Philip Werdell, M.A.
Phil has been a Yale University Scholar of the House, and was awarded Corning and Fulbright Fellowships. He was an administrator and/or teacher at City University of New York, the College for Human Services, Campus-Free College, Kansas State University’s University for Man, the College of New Rochelle’s School of New Resources, and the University of New Hampshire Graduate School of Human Services.

He is the co-founder of ACORN Food Dependency Recovery Services, and Director of ACORN's Professional Training Program. Phil is the author of “Bariatric Surgery: Pre-Operative Considerations and co-author of Food Addiction Recovery: A New Model of Professional Support.


Mary Foushi
Co-founder and National Services Coordinator for ACORN, Mary is a food addict with over 19 years of stable recovery and is maintaining a 200-pound weight loss for 18 years. Her strong commitment to recovery and her ability to honestly relate her personal struggles and successes with food addiction offer an invaluable source of information and hope for those seeking to learn about food dependency and freedom from a life addicted to food. Mary is a CENAPS Trained Relapse Prevention Specialist, a nationally recognized speaker, and facilitates food dependency recovery groups, workshops, and intensives throughout the United States. She is the editor of News from ACORN, various material for ACORN lectures and professional training program. Mary is the co-author of “Food Addiction Recovery: A New Model of Professional Support.”


Dolores Proto, M.A.
Holds a Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies with specialized training in alcohol, drugs, codependecy and food addiction. Dolores has worked at Eagleville Hospital as a certified Addiction Counselor (CAC). At Rutgers University, she studied codependency treatment with Dr. Janet Woititz (ACOA) and consequently was trained while facilitating groups with Dr. Yvonne Kaye.

Dolores is a staff member of ACORN and in 2004, completed three years of specialized professional training with its director and founder, Phil Werdell, M.A. She continues to strengthen her affiliations with noted practitioners, John Bradshaw and Kip Flock on "shame reduction" work. Dolores also teaches in the Addiction Studies Program at Alvernia College. She has a private practice and operates Gladness House, a recovery place, in Philadelphia.

Dolores is maintaining a 130-pound weight loss and has been involved in the Twelve Step rooms for over 30 years. She has produced her first DVD, "Relapse, Recovery and the Powerlessness of Shame."

Arian Eigen Heald, M.Div.

Holds a Masters Degree with a specialty in pastoral counseling. She has run a drug treatment program for women inside Framingham State Prison and an outpatient program for women who are dually addicted. Eigen has been clean and sober for over 22 years, and abstinent for over eight years.

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