Mary Tantillo, PhD, PMHCNS-BC, FAED, CGP

Founding Director

About Me

Dr. Mary Tantillo is a Professor of Clinical Nursing at the University of Rochester School of Nursing and a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. She is a fellow and previous board member of the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED). She served as chairperson for the AED Credentialing Task Force and as co-chairperson for the AED Patient/Carer Committee and was awarded the Meehan-Hartley Award for Public Service and Advocacy by the AED in 2010.

Since 2005 Dr. Tantillo has been the Director of the Western New York Comprehensive Care Center for Eating Disorders (WNYCCCED), one of three NY State Office of Mental Health-funded CCCED’s. As part of this work, she and the WNYCCCED team initiated Project ECHO® Eating Disorders in January 2017 and School-Based Project ECHO® Eating Disorders in 2018. 

Additionally, in 2010 Dr. Tantillo founded The Healing Connection (THC), a free-standing, 501 (c) 3, non-profit NY State Office of Mental Health-licensed Eating Disorders Facility for adults and adolescents. She continues to serve as the permanent founding board member. Dr. Tantillo also spearheaded the development of the upstate NY adolescent eating disorders residential facility that will be licensed and operated by The Healing Connection.

Dr. Tantillo has special clinical and research interests in the areas of prevention, women's mental health, group treatment, and family-based treatment for eating disorders. Dr. Tantillo partnered with patients and families to develop a new and innovative relationally and motivationally-informed multifamily therapy group approach to treating Anorexia Nervosa in young adults called “Reconnecting for Recovery.” She obtained grant funding from the Hilda and Preston Davis Foundation and NY State Office of Mental Health to pilot this intervention. She co-authored a treatment manual for this multifamily approach with Jennifer McGraw and Daniel Le Grange that was released by Routledge in 2021.