Dr. Eric Plakun Named Medical Director/CEO of Austen Riggs Center

STOCKBRIDGE — The Austen Riggs Center’s board of trustees announced the appointment of Dr. Eric Plakun as medical director/CEO.

“We are thrilled that Eric will be taking up the role of medical director/CEO,” said Lisa Raskin, chair of the board of trustees. “His unwavering commitment to the center and demonstrated leadership throughout his distinguished career have helped to make Riggs what it is today.”

In addition to his long professional career at the Austen Riggs Center, where he oversaw development of the continuum of care and served most recently as associate medical director, Plakun is also a leader in organized psychiatry and psychoanalysis, author of more than 50 publications, a member of several journal editorial boards, and a past member of the Harvard clinical faculty. He is a member of the American Psychiatric Assoc. board of trustees representing New England and Eastern Canada, and has been honored as the Outstanding Psychiatrist in Clinical Psychiatry by the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society and by the American Psychoanalytic Assoc. “for championing psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy within American psychiatry and paving the way toward a return to an individualized treatment model.”

“I am deeply honored and excited to take on the leadership of an institution whose work and mission I feel so wholly committed to,” Plakun said.

Dr. Andrew Gerber, former medical director/CEO, will be pursing another professional opportunity. Gerber, who joined the Riggs staff in 2015, was instrumental in establishing several strategic initiatives in areas including human development and suicide research and education. “We are grateful for Andrew’s contributions and wish him well in his future endeavors,” Raskin said.