Alpha Team

The Short
Nico Doorn serves as Executive Director, guiding our vision, values, and culture. Nico views his personal mission as creating healing communities and has been pursuing this goal for over a dozen years as a mental health professional. He has three kids, a fiery wife, and is guaranteed to mention his love for running within five minutes of meeting.

The Long
Nico was born in ‘s Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, but grew up in North Carolina. His multicultural upbringing, as well as being raised in a split household as an only child, made Nico an observant and curious person. After struggling with severe mental health and addiction issues as a teen, he sought to answer the question he had long been pondering: How do you become truly happy?

Upon finding sustained recovery at age twenty, with only a ninth-grade education, Nico decided he needed to make some changes. He embraced a welcoming recovery community, learned how to hold a job, and decided to pursue a college education.

Ultimately, Nico went on to graduate as valedictorian with a BA in Psychology from Lipscomb University and with highest honors with an M.Ed. in Human Development Studies from Vanderbilt University, both in Nashville, Tennessee. Nico has held roles ranging from clinical care and admissions to business development and executive leadership, developing multiple young adult programs for residential treatment centers, outpatient treatment centers, and college campuses. He serves on the board for the Young Adult Transition Association, the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers’ conference committee, and gave a TEDx talk.

Today, Nico takes incredible pride in ensuring every family Alpha serves is warmly welcomed into our community. Nico is obsessed with his three kids Aedin (15), Bodhi (3), and Lhotse (1), as well as running. He’s completed multiple marathons and ultramarathons and leads The Outliers, a run club supporting mental health here in Austin. He’s found his answer to how to become truly happy: challenge yourself to be your best every day while surrounded by people that love you.

Podcasts:
Cumberland Heights Podcast with Dr. Nick Hayes
Success is Subjective with Joanna Lilley 
Talksicology with Joseph Gorrordo 
The Business of Human Flourishing with Tripp Johnson 
Curiously Enough 

TEDx:
Hiding in Plain Sight: College Student in Recovery 

Affiliations
Board of Directors, Young Adult Transitions Association yata.net
Board Member, Help Out Loud: Compassionate Support for Addiction Professionals
Founder, Outliers Run Club instagram.com/outliersatx/?hl=en
Supporter, Not a Glum Lot wearenotglum.org
Ambassador, Bigger Than the Trail bttt.run
Runner, strava.com

The Short:

Wes Ward, a founding team member at Alpha, is responsible for all administrative functions of the company including finance, human resources, and operations. Wes has worked in the addiction treatment field for the past fifteen years and is passionate about helping people get well and go on to lead incredible lives. Wes lives in Austin with his wife Veronica and their son Wilder.

The Long:

Wes grew up in Texas with his parents and older brother. Wes’s teenage years were primarily spent struggling with substance use. At the age of 18, he was given the option to go to treatment and, thankfully, not only decided to go, but embraced recovery. Wes spent the next ten years balancing recovery, work, and school. He graduated from Schreiner University with a B.A. in Humanities and then received his M.B.A. with a focus in Human Resources Management from Texas State University. Soon after graduating, he started working with Bobby, Nico and the rest of the team to create the Alpha program.

While Wes was in college, it felt like a job, and his community were his friends in recovery outside of school. Going to college in recovery should not be an isolating experience. He wanted to create a space where individuals could find purpose, achieve their goals, and feel a part of a group of like-minded friends. Wes is passionate about organizational health, work/life balance, and staff development. He spends the time he is not at Alpha with his wife Veronica, in architecture, and his toddler Wilder, in demolition. Wes likes traveling to places with mountains and collecting hobbies.

The Short:
Elizabeth Rolfe oversees client care, family services, and our clinical and residential staff. She is regularly at the office with her miniature Pomerianian, Birdie. They both support clients, staff, and anyone who barges into their office. Elizabeth enjoys exercising, spending time with her family, and camping.

The Long:

Elizabeth was born in Louisiana and was raised in Pueblo, Colorado. She has two younger brothers and had an amazing childhood filled with love, animals, the outdoors, and adventures. Despite a wonderful upbringing, Elizabeth found herself in residential treatment at the age of 17. Her family supported her recovery and provided her with a long-term treatment experience from which she has been sober since. During this time, she identified a deep passion for wellness and helping others heal. She obtained her bachelor’s degree from The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, TX. Subsequently, she moved back to Colorado to pursue her Masters in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology and Art Therapy from Naropa University in Boulder. Elizabeth has worked in a variety of therapeutic settings. These settings include community mental health, judicial, residential, outpatient, and sober living. She began working at Alpha 180 in May 2021 after seven years as the Men’s Program Manager and Clinical Director for another local treatment center. She is trained in Art Therapy and EMDR. She is passionate about young adult recovery, staff culture, supervision, and empowering clients and staff to discover and fulfill their potential.

During her academic and career growth, she has balanced a personal life that has flourished into a small family. She has improved and maintained relationships with her parents and brothers, watched several extended and direct family members find sobriety, and has enjoyed ongoing personal growth and development. She lives in Austin, TX with her husband, two daughters, and dog Birdie. In their free time they enjoy going on trips, playing, and making art.

The Short:

Mike McCabe is a Primary Therapist and uses Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Attachment Theory principles to inspire transformation in the lives of the young men he works with. He is also passionate about wilderness therapy, and incorporating creative, vulnerability-inducing therapeutic interventions. Mike loves hiking with his wife and their two dogs and watching both kinds of football.

The Long:

Mike was born in Richmond, VA and grew up in a deli that his parents owned and operated. He was raised on a love of sports, playing football and lacrosse, and was obsessed with Halo. In high school and college, Mike dealt with depression and anxiety, and self-medicated with a series of unhealthy behaviors. It wasn’t until he lived and worked in Spain the year after graduating college that he began to form a sense of who he was apart from his familial, social, and societal definitions.

Mike has always been a musician, from singing in the church choir as a kid to playing SXSW official showcases. He moved to Austin in 2015 to pursue music, but ended up meeting the love of his life, Alyssa, and working as an eighth-grade English teacher. Music took them back to the East Coast, where Mike worked a dozen day jobs, from commercial real estate project manager to concert producer to educational software developer. The grind of trying to “make it” eventually led Mike to a mental health breakdown/spiritual awakening, where he gave his life over to his Higher Power and realized his dreams of being a counselor and mentor to young men. Mike, Alyssa, and their Boston Terrier, Hugo, and their husky/shepherd mix, Tennessee Jed, moved back to Austin in May 2020, and Mike completed his Master of Science in Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin. Mike loves working in substance use counseling because it is perhaps the one space in our society where men can be vulnerable and raw with one another.

The Short:

Amanda Allard started work at Alpha as an Art Therapy intern from Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods College. Her passion for making art and finding beauty in life led her on a path to helping individuals with addictions and the loved ones of those with addictions. Amanda creates art, finds ways to be in the Texas sunshine, and researches magic, monsters, and life with her 6-year old daughter.

The Long:

Amanda is “Navy Brat,” born in Virginia Beach, Virginia, but considers her heart’s home to be Gainesville, Florida. She started at the University of Florida as an architecture student, and ended up with degrees in History and Criminology & Law. She continued her graduate studies in History of Science at Florida. Amanda has been teaching history to all ages since 2007. In 2018, she returned to a first love of creating with her hands, and entered the Master of Art Therapy Program at Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods College, a hybrid program out of Indiana.

One of Amanda’s mantras is “because survival is insufficient,” a central theme of Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven. This is her reminder that life is awe-some and worth living. It also reminds her of what she should do while living: find the beauty and make the beauty. Scientists might say that humans have families because they want parts of themselves to survive beyond them. Amanda believes that humans need more than that; we need beautiful things even when the world seems ugly, frightening, and difficult. Amanda found Alpha’s message to “Inspire Transformation” to hold the same meaning and purpose that she seeks in her own life.

THE SHORT
Eva joined the Alpha 180 team as a counselor in 2023 after graduating from St. Edward’s University. She is passionate about helping clients through Attachment Theory modalities and impactful group therapy sessions. Eva’s previous career in the financial sector banking and accounting helped her develop analytical approaches to therapy. She enjoys baking, swimming, and roasting her own coffee, as well as spending time with her husband, three kids, and German Shepherd.

THE LONG

Eva’s family is primarily of Greek background and she spent most of her youth growing up on the coast. From an early age, Eva traveled to Europe for swim competitions where she gained a newfound appreciation for culture, languages, and cuisine. She attended a German-language-based high school where she devoured all manner of books, with a particular love for classical literature and psychology. Eva swam in college in Cyprus, where her studies inspired her to travel to the United States to learn English.
Eva eventually decided to make a complete life transition, and committed to learning English full-time and attending university in the USA. During this time in college, Eva met her husband and completed her Bachelor’s degrees in finance and accounting. Their journey through his education and career training brought them first to Texas, then to the Bay Area, and finally, they found their way back home to Austin.
Eva’s life experiences, including the profound stressors of sports and moving to a new country on her own without prior knowledge of the language, inspired her to leave her job in the financial banking sector to pursue her life-calling of counseling. She hopes to be able to help others in similar high-stakes, high-stress life situations be able to navigate in a successful and healthy manner. Eva’s happy place is in Fredericksburg, where the German-heritage-inspired small town with Texas values helps her soul feel at peace. When Eva is not working, she’s either shuffling her kids to swim practice, walking her German Shepherd, or baking the best cookies and cakes in Austin!

The Short:

Andrew Warren is The Director of Admissions and focuses on cultivating relationships with our families and community partners. He splits his work time between the Alpha clubhouse and a life on the road, visiting programs and industry professionals. Andrew enjoys HIIT Workouts, golf, and the backpack hip hop station on Apple music.

The Long:

Andrew was born in San Luis Obispo, CA to a father who worked in the music industry and a mom who worked in restaurants and real estate. When he was six, he moved to Palm Springs, CA where he spent his school years on the golf team. During the summers, Andrew would join his father on the road which sparked his interest in music, different cultures, food, and traveling. Andrew eventually decided to enter a career in the music industry which took him all over the country on tour with bands. Andrew ultimately found he struggled with mental health and substance abuse problems, and after many treatments found himself in a program in Hunt, TX. He was introduced to Alpha 180 and became one of the first clients to come through the program’s doors.

Andrew progressed in school and recovery which led to him earning a degree from The University of Texas at Austin in Human Dimensions of Organizations with a minor in Business Administration. He has worked in various positions at Alpha including direct client care, marketing, and now as a member of the leadership team focusing on Admissions and Marketing. Andrew is passionate about academics, company culture, self-care, and building a sustainable life in Austin.

The Short:

Moore Woltz serves as the Admissions and Outreach Coordinator at Alpha 180. Originally from North Carolina, Moore currently lives in Austin, TX. He enjoys skiing, hiking, traveling, beachin’ it, and stand-up comedy.

The Long:

Moore was born in Mount Airy, NC (literally the town Mayberry from The Andy Griffith Show was based on). He attended boarding school in rural Virginia before starting at N.C. State in Raleigh. During that time, Moore’s education was disrupted due to active addiction. He completed residential treatment in California and moved to Del Ray Beach, FL for sober living. Moore worked his first sober job as a scuba dive guide in West Palm Beach. He transferred to the University of Colorado in Boulder where he majored in Political Science. Moore worked in Washington, DC briefly before falling victim to active addiction yet again. He moved to Nashville, TN early in 2018 and has been sober since. He is a proponent of 12-step men’s meetings, where he learned about honesty and accountability, as well as the importance of living “in the moment.” Moore began his career at Alpha in May of 2021 as a case manager in our Launch Program. He now works on the Admissions and Marketing Team helping clients and families admitting into the program. Moore is passionate about Alpha’s company culture and helping young men maintain sobriety.

Short:
Jillian Owens is an Operations Coordinator at Alpha 180 and focuses on the company finances along with Human Resources. Jillian has lived in Austin, Texas for 5 years and has worked at Alpha 180 since January 2022. She enjoys traveling, trying new restaurants, and Whole Foods Berry Chantilly cake.

Long:
Jillian was born and raised in central Louisiana and her family currently resides in Baton Rouge. Jillian began struggling with addiction and mental health in her early teens. At age 16 she had her first introduction to addiction treatment, which ultimately led her to sober living here in Austin. Jillian is extremely passionate about young peoples’ recovery and it was only natural that her career journey led to Alpha 180. Jillian currently serves as an Operations Coordinator at Alpha 180 and manages all day-to-day finances along with Human Resources.

The Short:

Phillip serves in the residential department. He works within the community of clients to help them throughout their stay at Alpha, whether that be with transportation, organization, or just sitting down to talk. Outside of work, Phillip is very interested in creating music and comedy.

The Long:
Growing up, Phillip always enjoyed being the class-clown, as well as being enveloped by music. He was enthralled by the way both of those artforms connected people. It also enabled him to express himself in the way that he wanted. Causing trouble in class, however, groups you in with other kids who also get in trouble. Phillip and his troublemaking group of friends inevitably began to experiment with different substances in their high school years. Phillip went through a rough period at a young age, and, although his time as well as his mind were consumed by addiction, the music and comedy remained. While struggling with addiction, Phillip continued to produce music and write for stand-up comedy, short films, and advertisements.
Eventually, the time came to make a change in his life, so he decided to go to treatment in Austin. During his stay in treatment, he created relationships with the staff that would change his life for the better. They showed him that there is a fun side to life without drugs that is possible. The care he received inspired Phillip to want to work in treatment someday. He is passionate about showing young people that are struggling in life that you can have fun while staying sober. After focusing on recovery and working in many different fields of work, such as construction, human resources, and waiting tables, he finally had the opportunity to work in the treatment field and he could not be happier.

The Short:

Riley works for Alpha’s Residential department. His primary job is to ensure that the clients at Alpha have the smoothest experience possible in their early recovery. This may mean facilitating groups, helping the guys learn new life skills, or just providing a listening ear. Outside of work, he is enrolled in school at Austin Community College, and in what little free time he has, enjoys playing chess, reading about history, and playing ping pong.

The Long:
Riley was born and lived the first 20 years of his life in Waco, Texas. After being introduced to drugs and alcohol in college, he quickly learned what it meant to be powerless in his own life and eventually had to drop out of Baylor University. At age 20, he was introduced to recovery in 2019 when he attended a 90-day residential treatment center and then moved to Austin. After a lot of soul-searching, he made the decision to remain in Austin and start a new life instead of returning to Waco. He worked odd jobs for his first year in Austin before finding a place working in the addiction treatment industry, where he gained a passion for sharing his experience with others and helping them rebuild their lives and become the people they want to be.

A life of sobriety has also enabled him to gain a fuller appreciation for the world and the potential that each individual has to become fully self-actualized. He is an active participant at many local recovery groups and wants to help build a flourishing community of sober people who can rely on one another for support and advice. His private and professional life reflect a desire to help make the world a better place, one individual life at a time.

Riley also has a passion for animals and the natural world. After becoming disillusioned with his previous field of study, Riley decided to re-enroll in school to pursue a degree in biology. His long-term goal is to be admitted to a biology PhD program and become a researcher at a museum or university.

The Short:
Thomas McCune is a dedicated House Manager within the Transitional Living Program at Alpha Behavioral Health. His role involves creating a stable and safe living environment for clients, helping them lay the foundation for their new lives. Thomas’s own journey through addiction and recovery fuels his passion for guiding others towards peace of mind. Outside of work, he is an enthusiastic martial arts practitioner and teacher, enjoys attending live music events, and has a playful and light-hearted nature. He aspires to continue growing within Alpha Behavioral Health, pursue higher education, and participate in marketing events as a brand ambassador.

The Long:
Thomas McCune has embarked on a remarkable journey of personal and professional growth. With multiple attempts at sobriety, Thomas’s own triumphs and challenges have shaped his commitment to guiding others towards peace of mind and recovery. Originally from Lansing, Michigan, he relocated to Austin in 2019, seeking solace from addiction and mental health struggles. Since joining Alpha Behavioral Health, Thomas has discovered his true calling in helping individuals rebuild their lives, fostering an environment of stability and support.

Thomas’s transformation inspired him to explore his passions and embrace a brighter future. He dedicates himself to continuous personal development, envisioning a return to college while simultaneously flourishing within Alpha Behavioral Health. As a student and instructor of various martial arts, he not only finds solace and discipline but also imparts these valuable lessons to others. With a playful and light-hearted nature, he brings laughter and joy to those around him, embodying the power of positivity and resilience.

Looking ahead, Thomas aspires to expand his horizons by participating in marketing events as a brand ambassador, utilizing his natural charisma and interpersonal skills to promote addiction recovery resources and advocate for positive change. With a steadfast dedication to his personal growth and Alpha Behavioral Health’s mission, Thomas strives to guide others to believe in their own potential for transformation.

Prior to the launch of Alpha 180™, Bob Ferguson has served as founder and CEO of Jaywalker Lodge since 2004. Jaywalker Lodge is an extended care residential treatment and recovery community for men located in Carbondale, CO. Before that, Bob served for over 10 years in senior management positions at a number of the leading treatment providers in the addiction & recovery field including: Jaywalker Lodge, Promises Treatment Centers, Crossroads Antigua, and the Hazelden Foundation.

In addition, Bob has served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP) since 2011. He is currently beginning his second two-year term on the Executive Committee, serving as Secretary for the NAATP Board. Bob also serves as Chairman of the Board for A Way Out, an Aspen-based 501c3 providing crisis referrals and treatment scholarships for families and residents in Western Colorado.

Bob divides his time between Austin, TX and his home in Snowmass Village where he lives with his wife and two college-aged kids. When he’s not at Alpha 180, Bob stays busy as a grateful participant in his own recovery from addiction, which began – one day at a time – on Feb. 12, 1992.

The Short:
Birdie Rolfe is inarguably the most important team member at Alpha where she focuses on delivering comfort, joy, and cuddles to everyone she meets.

Her primary duties include bringing smiles, eliciting high-pitched baby voices from adults, and supporting clients when big feelings arise.

The Long:
Birdie is a 5-lb Pomeranian who has been at Alpha since January 2022. She began her job at a mere 12-weeks old and is sorely missed when she is not in the office. She regularly has a smile on her face and loves everyone she meets.

Birdie’s favorite things are retrieving small toys, snuggling in people’s laps, and patrolling the ground for crumbs. When Birdie is not in the office, she is at home spending time playing with two young girls or she can be found perched atop a couch monitoring the yard for squirrels.

Though Birdie is small in stature she loves being outdoors and enjoys swimming in lakes, chasing aforementioned squirrels, and eating bugs. She is curious, mouthy and has never met a snack she didn’t like.