CEO & Founder, Ellenhorn

Dr. Ellenhorn is a pioneer and leader in the development and promotion of community integration services, types of care that serve and empower individuals diagnosed with psychiatric and/or addiction issues while they remain in their own communities and outside institutional settings.

Trained as a sociologist, psychotherapist and social worker, he created the first fully operating intensive hospital diversion and wrap-around program in Massachusetts. Ellenhorn later created and led one of the first public Programs for Assertive Community Treatment teams in the state. In 2022, Ellenhorn co-founded CARDEA, a psychedelics-based practice that assists those who seek recovery from deep and entrenched psychological anguish, from behaviors that are out of control, as well as those who want a more awakened life and expanded sense of existence.

Dr. Ellenhorn has authored three books on human behavior. Parasuicidality and Paradox: Breaking Through the Medical Model addresses psychiatric hospital recidivism and techniques for diverting hospital use. It was published by Springer Publishing in 2007. His most recent book, How We Change (and the Ten Reasons Why We Don’t), takes a deep dive into the dynamics that influence all human change. Published by Harper Collins, and in seven different languages, How We Change was released in May of 2020. Purple Crayons: The Art of Drawing a Life celebrates our inherent “sacred originality” and establishes a new framework for self-reliance. It was published in 2022. He has authored numerous articles, gives talks and seminars throughout the country, and provides consultation to mental health agencies, psychiatric hospitals and addiction programs.

Dr. Ellenhorn is the founder of the Shifting The Paradigm conferences, a bi‑annual series that addresses humanistic and empowering changes in behavioral healthcare. He is the executive producer of the film, Recovering Addiction: A Public Health Rescue Mission, a documentary on new, less‑oppressive means for understanding problematic substance use and other distressing habits.

Dr. Ellenhorn is the first person to receive a joint Ph.D. from Brandeis University’s prestigious Florence Heller School for Social Welfare Policy and Management and the Department of Sociology.

CEO, The Prairie Recovery Center; Co-founder & Chief Clinical Officer, Ethos Behavioral Group

Robert Hilliker, PhD, LCSW-S, LCDC, is a clinician, educator, and behavioral health leader with over 20 years of experience at the intersection of addiction, mental health, and clinical practice. He currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of The Prairie Recovery Center and as Co-Founder and Chief Clinical Officer of Ethos Behavioral Health Group. In 2014, he co-founded The Lovett Center in Houston, TX, and has previously served as Co-Founder and Chief Clinical Officer of The Daring Way LLC alongside Dr. Brené Brown.

Robert completed a post-graduate fellowship at The Menninger Clinic, where he was later honored with the Pillar Award for Integrity, and a two-year fellowship at the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies. His clinical focus includes psychodynamic approaches to addiction, co-occurring disorders, and the themes of hope and despair in treatment—particularly with professionals navigating substance use and mental health challenges.

A University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work ‘50 for 50’ honoree and Houston Business Journal 40 Under 40 alumnus (2018), Robert brings both rigorous clinical depth and systems-level leadership to his work. He believes that lasting recovery begins not with symptom resolution, but with the restoration of a person’s sense of worth—and that dignified care is, above all, effective care.

Co-Founder of Shamba Ya Amani Farm & Associate Professor in Psychiatry & Behavioral Health, Baylor College of Medicine

Sophia Banu, M.D., is an Associate Professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston. She completed her medical education in New Delhi, India and her psychiatry residency, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at St Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital, Columbia University, New York, and Psychosomatic fellowship at the Bellevue / NYU Hospital. She was the first female physician in her Tibetan Muslim community.

She has extensive experience working with the displaced population, including refugees and survivors of torture in Nepal, New York, Greece, Bangladesh, Turkiye, Syria, and Houston.

She founded the Clinic for International Trauma Survivors under Harris Health and BCM, and the Alliance Wellness clinic, collaborating with The Alliance and other refugee resettlement agencies to train caseworkers, educate medical students and train psychiatry residents and fellows in providing culturally competent care while practicing cultural humility.

She was instrumental in initiating the Annual Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Conference 2018.

She is a co-founder and co-director of BCM’s Global Mental Health Division and faculty supervisor for the BCM Human Rights and Asylum Clinic and the BCM PHR students’ chapter. Dr. Banu is one of the co-authors of the Handbook of Refugee Experience: “Trauma, Resilience and Recovery.”

Kimberly Meyer is the author of Accidental Sisters: Refugee Women Struggling Together for a New American Dream (University of California Press, 2024) and The Book of Wanderings: A Mother-Daughter Pilgrimage (Little, Brown, 2015). Her longform journalism and essays have been widely published in national magazines including Texas Monthly, Texas Observer, and Orion. Her work often explores displacement, political and spiritual, and the ways that the relationships among women and between mothers and children can become a hopeful act of resistance against human suffering. She holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston and is a 2019 MacDowell Fellow. She has received grants from the Houston Arts Alliance and writing residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. In addition to her work as a writer, she helped found and helps manage Shamba Ya Amani, the Farm of Peace, alongside a collective of refugee and immigrant women and other local Houstonians.

Vice President for Psychiatry, Vituity, Inc

Scott Zeller, MD is Vice President for Psychiatry at the multispeciality multistate partnership of 5,000 physicians Vituity, Inc; Lead Physician Consultant and Founder of EmPATH Consulting, a division of Vituity’s Inflect Health: assistant professor at University of California-Riverside School of Medicine; Past President of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry; and Past Chair of the National Coalition on Psychiatric Emergencies. He has authored multiple textbooks, book chapters, and peer-reviewed articles, has lectured in-person on every continent on Earth except Antarctica, and is known as the co-inventor of On-Demand Emergency Telepsychiatry and the creator of the EmPATH Unit (Emergency Psychiatry Assessment, Treatment and Healing Unit) model for behavioral health emergency care. He led Project BETA (Best Practices in the Evaluation and Treatment of Agitation), which produced guidelines that have revolutionized the care approach to agitated individuals around the world by changing the focus from coercive containment to compassionate de-escalation. He was awarded the 2015 USA Doctor of the Year by the National Council for Behavioral Health, the 2019 California Hospital Association Heerman Award for making a landmark contribution to improving California healthcare; in 2020, he received the HCD-10 award for being highly influential in healthcare design from Healthcare Design Magazine, and in 2024 was recipient of the University of California-Riverside Healthcare Innovation Award. This year, he received the 2026 Center for Healthcare Design "Changemaker" Award, the highest honor given at the 10,000-attendee "International Planning, Design and Construction Summit" in Houston, TX.

Sound Practitioner, Reiki Practitioner, Ceremonialist

After more than 30 years of service with the NYPD, retiring as a Lieutenant, Charles Richards committed his life to service, supporting and protecting others, and now continues that mission through heart-centered healing and community work.

Drawing on over a decade of experience as a Sound Practitioner and a lifelong passion for jazz, he creates immersive sound journeys designed to restore balance, clarity, and inner harmony. As co-founder of Darmae Essentials in East Harlem, Charles offers sound healing and energy practices to individuals, corporations, and communities seeking deeper connection, resilience, and inner peace.

In addition to his healing work, he serves as a New York State Mentor and founded a men’s circle dedicated to creating a safe, supportive space where men, of all ages, can openly discuss the challenges they face and prioritize their mental and emotional well-being.

Executive Clinical Director, The Monarch Community and Houston Methodist Hospital

J. Christopher Fowler, PhD Dr. Fowler completed a 4-year post-doctoral fellowship in clinical psychology (1995-1999) at the Austen Riggs Center, where he advanced to clinical leadership positions serving as Director of Clinical Research, and a Clinical Team Leader for 10 years. In 2011 he and his family moved to Houston where he served as Associate Director of Research and Director of Psychology at the Menninger Clinic. In 2018 he joined Houston Methodist Behavioral Health as a senior clinician. In January of 2024 he became the Executive Clinical Director of The Monarch Community, a not-for-profit residential treatment program. He currently holds an academic appointment as Professor of Psychology at Houston Methodist Academic Institute, Weill Cornell Medical College. His clinical and research work focuses on the assessment and treatment of adults suffering from serious mental illness and personality disorders. As a researcher, Dr. Fowler has over 120 publications in the areas of personality disorders, suicide, neuroimaging, and treatment outcome. He is an internationally recognized personality researcher and currently serves on several professional journal editorial boards including Journal of Psychiatric Practice and Psychotherapy: Training, Research, and Practice.