’re studying in school and what their hobbies are, taking a whole-person approach to treatment.
Jessica Gillespie
Jessica Gillespie received her Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology with an Emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy from Pepperdine University and her Bachelor’s Degree in Clinical Psychology from California State University, Long Beach. She graduated with honors and is a member of Psi Chi, the Psychology Honor Society. Jessica started her internship with the Pepperdine Community Clinic where she was trained in Narrative Therapy. She continued her work at Orange County Rescue Mission/Village of Hope providing counseling services to homeless individuals, couples and families, and leading a support group for women with Methamphetamine addiction. Jessica joined the Reasons team in 2013 where she has worked as a Program Therapist in the Inpatient, Residential and Partial Programs. Her clinical style is a collaborative, strengths-based approach, pulling from attachment theory, humanistic psychology, a postmodern framework, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – highlighting the clients’ inherent resilience and fortitude. Currently, Jessica is the Director of Residential Services.
Claire holds a Master’s of Public Health Nutrition from Loma Linda University, and after completing her rotations at Eisenhower Medical Center, passed the exam to become a Registered Dietitian. Working with eating disordered clients from the outset, she has developed a method of practice that includes exposure and response therapy, motivational interviewing and compassionate understanding paired with firm encouragement.
Helping people reconnect with food and normalize their eating patterns is the most rewarding part of working with eating disordered patients for Claire. Encouraging people to be able to make peace with food, enjoy meals with loved ones and move through the world without fear is why Claire chose the field of eating disorders.
Claire enjoys reading and writing and hiking and cooking, and spent seven years as a newspaper reporter, covering the school beat and the City Hall beat. She enjoys learning about her clients’ passions — what they’re reading, what they’re studying in school and what their hobbies are, taking a whole-person approach to treatment.
Heather Johnson
Heather is a Registered Nurse with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. She has always had a passion for helping others. It was this passion that motivated her to join the Peace Corps as an educator and advocate for children in Ukraine. After the Peace Corps, she gravitated towards a career in the mental health field and began working at a local non-profit mental health agency. Here, she realized that helping the under-served was her calling. It also inspired her to pursue a degree in registered nursing in order to additionally assist this population within a medical capacity.
She is committed to creating an environment that supports a healthy mind and body as well as aid in reducing the stigma surrounding mental health.
Anna Governale
Anna Governale completed her undergraduate degrees in psychology and religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2002. She subsequently began working in the mental health field as a mental health worker at a residential treatment center for eating disorders for 5 years, while acquiring her master’s degree in clinical psychology. Anna completed her master’s program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. After graduating, Anna began working at a community services agency, serving underprivileged communities in the inner cities of Los Angeles, providing in home services to children, adolescents and families. After gaining experience working with this diverse population for 3 1/2 years, Ms. Governale realized that working with eating disorders was her true calling and something she was genuinely passionate about. Anna began working for Reasons in May of 2011 as a program therapist, and has also served as interim program manager for the partial and intensive outpatient programs. She is currently the program manager for Reasons inpatient, partial and intensive outpatient programs at BHC Alhambra Hospital. She is DBT trained, and pulls from a variety of therapeutic orientations in her work with clients to assist them in their journey to wholeness and healing.
Rachel Cannon
Rachel Cannon completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology with a minor in Counseling from Southwest Baptist University, Bolivar, MO in 2008. She went right into her Master of Science program at The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS graduating in 2011. Rachel began working for the state of Kansas in the child welfare system providing intensive family therapy to encourage positive skills in parenting. She then worked for the state correctional system as a therapist in the women’s state prison, providing skills based interventions and groups for women striving to make a different life for themselves. Rachel has also worked in roles that allowed her to be involved in the community through public education while representing domestic violence organizations and hospice organizations. Rachel began working for Reasons in June 2018 and has found a genuine passion in working with eating disorders. She is currently the program manager for Reasons’ residential facility in San Marino. Rachel is trained in DBT and pulls from other therapeutic models, including Compassion Focused Therapy, to guide clients on their way to wholeness and freedom.
Ashley Bullock
Ashley is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist who received her MA at Antioch University. Her multidisciplinary background in the fields of music, fashion, & psychology have allowed her to identify with clientele from a wide spectrum of backgrounds & service needs. Ashley’s natural gift for educating, uplifting, & inspiring people through her own personal narratives about identity has served to create a wake of diverse experiences that are effective & unique in approach. Her approach to social connectivity focuses primarily on creating, with intention, an understanding of humanity one experience at a time. Combining both creativity and social consciousness, she exhibits an awareness rarely seen in fast paced, detail oriented environments, all while passionately serving those who “fall between the margins”.
She has worked in admissions at Reasons since 2008 and currently is the Senior Admissions Coordinator and Creative Marketing Specialist. Ashley offers a genuine, patient & nurturing approach when working with patients and families. Personally, she is a record collector and a mother.
Megan Riley
Megan is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Admissions Specialist at Reasons at Fremont Hospital. Megan has worked in the treatment of eating disorders since she began her initial post-graduate internship in 2008. Since that first training position, she has worked in small private clinics and large HMO provider settings and hospitals, in all levels of eating disorder care.
Megan is a member of the Association of Professionals Treating Eating Disoders (APTED) and California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT). She is trained in both Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and she strives to utilize her knowledge and experience to be a resource to families through the admissions process.
Vita Vizcarra
Vita received her Bachelors in Science of Registered Nursing in beautiful Puerto Rico at Inter Americana University of Puerto Rico. Vita has been working in Business Development and Admissions since 2014, primarily working with geriatric patients by helping them find suitable plans that fits their needs while providing exceptional quality of life. Vita has a passion for helping provide excellent care to her community, and her passion continues to grow in the eating disorder field since joining the Reasons Eating Disorder Center team. In her leisure time, Vita likes to cook, sing (in private!), and spend time with her husband, family and dog.
Jillian Szafranski
Jillian Szafranski began her work in the healing arts as a dancer, competitive gymnast and actor. Her training is rooted in Alexander and Linklater Techniques which she learned while attending Emerson College in Boston. Drawing enormous inspiration from the ever-developing field of neuroscience, Jillian uses her her knowledge of anatomy and somatic integration (a therapeutic technique that combines the mental, emotional, spiritual to the physical body) to craft a proprietary hands-on approach to yoga that is informed by her own experiences with physical trauma and illness. With primary emphases alignment, mindfulness, and intuitive sound and movement. She uses grounding techniques to train her students how to self-regulate and navigate through potential triggers that may otherwise lead to flashbacks or unhealthy cycles of behavior, all of this with careful consideration to not re-traumatizing the patient. Over time she teaches her students not to avoid physicality, but to combat old fight-or-flight responses by engaging the initial response and creating new muscle memory in the brain and body grounded in safety and strength.
Jillian co-created yoga programs for Reasons Eating Disorder Residential Center and BHC Alhambra Hospital in 2009, where she works with adolescents and adults. She also founded the office yoga programs for NPR (National Public Radio) in Culver City and MTA (Metro Transportation Authority) in Downtown Los Angeles. Jillian works privately as a yoga therapist and bodyworker. She is Yoga Alliance certified.
Howard Askins
Dr. Askins received his BS with honors from Brown University in neural science and MD from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Askins also holds a JD from Harvard Law School. Dr. Askins is originally from NY, NY and after finishing in Harvard moved to complete his studies in UCLA. Dr. Askins completed his Psychiatric residency in UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute.
Dr. Askins completed his Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship in USC Institute of Psychiatry, Law and Behavioral Science. Dr. Askins serves as a psychiatry expert witness and performs competency evaluations as a part of his forensic psychiatry practice.
Dr. Askins believes in a compassionate and individual approach to each and every patient while applying the latest evidence based treatments.
Harvard-educated psychiatrist, Howard Askins, M.D., J.D. served as commissioner of the Los Angeles County Mental Health Commission since 1996, Dr. Askins has been in practice for over 26 years as an accomplished physician treating a variety of mental health conditions in various treatment settings from hospital (in patient psychiatry) to in office practice (outpatient). Focusing on providing compassionate care for patients struggling with depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder ADHD; schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, substance abuse disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), OCD, and eating disorders.
We Hold Hope for Your Recovery
Eating disorder recovery is not always easy, but it is possible. Let us support you in discovering not only the reasons for your eating disorder but the reasons for your recovery. To schedule a no-cost clinical consultation or for more information, please call 844-573-2766 or our online contact form. In case of a medical emergency or crisis, please call 911 or seek the nearest emergency room.