Women’s History Month at McLean

Well over half of McLean’s employees are women. McLean is proud of the contributions women make each day to ensure that the hospital delivers compassionate psychiatric care, innovative research, and unparalleled public and professional education throughout the United States and beyond.

In honor of Women’s History Month, we are featuring stories of just a sampling of these women who help McLean thrive. Please join us in celebrating their accomplishments.

Michele L. Gougeon, MSS, MSc

Hospital Leader Takes Pride in Turning Challenges Into Successes

As McLean’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, Michele L. Gougeon, MSS, MSc, was centrally involved in leading new initiatives over several decades while taking on key leadership roles in state and national organizations that have given her a widespread policy impact on behavioral health care services.

Kristen Lancaster, RN

A Career Caring for Young People

“I knew right from the beginning I wanted to be in psychiatry,” said Kristen Lancaster, RN. “I’ve been in the mental health field ever since.” Lancaster, the nurse manager for the McLean SouthEast Adolescent Acute Residential Treatment (ART) Program has dedicated her career to helping teens and adolescents.

Quinn Tremblay

Helping Patients and Families Navigate Addiction Treatment Services

When she is not working as the admissions coordinator at Fernside, a McLean Hospital Signature Addiction Recovery Program, Quinn Tremblay stays very busy. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, attending country concerts and sports events, and “making folks laugh.”

Rebecca Jeans, MSW, LICSW

Passion for a Life in Social Work

Rebecca Jeans, MSW, LICSW, has dedicated her life to social work. But when she was younger, she was heading in a different direction. “I started off as an anthropology major in college because I’ve always been interested in people, in culture, and in the ways that people interact and communicate with one another,” Jeans said.

Alexis Freedberg, MD

At the Intersection of Medicine and Empathy

As a psychiatrist in charge on the Geriatric Psychiatry Inpatient Services at McLean, Alexis Freedberg, MD, often sees patients who are seeking mental health treatment for the first time in their lives. Older adults may experience age-related cognitive changes, such as dementia, or they may struggle with anxiety, depression, demoralization, or other mental health conditions related to significant losses.

Jeanne McElhinney, MS, RN, BC

How One Nurse Makes a Difference for Patients and Staff

Jeanne McElhinney, MS, RN, BC, nurse director for McLean’s Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Inpatient Program, has seen a lot of changes. She arrived at McLean in 1986 during training for her associate degree in mental health at Middlesex Community College. At the time, she covered three shifts per week as a mental health worker on McLean’s psychotic disorders inpatient program before becoming a full-time mental health specialist upon graduation.

Joan Gillis, MSW, LICSW

One Social Worker Found Her Heart and Her Home at McLean

Around the time Joan Gillis, MSW, LICSW, left the business world to start a family, her father had a stroke. “I found myself as the caregiver for my father and my children,” she said. Since then, helping both older adults and future generations has been central to her professional life.

Maria Fraire, PhD

Turning a Childhood Dream Into a Career Helping Children With OCD

Maria Fraire, PhD, has known she wanted to be a therapist since she was eight years old. “People told me, ‘Oh, you’ll change,’ but honestly, I’m a bit tenacious,” said the incoming program director of McLean’s Child and Adolescent OCD Institute (OCDI Jr.).

Argyro Caminis, MD, MPH

Diverse Experiences Converge Into a Psychiatry Career

Argyro Caminis, MD, MPH, an assistant psychiatrist for McLean’s Short Term Unit and an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, has always thought deeply about the interconnectedness and interdependence of people.