Our board
Niki DuBois, lcsw-s, ceds
Founder & board memberNiki DuBois is a licensed clinical social worker and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist who runs a private practice in Austin focused on eating disorders and co-occurring substance use.
She started Weather the Storm because she kept meeting people who were seeking community in their recovery journey, and not finding it. Recovery can be incredibly isolating. So much of what actually helps people stay in it is connection; having other people who understand, and having real, accessible education about what recovery can look like. She wanted to build a space where people could find both: community that creates connection and support, and education that helps individuals and families understand what they're up against, so no one has to do this on their own.
This work is personal to her. Early in her own recovery, Niki looked for that kind of community outside of higher levels of care and came up empty-handed, there was nowhere to turn once she left a structured treatment setting, and she felt the isolation of trying to navigate ongoing recovery without community support. That gap has stayed with her ever since, and it's part of what drives the work now. Every person she sits with reminds her why access matters, and why no one should have to weather this alone.
Mallary Tenore Tarpley is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and author of the memoir SLIP: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery, which explores the under-discussed complexities of eating disorders and recovery from them.
Equal parts memoir and journalism, SLIP weaves together Mallary's own narrative with perspectives from clinicians, researchers, and others with lived experience. It explores “the middle place” of recovery, in between acute sickness and full recovery.
SLIP is the winner of the Association of American Publishers' 2026 PROSE Award for Excellence in Biological and Life Sciences. The Association also selected SLIP as a first-place winner in the Medicine Category and as a finalist in the Outstanding Work by a Trade Publisher Category. The book has been translated into Spanish, and the translation is available in the U.S., Spain, and Latin America. While working on the book, Mallary received a generous grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to support her science-related reporting, specifically around the neurobiological and genetic aspects of eating disorders.
Prior to becoming a professor, Mallary was the associate director of UT Austin’s Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas; executive director the nonprofit Images & Voices of Hope; and managing editor at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
Mallary’s articles on eating disorders and mental health have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and TIME Magazine, among many other publications.
Mallary frequently delivers talks about eating disorder recovery for organizations around the country. She also leads writing trainings for news outlets and organizations such as The Poynter Institute, the Society for Features Journalism, and the Writers’ League of Texas.
You can keep up with Mallary on Instagram and via her newsletter, Write at the Edge, which features weekly writing tips and best practices.
Board member
