Care at Athens Recovery is delivered and reviewed by licensed Georgia clinicians. Our outpatient programs are accredited by The Joint Commission and licensed by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. Every page of clinical content on this site is reviewed by the two people below before it is published.
We think that matters. Anyone can write about addiction treatment. Fewer sites will tell you who checked the work, what license they hold, and what they are accountable for. This page tells you both.
Clinical and Medical Leadership
Jessica Brothers, MA, LPC, MAC
Clinical Director
Georgia LPC #LPC007770
Master Addiction Counselor, NAADAC
Jessica brings over 15 years of experience across residential, outpatient, and community-based treatment. She began her career in long-term residential care and later helped launch an intensive outpatient program here in Athens, so she knows this community and how care actually gets delivered in it.
She is the sole clinical verification authority for our programs. That means she signs off on how every level of care is described on this site, how therapy modalities are explained, and whether what you read matches what a guest would actually experience in the building.
Her clinical work is trauma-informed and grounded in CBT, DBT-informed care, and Motivational Interviewing.
Read Jessica’s full bio and credentials
Steve Chesser, MD
Medical Director
Georgia Medical License #39307
Member, American Society of Addiction Medicine
Member, American College of Physicians
Dr. Chesser has worked in behavioral health since 2010. He came to this work after supporting family members affected by addiction, and that shows up in how he practices. His focus is prevention, relapse support, and helping guests rediscover joy without substances.
He directs medical care across our programs and holds medical verification authority for all Serenity Grove properties. On this site, he reviews anything touching withdrawal management, medication, detox safety, and co-occurring medical conditions.
He trained at the Medical College of Georgia and completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Mercer University and the Medical Center of Central Georgia.
Read Dr. Chesser’s full bio and credentials
Our Care and Operations Team
Clinical leadership sets the standard. These are the people who carry it out day to day, from the first phone call through aftercare planning.
Cam Moore
Chief Operating Officer
Sara Sayre
Admissions and Business Development Coordinator
Alyssa Leggett, CACI
Certified Addiction Counselor
Cathie Puckett, CACI
Certified Addiction Counselor
Lindsay Avery
Aftercare Coordinator
Todd Saner
Human Resources
Counselors listed here hold Georgia addiction counseling credentials. If you want to know who would be working with you or your loved one, call and ask. We will tell you.
How We Review Content
Clinical and educational pages on this site carry a dual review. Two different people with two different licenses look at the same page for two different reasons.
Jessica reviews for clinical accuracy and for correct representation of ASAM levels of care. If a page describes our intensive outpatient program, she confirms the description matches the program as it is actually staffed and scheduled.
Dr. Chesser reviews for medical accuracy. Withdrawal management, medications used in treatment, medical risk during detox, and interactions with co-occurring conditions all go through him.
Where a page carries both signatures, both reviews happened. We do not use a single reviewer to cover clinical and medical content, because they are not the same expertise and pretending otherwise would be a disservice to the person reading.
Accreditation and Licensure
Athens Recovery is accredited by The Joint Commission, the accrediting body that sets national standards for safety and quality in health care organizations. Accreditation involves an unannounced on-site survey and ongoing compliance with those standards.
We are licensed by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, the state agency that regulates behavioral health providers in Georgia.
Our levels of care follow The ASAM Criteria, 4th Edition, the standard framework the field uses to match a person to the right intensity of treatment. When we talk about outpatient detox, partial hospitalization, or intensive outpatient care on this site, those terms carry the ASAM meaning and not a marketing meaning.
Why Authorship Matters on a Treatment Website
Searching for addiction treatment is one of the hardest searches a person ever runs. Most people are doing it at three in the morning, for themselves or for someone they love, and they have no way to tell a licensed provider from a lead broker.
Naming our reviewers, publishing their license numbers, and stating what each of them is accountable for is how we make that check possible. You can verify Dr. Chesser’s license with the Georgia Composite Medical Board. You can verify Jessica’s with the Georgia Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists. We would rather you did.
Questions About Our Team
If you want to know who would be involved in your care, or a loved one’s care, call us and ask. Our admissions team can tell you which clinicians staff which program and what a first week actually looks like.
This content is educational. It does not replace individualized assessment or care.
