Meet The Team | Main Line Center For Eating Disorders

Meet Our Team

Co-Founders

Ellie, Kerri and Amy, Co-Founders of Main Line Center for Eating Disorders, met while working at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Eating Disorder Assessment and Treatment Program. They were extensively involved in all levels of care including inpatient medical stabilization, intensive outpatient programing (IOP) and outpatient treatment. They also contributed significantly to program development, clinical research and publication. They have led multiple trainings for clinicians, caregivers and educators, been interviewed as clinical experts and have presented at the local, national and international level.

The Co-Founders bring their unified passion to Main Line Center for Eating Disorders - one of the only practices in the Greater Philadelphia area to have Certified Eating Disorder Specialists and Certified Family Based Treatment Providers with expertise in pediatric eating disorders.

Ellie Benner , Psy.D.

Certified Family-Based
Treatment Provider

ellie@mlced.com

Ellie Benner , Psy.D.

Dr. Ellie Benner, PsyD, MA is a licensed clinical psychologist, certified Family Based Treatment (FBT) provider, Co-Founder and Director of Outreach and Training at Mainline Center for Eating Disorders. She is also a Research Psychologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Dr. Benner obtained her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Health Psychology and her Master of Arts in Psychology from La Salle University in Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Benner previously worked as a Clinical Psychologist at CHOP in the Eating Disorder Assessment and Treatment Program, where she specialized in providing FBT to children and adolescents and supervision to medical, nutrition, and behavioral health trainees. She has worked with children, adolescents, and adults with eating-related concerns across the diagnostic spectrum. She is trained and experienced in evidence-based treatments for eating disorders and co-occurring concerns, including: FBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Exposure and Response Prevention, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy.

Dr. Benner has presented locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally on identification, prevention, and treatment of pediatric eating disorders. She has been published in peer-reviewed journals. She has provided trainings for clinicians, schools, and treatment centers on preventing weight-based harm, fighting diet culture, and early recognition and rapid intervention for treating pediatric eating disorders.

Dr. Benner is a Board Member of the Southwest Philadelphia Chapter of the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals and is an active member of the Academy for Eating Disorders and Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.

Dr. Benner identifies as an anti-diet, anti-weight stigma, health-at-every-size provider. She is enthusiastic about empowering caregivers to support their loved one with an eating disorder while combatting diet culture. She is goal-oriented, collaborative, and strongly believes in using treatments shown by research to be effective.

She also enjoys spending time with her husband, daughter, dog Sophie, shopping and hiking.

Kerri Heckert , MS ,
RD , CEDS - S

Certified Eating Disorder Specialist

kerri@mlced.com

Kerri Heckert , MS , RD , CEDS - S

Kerri is an anti-diet Registered Dietitian, Certified Eating Disorder Specialist-Approved Supervisor, Certified Exercise Physiologist and Co-Founder and Director of Nutrition at Main Line Center for Eating Disorders. She believes that all bodies are good bodies, there is no such thing as “bad foods” and that diet culture has no place at our tables. She has extensive clinical expertise in providing Medical Nutrition Therapy and nutrition counseling for children, teens and young adults with eating disorders, subclinical disordered eating, weight suppression and Relative Energy Deficit of Sport (RED-S). She evaluates each patient’s historical growth and developmental status when setting individualized goal weights and she supports clients and their families in working toward holistic recovery - a sound body and a peaceful, flexible mind free from disordered thoughts and behaviors. She prioritizes getting clients back to their activities, sports and lives as quickly as is safely possible. She also specializes in intuitive eating, responsive feeding, preventing/reversing “picky” eating and helping parents make mealtime more peaceful by removing the guilt, anxiety, stress and conflict around feeding their families.

Kerri previously worked at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in the Eating Disorder Assessment and Treatment Program for over 10 years where she treated pediatric, adolescent and young adult patients in multidisciplinary inpatient and outpatient settings. Kerri currently serves as the Vice President of the Greater Philadelphia Chapter of the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals and is an active member of the Academy of Eating Disorders’ Medical Care Standards Committee. She is also a Certified Exercise Physiologist through the American College of Sports Medicine and a Registered Yoga Teacher. Kerri received her Master’s degree from Drexel University.

Kerri has presented locally, nationally and internationally on pediatric eating disorders and has been published in peer reviewed journals, pediatric nutrition textbooks and the Pediatric Nutrition Care Manual. She has provided multiple trainings for clinicians, schools, eating disorder centers and community groups on preventing weight-based harm, fighting diet culture, and early recognition and rapid intervention for treating pediatric and adolescent eating disorders. Kerri also provides approved supervision for Registered Dietitians and other clinicians looking to specialize in treating eating disorders.

Kerri loves to spend time with her husband, two daughters, deeply feeling Lab mix and two fluffy cats. You can usually find her chauffeuring to the cheer and gymnastics gyms or on the field coaching her kids’ soccer and lacrosse teams, but her heart is at the beach. She is also a Registered Yoga Teacher and enjoys a wide array of joyful movement!

Amy Mack, LCSW

Certified Family-Based
Treatment Provider

amy@mlced.com

Amy Mack , LCSW

Amy is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who feels passionately about creating strong connections with her clients and client families in order to best support them during challenging times. Amy is a trained family and group therapist and a Certified Family Based Treatment provider and is the Clinical Director of Main Line Center for Eating Disorders.Amy received her Masters in Social Work from Widener University and has practiced in a variety of settings: community mental health, public and private schools, college counseling, substance abuse treatment. Most recently, Amy spent almost 10 years at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia working in the Eating Disorder Assessment and Treatment Program as the Program Director of the Intensive Outpatient Program as well as providing outpatient FBT treatment. Amy also supports clients struggling with anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and family dynamic challenges that are both co-morbid with their eating disorder diagnosis or persist following eating disorder treatment using a variety of treatment modalities such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and Exposure and Response Prevention.

In addition to clinical work, Amy frequently presents to a variety of audiences (school communities, parents, fellow clinicians) on prevention, early detection and treatment of eating disorders.

Amy is so grateful for the incredible community of eating disorder specialists she has encountered along her career path, especially her co-founders, Ellie and Kerri. Through these relationships, Amy has learned the significance of Health At Every Size, body size diversity, the importance of being an informed consumer of social media messages and maintains a firm anti-diet stance. She feels grounded by her foundation in social work practice which emphasizes the value of every client’s personal story.

Amy is proud to share all that she has learned with her husband and three teenagers!

Suzy Szafran, LCSW

Therapist

suzy@mlced.com

Suzy Szafran , LCSW

Suzy is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who feels strongly about creating strong connections with her clients and their families in order to support them. Suzy is a trained family and group therapist and has been working with the Family Based Therapy Model for the past 12 years.

Suzy received her Masters in Social Work from Widener University and has practiced in a variety of settings: juvenile justice system, intensive outpatient program for eating disorders and outpatient Family Based Therapy for Eating Disorders. Suzy was the Program Director for The Intensive Outpatient Program at The Renfrew Center for 5 years prior to her work at CHOP. Suzy has spent the past 12 years at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia working in the Eating Disorder Assessment and Treatment Program as an outpatient clinician providing FBT treatment. Suzy also supports clients struggling with anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and family dynamic challenges using a variety of treatment modalities such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

When not at work, you can find Suzy spending time with her three children and cat, Cora and coaching her town’s competitive cheerleading teams. Suzy loves to travel, she loves taking cruises to new places each year!

Kimberly Hartzell, LCSW

Therapist

kim@mlced.com

Kimberly Hartzell, LCSW

Kimberly is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over ten years of experience working with children and families in both clinical and case management settings. Kimberly spent her early career working with at-risk youth and has since spent the majority of her clinical experience working in pediatric eating disorders. Kimberly specializes in Family Based Treatment, believing that families are essential to a child's recovery from an eating disorder. She is a weight-inclusive clinician who aims to support families in challenging diet culture and its impact on youth.

Kimberly received her Master's in Social Work from Temple University. Outside of her professional life, Kimberly enjoys spending time with her young toddler, dogs and husband.

Claudia Alarcon-Bello, LCSW

Therapist

claudia@mlced.com

Claudia Alarcon-Bello , LCSW

Claudia is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who specializes in the treatment of pediatric eating disorders. She previously worked in early intervention at The Center for Autism in Philadelphia and as a pediatric feeding specialist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Claudia obtained her Master’s of Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania in 2019 and began working as a therapist leading groups and facilitating family sessions in Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Eating Disorder Intensive Outpatient Program. She currently works as an outpatient therapist primarily treating eating disorders.

Claudia operates from an anti-diet, weight-inclusive perspective. Additionally, Claudia supports children and adolescents with anxiety disorders and depressive disorders. She uses evidenced-based practices including: Family Based Treatment, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Exposure and Response Prevention. Outside of work, Claudia enjoys spending time with her husband, her corgi, and her Pitty/Boxer.

Danika Hoffman, RD

Dietitian

danika@mlced.com

Danika Hoffman

Danika is Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who received her bachelors degree from Penn State and her masters degree from Drexel University. She is a weight inclusive dietitian who believes diet culture harms all of us and functions only to distract us from what is truly important in our lives. Danika specializes in supporting children, teens, young adults and their families as they navigate re-nourishment from eating disorders, helping them re-learn how to feed their bodies and minds instead of feeding the disorder. Danika also works with athletes with Relative Energy Deficiency of Sport (RED-S), under-fueling, and disordered eating concerns to optimize performance and celebrate what their bodies can do instead of what they look like.

When she isn’t busy busting diet culture nutrition myths, Danika enjoys spending time with her family, her fiancé Ross, and her friends. She loves to read, take pictures of sunsets, walk, run, lift weights, yell at Philadelphia sports teams, and make homemade pasta sauce.

Meet Our Team

Meet Our Team

Co-Founders

Ellie Benner , Psy.D.

Kerri Heckert , MS , RD , CEDS - S

Amy Mack , LCSW

Associates

Suzy Szafran , LCSW

Kimberly Hartzell, LCSW

Claudia Alarcon-Bello , LCSW

Danika Hoffman