Kenneth W. Willis, M.D.

Founder, Chief Medical Officer Emeritus

of Hidden River Eating Disorder Treatment

Kenneth W. Willis, MD, CEDS is a Board Certified psychiatric physician who has been specializing in eating disorder treatment for over twenty-five years. He did his undergraduate work at Harvard, attended medical school at Dartmouth, and completed residency in psychiatry at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. Dr. Willis has been treating eating disorder patients at all levels of care, including inpatient, residential, and partial hospitalization as well as at the outpatient level. As such, he has observed eating disorders from their earliest beginnings to their most severe presentations, including dealing with life threatening medical complications in hospital settings. He has a broad biopsychosocial perspective on the management of eating disorders throughout the course of the illness, including the role of co-occurring illnesses such as mood, anxiety and trauma disorders and exacerbating environmental factors.

Dr. Willis has extensive facility with the medical management, psychopharmacological treatments, individual, group and family therapy of eating disorders, and has experience as an expert witness in legal cases involving eating disorders.  While focusing on the uniqueness of each individual, he approaches each patient with compassion and knowledge but also with a sense of urgency towards the goal of acute stabilization and ultimately full recovery.

Dr. Willis is a member of National Eating Disorders Association since its inception. He is a strong supporter of family involvement in the management and treatment of their loved ones with eating disorders. He is a member of the Academy for Eating Disorders, a former Founding Clinical Advisory Board Member of Project HEAL and a Member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (iaedp). He is credentialed by iaedp as a Certified Eating Disorders Specialist (CEDS).

Dr. Willis founded prominent Eating Disorder Programs in New Jersey including the University Medical Center at Princeton, and served as Attending Physician, Medical Director and Supervisor in these settings. He has also served as Medical Director and helped to direct the national expansion of other eating disorder residential and partial hospitalization facilities. Dr. Willis has a private practice in the Princeton, New Jersey area and New York City.

Dr. Willis is well known for his commitment to patient care and service to the professional community. Dr. Willis’s vision has truly culminated in creating a special treatment center set in a serene environment allowing young girls and women to begin their healing. Being an exemplary professional with a big heart, the time has come for Dr. Willis to enjoy the fruits of his career by pursuing a different balance in life. It is with a deep sense of gratitude for his foundational work at Hidden River that we celebrate with him the new season he is embarking on a next phase of his life in retirement.