The Program Provides An Update About Robert Lichfield & His Family

Trigger Warning: This piece contains descriptions of abuse.

New Netflix documentary The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping explores the troubling history of The Academy at Ivy Ridge in New York. The institution and many like it — part of the controversial “troubled teen industry” — fell under the umbrella of the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools, or WWASPS, which was founded by a man named Robert Lichfield.

In The Program, documentarian Katherine Kubler recalls the “pseudopsychological, emotionally abusive, and humiliating” treatment she experienced at Ivy Ridge. Other alumni shared similarly harrowing accounts of abuse.

However, Kubler says the WWASPs founder hasn’t spent “a day in jail,” despite multiple reports of abuse and mistreatment at the organization’s schools. So, where is Robert Lichfield today?

A Family Business

Journalist Maia Szalavitz says in the three-part docuseries that the way WWASPS was organized into different LLCs helped Lichfield “evade responsibility.”

Kubler speaks with Lichfield’s nephew Nathaniel Lichfield, who criticizes the kind of programs his family once made their living on. They visit Robert’s Utah estate, but the WWASPS founder himself is no longer there — and his whereabouts are unknown. “Bob’s going to die someday, and this will all just pass on ... what was the point of any of it?” Nathaniel wonders.

Nathaniel’s father — and Robert’s brother — Narvin Lichfield does appear in the docuseries, though not of his own volition. Rather, Kubler found him at a local karaoke night in Utah. Narvin previously helped with marketing, admissions, and other parts of the WWASPS organization.

The Latest From Lichfield

In 2013, Lichfield told The New York Times that he “supplied only business and educational services to the programs” for over a decade.

“I wasn’t there, I didn’t abuse or mistreat students, nor did I encourage or direct someone else to do so,” he said. “I provided business services that were non-supervision, care, or treatment services to schools that were independently owned and operated.”

But Lichfield’s legacy can still be felt throughout the troubled teen industry. As recently as 2023, there was a petition to prevent a Hurricane, Utah, recreation center from being named after the controversial figure. The city’s mayor, Nanette Billings, explained that Lichfield donated the building so it’s customary that he get “recognition” for that, per The Salt Lake Tribune.

For the former teens featured in The Program, though, he’ll be recognized in a different light.

“Obviously, I’d love to see Robert Lichfield in jail for what he’s done, but I can’t do that,” Kubler says toward the end of The Program. “But what I can do is expose the methodology of these places in this documentary so that other parents don’t get manipulated and sucked up into this scheme.”