Randall Frost became Director of the Bowen Center July 1, 2022. He describes his goals for the position in a post on the Bowen Center's YouTube channel. Previously (since 1991), he had been Executive Director and then Director of Training and Research at Living Systems—a Vancouver, British Columbia based pastoral counseling center that uses Bowen theory as its primary approach to clinical counseling, training, education and research. At Living Systems he initiated biannual conferences with experts in Bowen theory and leading scientists.

Mr. Frost is a long-time student of Bowen theory. He was a trainee in the in-town (1975-76) and special postgraduate programs (1980-81), He became a faculty member at the Bowen Center in January 2015 and has led the Network Seminar program of the Bowen Center since 2012. He is the author of published articles and book chapters on Bowen theory, including articles in the Center’s journal, Family Systems, and has presented numerous papers at professional meetings and conferences over the past thirty years. Mr. Frost is an ordained Presbyterian minister (Presbyterian Church USA) and was an Assistant Professor of Pastoral Studies at St. Meinrad School of Theology in Southern Indiana (1978-91). He is happily married with two adult children and five grandchildren.

Contact Information: rfrost@thebowencenter.org

Laura R. Brooks has had a family therapy practice in Ellicott City, MD, since 1993. Previously, she worked as a family therapist for various non-profit organizations for many years. Since she was appointed to the faculty of the Bowen Center in 2008, her responsibilities have included supervising and teaching in the Postgraduate Program and the Introduction to Murray Bowen’s Theory of Human Functioning, coordinating the Internship Program and Research Committee, serving on the editorial board of Family Systems journal as well as the board of directors. She has presented at local and national conferences in addition to various programs at the Bowen Center. Her interests include adoptive families, family projection process, within-family variability, emotional cutoff, and research from a family systems perspective.

Ms. Brooks graduated from the University of Iowa in 1980. Her postgraduate training started at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, KS, for two years and continued at the Bowen Center, 1986-1991. Between 1990 and 1996, Ms. Brooks was an associate clinical professor at the schools of social work at the University of Maryland and The Catholic University. In this role, she supervised social work students in internships at the Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

Contact Information: lbrookslcswc@comcast.net

Carrie E. Collier was director of the Bowen Center from 2020 until 2022. She completed her master’s in rehabilitation counseling from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, SC, in 1999. There she became a licensed professional counselor while working in the emergency department conducting psychiatric evaluations and assessments. Dr. Collier earned her PhD in counseling from The George Washington University in Washington, DC. She completed her clinical residency at the Bowen Center Clinic and trained in the Postgraduate Program at the Bowen Center from 2007-2010. She was appointed to the associate faculty in 2013 and the board in 2018. She served as director of the online program beginning in 2016. She also has served as an editor for the journal Family Systems, 2018-present, and Chair of the Research Committee since 2023.

Dr. Collier has practiced as a Licensed Professional Counselor since 2000. She has provided outpatient and inpatient counseling services to couples and families, children, adolescents, adults, and older adults in South Carolina, Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia. She has offered face-to-face and telephonic couples counseling and premarital and marital counseling services. Dr. Collier’s past experiences in the mental health field have led her to use Bowen family systems theory in her practices with individuals, couples, and families. Some of her more successful counseling outcomes have occurred when the couple, individual, and/or the family approached and resolved problems using Bowen family systems theory.

Dr. Collier’s research focus includes parenting in family systems and family system responses to challenges. She has conducted research on the relation between wisdom and ethics of care in late life and parenting. Dr. Collier is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Counseling and Human Development at The George Washington University, Washington, DC. She has taught at Trinity Washington University in the Department of Counseling and Human Development and at Marymount University in the Counseling and Forensic Psychology Department.

Contact Information: ccollier@thebowencenter.org

Dr. Anne S. McKnight was appointed director of the Bowen Center in May 2010 and stepped down in July 2020. She is currently a director emeritus, continues to serve on the Center board, and is active in presenting, supervising, and organizing conferences. As director, she had special interest in supporting the development of Bowen theory around the world, including an international conference in Hong Kong and developing the Iberoamerican Institute at the Bowen Center. During her tenure, she recruited twelve new faculty and expanded training programming, while putting the Bowen Center on a solid financial footing.

Dr. McKnight has been a member of the Bowen Center faculty since 1992. Her activities have included directing, teaching, and supervising in the Postgraduate Programs, leading the internship program, organizing and presenting at conferences sponsored by the Bowen Center and at meetings nationally and internationally. As a family therapist for 40 years, she developed a special interest in families with addiction from working, teaching, and supervising students in a child and family substance abuse program in Virginia. She has written chapters in many books on Bowen theory and articles for the journal Family Systems.

Dr. McKnight is in private practice in Arlington, VA, and at the Bowen Center.

Contact Information: amcknight@thebowencenter.org

Douglas C. Murphy has been a faculty member of the Georgetown Family Center/Bowen Center since 1992. He received his graduate degree from Antioch College in human communication theory. He trained in the Postgraduate Program at the Georgetown University Family Center, 1977-1981, and was a clinical intern at the Family Center, 1982-1984.

Since 1984, he has served as a family therapist in the Bowen Center Clinic. He became the Clinic director in 2009. In June 2015, he became director of the Postgraduate Program. Mr. Murphy is on the editorial board of Family Systems and serves as the book review editor.

His primary clinical interest is in family conflict and violence, and he has presented nationally on this topic.

Contact Information: dmurphy@thebowencenter.org

Robert Noone began his formal study of Bowen theory when he entered the Postgraduate Program at the Family Center in 1975, when it was affiliated with the Georgetown University Medical Center. He has continued his involvement at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family since then as a participant, presenter, and organizer of conferences and seminars. He has served as an editorial consultant to Family Systems since its beginning and is currently its editor.

He is on the faculty at the Center for Family Consultation in Evanston, IL, which provides programs on Bowen theory and which he co-founded in 1979. He served as the executive director at the Family Service Center of Wilmette, Glenview, Northbrook, and Kenilworth for twenty-eight years and was on staff and later director of an alcohol and drug abuse program at a mental health center serving Chicago’s western suburbs. He continues his private practice in Evanston, IL.

Dr. Noone succeeded Michael E. Kerr, MD, who established Family Systems and served as its editor for twenty years. Dr. Kerr fulfilled Dr. Bowen’s original idea of publishing a journal to advance the understanding of human behavior based on family systems theory.

Contact Information: rnoone@thebowencenter.org

Amie Post has studied Bowen theory since 2001, when she was a master’s student in marriage and family therapy at Seton Hill University. She deepened her study in the Postgraduate Program, 2012-2016, and served as a clinical intern at the Bowen Center, 2015-16. Amie is currently a member of the Center’s board of directors and active faculty.

Ms. Post has served since 2015 as the executive director of the Family Crisis Center of Baltimore County Inc, a Baltimore based non-profit whose mission is to assist families experiencing the impacts of domestic violence. During her tenure, she has worked to understand the history of the organization and the functioning of the domestic violence system in the region over time and to promote thoughtful program development that more readily addresses domestic violence through a family systems lens. In this role, she leads locally and regionally in collective impact efforts and is a regular contributor to policy development. 

Her research interests include the emerging concept of holobiont (the notion of a superorganism that reflects the totality of the human and its microbial partners); reciprocal functioning in relationship violence; and evaluating and developing effective programs and systems of care.

An oldest daughter with younger brothers and a sister, Ms. Post is married to an oldest brother of a younger sister. She has three young adult children. In her free time, she enjoys a good board game, a great book, and long walks in the woods. 

Contact Information: apost@thebowencenter.org