Who We Are: The Allies in Recovery Team

The Allies in Recovery team started out as two people working above a breakfast café in Northampton MA, coaching families struggling with a Loved One’s addiction.

In 2015, after 10 years of this one-on-one work, Allies in Recovery became a worldwide web platform, thereby making our CRAFT coaching, eLearning, and resources available to anyone with an internet connection.

Dominique Simon-Levine is the Founder and Executive Director of Allies in Recovery.

She has surrounded herself with a team of dedicated and talented humans, living around the world yet connected by our shared goal of contributing to a better world.

Addiction is a disease and can be treated. Individuals struggling with Substance Use Disorder deserve an environment where their illness is understood and recovery is fostered. And families absolutely have a role to play in guiding them towards that place.

Dominique Simon-Levine, PhD

Dominique Simon-Levine, PhD

Founder & CEO

Dominique launched Allies in Recovery in 2003. Her work has been featured on HBO and NPR. She is a facilitator and a trained speaker on issues of addiction and the family. She has worked extensively developing and evaluating federally-funded substance abuse programs for organizations and clinics throughout Massachusetts and New York. With an interest in recovery and substance abuse that spans 20 years, she sees a huge need to help families develop the skills to help a loved one recover fully in a supportive, whole, and lasting way in their families and in their communities. Her mission is to have Allies in Recovery fill that gap.

Dr. David Scherer, PhD

Dr. David Scherer, PhD

Consultant

David is a retired clinical psychologist and professor emeritus in the Psychological and Brain Sciences Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He worked with adolescents and families for over 35 years and did research and published on adolescent development and how to most effectively treat troubled adolescents. David has been involved in CRAFT clinical trials and in providing therapeutic interventions for and training psychotherapists to work with children, adolescents, and families.

Laurie MacDougall

Laurie MacDougall

Podcast Host & Guest Author

Laurie is a former math teacher, residing​ in Dartmouth, MA, and extremely active in the recovery community. She currently devotes most of her energy to REST, a non-traditional support group that offers land and online video meetings, access to training in the CRAFT method, and a crisis toolkit helping families create their own individualized crisis plan. ​Her work is guided by a desire to improve the community’s response and end the​ stigma associated with Substance Use Disorder. Laurie loves skiing and ice hockey, and is at her happiest when spending time with her husband and three children. Read her articles on our blog or tune in to the podcast she co-hosts for Allies in Recovery: Coming Up for Air.

Annie Highwater

Annie Highwater

Podcast Host & Guest Author

Annie Highwater is a Writer, Speaker, Podcast Host and Family Advocate. She has a particular interest in family pathology and concepts of dysfunction, addiction, alcoholism and conflict. Annie published her memoir, Unhooked: A Mother’s Story of Unhitching from the Roller Coaster of Her Son’s Addictionin 2016. Her story sheds light on the personal challenges facing the affected parents and family members, and illustrates how family dynamics both help and hinder the recovery process. Annie’s second book, Unbroken, Navigating the Madness of Family Dysfunction, Addiction, Alcoholism and Heartache was published in August of 2018. She resides in Columbus, Ohio and enjoys writing, long distance running, hiking, the great outdoors and visiting her son in California as often as possible.

James Heflin

James Heflin

Editor

James is a writer of speculative fiction, an editor, and a musician, and lives in Western Massachusetts. His book of poems, Krakatoa Picnic, came out in 2017. For Allies in Recovery, he edits the podcast Coming Up for AIR and other video and written content. He holds master’s degrees from Hollins University and UMass Amherst.

Diane Cyr

Diane Cyr

Accountant

Diane is a French speaking travel and outdoor enthusiast from the beautiful Eastern Townships region of Quebec. She has been working with AiR since January 2021 as the accountant. She and Dominique met as volunteers at an animal shelter and is grateful to be practicing the English language. Diane is the mother of two adult children. She loves the outdoors, mostly skiing and hiking. For over 20 years she owned a travel agency and thus had many opportunities to travel the world. Today, she is proud to be part of the Allies team.

Kayla Solomon, LICSW

Kayla Solomon, LICSW

CRAFT Support Group Facilitator

Kayla Solomon is a social worker in private practice in Northampton, MA. Her specialty in addiction began right after college when she was hired as a methadone counselor in Fort Green, Brooklyn. Her clients taught her everything she needed to know about addiction. Since then she has worked in Intensive Outpatient Programs, clinics, residential and private practice. She is a certified in Imago Relationship therapy, Cognitive Behavioral therapy, and Brainspotting. Her claim to fame is her use of humor, improvisation and being a very direct New Yorker (even though she’s lived in Western Mass for 25 years). She is a long-term student of improv and tried a stint doing stand up. She decided not to quit her day job.

John Fitzgerald, PhD, LPC, CAS

John Fitzgerald, PhD, LPC, CAS

Consultant, Guest Author

John is a licensed counselor in private practice with an expertise in addiction treatment. He holds adjunct positions in the Department of Psychiatry at Oregon Health & Sciences University and the Graduate Program of Systems Science at Portland State University. For the past decade, he has been developing digital therapeutic solution for addictions.

Amy Grossman, MBA

Amy Grossman, MBA

Development Consultant

Amy provides Allies in Recovery with strategic planning and implementation guidance. She has extensive leadership experience in for-profit and non-profit organizations focused on social entrepreneurship. She launched and led the school of continuing studies at Brandeis and went on to co-found an online learning company. Prior to that, she was associate professor of marketing and entrepreneurship at Pine Manor College Boston.

Robert Redick

Robert Redick

Editor

Robert V.S. Redick is a novelist, teacher, editor, and international development consultant with 30 years experience in the Neotropics and Southeast Asia. He is the author of seven novels, including The Chathrand Voyage and The Fire Sacraments epic fantasy series. With books published in six languages, he is the winner of the New Millennium Writings Award and a finalist for the Booknest Award for Best Novel and the Thomas Dunne Novel Award. Robert has taught writing in three graduate programs and worked for Oxfam America, Friends of the Earth International, and the Center for International Forestry Research in Bogor, Indonesia. He lives with his partner, Dr. Kiran Asher, in Western Massachusetts.

 Some of Our Collaborators