Meet our bloggers

John M. Oldham, MD, MS

Editor of the Journal of Psychiatric Practice, president of the American College of Psychiatrists and president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Oldham is chief of staff and senior vice president at The Menninger Clinic and executive vice chair of the Menninger Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine.

A prolific author, he is the senior editor of the standard textbook on personality disorders and is known nationally for his expertise in borderline personality disorder.

W. Walter Menninger, MD

Dr. Menninger served as president and chief executive officer of The Menninger Clinic from 1993-2001. He is chairman emeritus of The Menninger Clinic Board of Visitors and edits The Bulletin of The Menninger Clinic. He is a grandson of Clinic cofounder C.F. Menninger, MD, and son of William C. Menninger, MD, another of The Clinic’s cofounders.

A consultant to law enforcement and prison systems for more than 30 years, Dr. Walt, as he is affectionately known at The Clinic, continues to work with the Topeka, Kan., Police Department.

Jon G. Allen, PhD

Dr. Allen is the senior psychologist at The Menninger Clinic and is a professor of Psychiatry in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine.

A leader in mental health education, Dr. Allen has been published extensively. He wrote Coping with Trauma: Hope through Understanding, Coping with Depression: From Catch-22 to Hope and Traumatic Relationships and Serious Mental Disorders and coauthored Restoring Hope and Trust: An Illustrated Guide to Mastering Trauma and Borderline Personality Disorder: Tailoring the Therapy to the Patient, among others. Dr. Allen serves as associate editor of the Journal of Trauma and Dissociation and as a reviewer for several professional journals and book publishers.

In addition to contributing regular blog posts, he is also an accomplished jazz pianist and composer.

Tom Ellis, PhD, ABPP

Dr. Ellis assumed the position of director of Psychology for The Menninger Clinic, effective January 1, 2010.  A professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Ellis is the principal investigator of Menninger’s Suicide Prevention Research Project.

Since coming to Menninger in July, 2008, Dr. Ellis has served as associate director, Psychology, principal investigator of the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality research project, a psychotherapist and an active member of the Research Committee.

He is the co-author of the books Suicide Risk: Assessment and Response Guideline, Choosing to Live: How to Defeat Suicide Through Cognitive Therapy, editor of Cognition and Suicide: Theory, Research, and Therapy and author of numerous book chapters, papers and numerous blog posts.

He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas and a doctorate of Clinical Psychology from Baylor University. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and a Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy.

Laurel Williams, DO

Dr. Williams is the program director of the Adolescent Treatment Program at Menninger and an assistant professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine.

She received her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Ft. Worth, Tex., and her certification in general psychiatry from Baylor College of Medicine, where she also completed a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry.

Michael Groat, PhD

Dr. Groat is the program director for The Menninger Clinic’s Professionals in Crisis program and an assistant professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine.

He received his master’s degree from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and his doctor of counseling psychology degree from the State University of New York-Albany. His professional interests include psychodynamic psychotherapy, personality assessment and therapeutic communities.

Roger Verdon

A journalist for more than 20 years, Roger is a graduate of Southampton College, Long Island University. He’s been a writer at Menninger for more than 10 years and is the editor of the Menninger Perspective magazine.

Mary Oxford, PhD

Dr. Oxford is a staff psychologist on the Hope Program for adults at The Menninger Clinic. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Texas A&M University. She also completed an internship at the University of Texas Health Science Center – San Antonio and a postdoctoral fellowship at Laurel Ridge Hospital.

Dr. Oxford is obsessed with Viva paper towels (but only the thick white ones), Jacala hot sauce, Scrabble, her book club, all movies except horror and science fiction ones and her family. She loves her job.

Donna Lamb, LCSW

Donna Lamb, LCSW, is a senior psychiatric social worker at the Menninger Clinic. Unable to fulfill her childhood goal of becoming Peter Pan, she instead uses her imagination to work with people who may be temporarily out of touch with their own. She is passionate about working with bereaved parents, as she can’t imagine any greater heartache. Each year, she has weekend retreats for grieving moms and for grieving couples: she likes how it feels to help a heart heal.

Donna is an avid reader; she is alphabetically working her way through the library so as to not miss anything good. To date, she remains in the “A’s”: there are a lot of good books out there.

Cody Dolan

Cody is a writer for The Menninger Clinic’s Development Office. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Texas A&M University, and then somehow talked the English Department there into letting him teach. He’s also taught writing at Blinn College in Bryan and at the University of Houston-Downtown. He edits manuscripts part time for F+W Media because his daughter’s college fund isn’t going to grow by itself.

Like many of our other bloggers, Cody enjoys reading. He sets a yearly goal of making it through 50 books, a fact he isn’t shy about sharing. He’s also not shy about sharing his opinions on the Houston Astros, so it’s best not to get him started.

Anne W. Lupton

Anne is a marketing communications pro at Menninger who’s spent her career in healthcare. A graduate of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College (now Randolph College) and Duke University, she’s wild about New York City, (just about) everything designed by Dries van Noten, Vizslas, interior design, chocolate, beer and cats with extra toes.

She also makes a mean Italian cream cake.

Jane Mahoney, PhD, RN, PMHCNS-BC

Dr. Mahoney is the director of Nursing Practice & Research at The Menninger Clinic, where she also manages the Betty Ann Stedman Psychiatric Nurse Internship program. Her research has been published in scholarly journals such as the Journal of Professional Nursing and Perspectives in Psychiatric Care.

Shawna Morris

Shawna is the chief operating officer of The Menninger Clinic. As if that’s not enough to keep her busy, she runs marathons, volunteers at her church and with Big Brothers, Big Sisters, tends a big ol’ garden and cheers her beloved KU Jayhawks every chance she gets.

David Ness, MD

Dr. Ness is a forensic psychiatrist at The Gathering Place, a psychosocial clubhouse in Houston with more than 400 members, which joined the array of Menninger programs in 2010.

Pam Greene, PhD, RN

Dr. Greene is senior vice president, Patient Care Services, and chief nursing officer, at The Menninger Clinic.

An expert in suicide, she travels extensively as a trainer in the assessment and management of suicide for the American Association of Suicidology and the Suicide Prevention Resource Center.

Active in the Texas Nurses Association, Dr. Greene is president of Region 9. In addition, Dr. Greene is a frequent presenter at local, regional and national mental health nursing conferences and author of nursing practice articles. She also serves as a member of the editorial advisory board for ADVANCE for Nurses.

Heather Kranz, MEd, CRC

Heather is a clinical interviewer at The Menninger Clinic, where she administers the structured clinical interview for the DSM-IV to adult patients.

Growing up in Albuquerque, N.M., with a menagerie of pets, including emus, llamas, iguanas, pheasants, horses, ducks and chickens, she initially studied biology but ultimately completed her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of California, Irvine. In 2006, Heather moved to Austin, Texas, to pursue a graduate degree in rehabilitation counseling at the University of Texas, where she would later guest lecture on mental illness and vocational rehabilitation.

Before joining Menninger in 2010, Heather worked for the State of Texas as a vocational rehabilitation counselor, helping individuals with psychiatric disabilities join the workforce. Heather says she’s proud to work among the talented and compassionate individuals at Menninger and in a position she finds incredibly interesting and enjoyable.

Michael Ulanday

Michael is a research assistant for the patient outcomes research study at The Menninger Clinic. Before assuming this role, he was a mental health associate on The Clinic’s Professionals in Crisis Program. And before that, he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin where he shared a class with Vince Young. An avid sports fan, he enjoys cheering for anything concerning (in a very particular order) the Longhorns, Texans, Rockets and Astros (to a lesser extent). He has many leather-bound books, and his apartment smells of rich mahogany.