Shireen Rizvi is a licensed clinical psychologist, board certified in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). She obtained her BA from Wesleyan University and her MS and PhD from the University of Washington. At the University of Washington, her mentor was Dr. Marsha Linehan, the developer of DBT. Over the past 25 years, Shireen has conducted research and training in DBT.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry; Director of Fellowship, Advanced Fellowship in Mental Illness Research and Treatment at MIRECC
Suzanne Decker, PhD is a psychologist at VA Connecticut Healthcare System and the New England Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. Her clinical and research interests include implementation of Dialectical Behavior Therapy and other skills based treatments for high risk behavior like suicide and substance use. Dr. Decker has been involved in the Yale-National Education Alliance for Borderline PD conference since her predoctoral fellowship at Yale School of Medicine in 2010.
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Sarah Fineberg is a physician scientist with primary interests in studying problems with social cognition and development of novel approaches to decrease the distress and risks associated with disruptions in social cognition. The Fineberg lab primarily focuses on the population of adults with Borderline Personality Disorder and some related conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Dr. Fineberg attended Oberlin College where she studied French, Italian, and Biology. She loved the intersection of narrative with science in her Biology classes and continues to center this approach in her research work. At Oberlin, and then in the MD/PhD program at the University of Iowa, she enjoyed community service and community-based medicine, and is proud to locate her current clinical and research work at the Connecticut Mental Health Center, a longstanding collaboration between Yale Psychiatry and the State of Connecticut to provide compassionate care to the most vulnerable people in our community and to co-locate cutting edge mental health research.
Dr. Fineberg enjoys working with trainees and in addition to working with lab members to foster creative new work, she co-directs the Dwight Hall Community Mental Health Fellowship for Yale undergraduate students (applications open each February) and the Yale Psychiatry Advanced HBCU medical student research program.
In her free time Dr. Fineberg enjoys reading fiction, gardening, watching the turkeys in her front yard, and ambitious projects in the kitchen. She is a terrible runner and guitar player, but keeping at it.
Dr. Kiki Fehling is a licensed psychologist, writer, speaker, and expert in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). Passionate about evidence-based mental health dissemination, she regularly shares information about DBT through her social media accounts @dbtkiki, as well as through her writing for Psychology Today and other outlets. She has authored two DBT self-help books, with more on the way, and she consults for the suicide prevention nonprofit Now Matters Now.
Dr. Jesse Finkelstein, PsyD, is a Clinical Psychologist and DBT therapist. Jesse received his PsyD at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology. He is currently an Instructor in Clinical Psychology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. His research interests include DBT and the dissemination of therapeutic interventions. Jesse is also the co-founder of TheraHive - therahive.com - an online platform for evidence-based mental health skills courses.
Over the course of 40+ years, Jim developed and refined marketing, sales, business strategy, and people management skills. As an employee of (or consultant to) Fortune 500 companies (e.g., Citibank, MetLife, and CIGNA) he helped them: Increase sales, optimize brands, develop effective leaders, and create high-performing teams. Jim has found this background translates well into the nonprofit world.
While Jim and his wife were managing careers, they started a family and were blessed with two physically healthy daughters. The youngest, who is now in her mid-twenties, was diagnosed with BPD at age 16. Jim and his wife took the Family Connections class in 2017, and subsequently Jim has been trained as a Family Connections Leader, and volunteers for NEABPD on their Marketing Committee. Being a parent of a loved one with BPD, a graduate from, and Leader/Instructor of the Family Connections Course, Jim has the experience and background that he is willing to share to try helping others.
Jim has degrees in Accounting and Marketing from Pace University, along with an M.B.A. from the University of Connecticut. In addition, he obtained Executive Management Certificates from both Babson College and Darden Business School. Jim was an Adjunct Marketing Professor at Pace University and is a Career Mentor at both Pace University and UCONN.
On a personal level, Jim enjoys his family, sports, reading, and the outdoors. He has played, and coached, ice, roller, and street hockey. As a former martial arts instructor, Jim understands what it takes to be disciplined and dedicated. Jim has served on a few nonprofit boards and has volunteered for numerous organizations and causes. Jim feels he is at his best when he is challenged, while trying to make a positive difference.
Saadia is a young professional with lived experience of borderline personality disorder.
In her adolescence, she was a “frequent flier” at inpatient treatment centers like Franciscan Children’s and McLean Hospital. She also underwent long-term residential treatment at facilities like Cottonwood Tucson and Walden Street School.
Saadia credits self-compassion and her parents’ unconditional support for her gradual recovery. She is currently an in-house lawyer for a technology company and no longer meets minimum criteria for BPD.
Abbey Chesley is a young woman who has been diagnosed with BPD (along with PTSD, Anxiety, and ADHD). She received her BPD diagnosis in 2013, although she had shown symptoms for at least 10 years prior. She has been through years of treatment – inpatient, residential, intensive outpatient, outpatient - and has engaged in DBT, EMDR, CBT, somatic therapy and others. She loves working with animals – currently, she has two awesome dogs—but at times they have been joined by multiple cats, lizards, and other creatures! Mental health is a passion for her as she continues her therapeutic work to create her best life.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Dr. Margaret (Maggie) Davis is a licensed clinical psychologist and Associate Professor in the Yale Department of Psychiatry (co-appointed in the Department of Psychology). Her research interests center on use of molecular neuroimaging methods to enhance understanding of the relationship between self-injurious behavior (including suicide) and stress-related psychopathology, including BPD. Under her K08 award, she investigated the relationship between availability of mGluR5 (a mostly postsynaptic glutamate receptor involved in the regulation of emotion and pain experience), borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptom presentation, and suicide behaviors. With her current R01 funding from NIMH, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the Patterson Foundation, Dr. Davis is currently completing studies examining in vivo kappa opioid receptor availability in BPD and PTSD, and evaluating the relationship of these targets to history of suicide behaviors. Ultimately, she hopes to build off these studies and similar work to supplement knowledge concerning the molecular mechanisms subserving stress-related pathology (e.g., BPD, PTSD, eating disordered behavior) and suicide behaviors in service of novel, targeted treatment development.