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By: Yasemin Lipscomb Published Date: Oct 01

The Department of Psychiatry has announced that Adrienne Lahti, M.D. has been appointed as the Vice Chair for Research Training and Faculty Development. According to the Chair of Psychiatry, Dr. James Meador-Woodruff, Dr. Lahti, the Patrick H. Linton Endowed Professor of Psychiatry, is "an outstanding and passionate clinician and educator, a well-funded and talented investigator, a forceful advocate for the needs of those with schizophrenia". In addition to stepping into her new leadership position in the Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Lahti will continue as the Director of the Division of Behavioral Neurobiology.

Dr. Meador-Woodruff went on to explain that while the Department of Psychiatry has enjoyed the robust growth of their research enterprise over the past five years, the Department realized that they have significant opportunities to elevate the early career research and academic development of their faculty and trainees. Under Dr. Lahti's leadership, Psychiatry will continue to partner with their education leaders to further invigorate their residency research track by focusing particular emphasis on enhancing recruitment efforts, furthering curriculum development, and insuring the academic success of their graduates. Dr. Lahti will also lead the Department's efforts to obtain additional NIH funding for their research training programs, work to further expand their early faculty mentorship committees for all of their academically-oriented junior faculty members, and continue the oversight of their undergraduate research students. Dr. Meador-Woodruff finished by saying, "With Dr.  Lahti's added leadership, the Department of Psychiatry will continue our efforts to make UAB and our department an even better home for our talented scientists."

By: Darlene Murdoch Published Date: Mar 23

John A. Dantzler, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry, has been appointed to the newly created position of Vice Chair for Addiction Programs in the Department of Psychiatry.  Dr. Dantzler currently serves as Executive Director of the department’s Substance Abuse and Criminal Justice Programs located on Beacon Parkway in Homewood. 

Dr. Meador-Woodruff stated that, “Since his recruitment several years ago, John has done an exceptional job of managing our off campus programs under the Beacon umbrella, and of increasingly integrating these programs into the core of the department.”  According to Dr. Meador-Woodruff, the new Vice Chair has been charged with growing the department’s addiction-related academic missions, which he sees as critical in the current climate of a major national and local public health crisis of a rapidly expanding substance abusing and addicted population.

Dr. Dantzler will focus on expanding Psychiatry’s addiction related academic portfolio and strategically growing clinical services. “John has distinguished himself in his exceptional leadership of our Beacon Parkway programs, and is uniquely positioned to work with our leadership team to bring all of our addiction services and programs under a single umbrella.”  He finished by saying, “John will be a major part of leading our Department-wide efforts to strengthen our addiction related activities.”

 

By: Darlene Murdoch Published Date: Mar 13

The Department of Psychiatry has announced that Nathan Smith, MD was appointed to Professor Emeritus in the School of Medicine by the Board of Trustees during their February 2018 meeting. “This is an exceptional honor for Dr. Smith, and a level of recognition that only has been achieved by nine other faculty members in the entire history of the Department of Psychiatry”, said the Heman E. Drummond, Professor and Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology, Dr. James Meador-Woodruff.

Dr. Smith was recruited to UAB in 1990 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to Professor in 2006 and retired from UAB in July 2016 after nearly 26 years of service. During his tenor, he served as Psychiatry’s Director of Departmental Clerkship for medical students, was the Director of the Psychiatry Residency Training Program, and served as Vice Chair of Psychiatry in multiple areas including Education, Administration, and Clinical Affairs. Additionally, Dr. Smith was the Assistant Dean for Admissions for the School of Medicine for 15 years.

Dr. Meador-Woodruff went on to say that “Dr. Smith distinguished himself as one of our Department’s best. Beyond his service as an outstanding administrator and leader, both for the Department and the School of Medicine, he is widely known as a compassionate, caring and outstanding clinician, and as a popular teacher and educator. We are truly fortunate to still have him in our department, continuing to see patients and working with residents in our adult ambulatory program.  I can think of no better tribute to his past dedication and future service than by this recognition.”

By: Darlene Murdoch Published Date: Mar 01  The Department of Psychiatry has announced that Blessing Falola, M.D. and Michael Falola, M.D., M.P.H. will join the department as assistant professors in July 2018. Dr. Blessing Falola will work in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry where her clinical activity will be primarily at Children's of Alabama providing outpatient care. She will also develop an outpatientTransitional Age Clinic at UAB for patients ages 19 to 25 years. Dr. Michael Falola will join UAB Psychiatry spending half of his time in Adult clinical care and the other half of his time developing prediction models to identify risk for depression and suicide and response to treatment using high complexity data.

The Chair of Psychiatry, Dr. James Meador-Woodruff, commented that Dr. and Dr. Falola are industrious individuals who will add greatly to our efforts in clinical care, education, and research. They will be outstanding additions to our faculty and to UAB."

Originally from Nigeria, both doctors received their M.D. from the University of Ibadan. Dr. Blessing Falola came to UAB to enter the Clinical Training Academy in Palliative and Supportive Care. After completeing this program, she started her residency in Psychiatry in 2013 and, in 2016, entered the UAB Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship which she will complete in June 2018. Dr. Meador-Woodruff went on to say that "during her residency training, Blessing completed the UAB Medicine Mini-Quality Academy. She has used this training to further quality improvment projects in our Department. Blessing has also been instrumental in the  development of the UAB Psychiatry Resident Simulation Lab." 

Dr. Michael Falola finished his Masters of Public Health at UAB in 2010 with an emphasis on biostatistics. He entered the Psychiatry residency program in 2014, where according to Dr. Meador-Woodruff, he distinguished himself both as an outstanding clinician and an emerging scientist. Dr. Meador-Woodruff said that "he is conducting original research using large-scale datasets to test associations between clinical and genetic variables and both response to
antidepressant therapy and subtyping and psychiatric illness and suicidal behavior. Michael is approaching data in a unique way, using a machine learning paradigm to identify novel phenotypes within a suicidal population."

Additionally, the department recently received a generous gift designated to support psychiatrists starting their careers as clinician-investigators. Dr. Michael Falola will be the first recipient of funds from this gift and will be designated as Psychiatry's inaugural Engel Scholar in Psychiatry.

By: Darlene Murdoch Published Date: Sep 19

 UAB Psychiatry is delighted to welcome two new faculty members to our Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Dr. Jung Kim joined the faculty of the UAB Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry on July 1, 2017. Dr. Kim graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science with Highest Honor before attending the Kyungpook National University School of Medicine in Daegu, South Korea. He then completed his general residency at the Harvard South Shore Psychiatry Residency Training Program and his fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Harvard's program at Boston Children's Hospital. Upon graduation Dr. Kim joined the faculty at UAB, with primary clinical and teaching responsibilities with the inpatient service at Children's of Alabama. Dr. Kim's area of interest is Developmental Disorders with particular interest in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Dr. Katherin Freeman joined the faculty of the UAB Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in September, 2017. Dr. Freeman graduated form Wellesley College with a Bachelor of Arts in English before attending the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She subsequently completed her residency at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center Triple Board Program training in Pediatrics, Adult Psychiatry, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Subsequently she joined the medical staff of the Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake. Dr. Freeman then relocated to nevada where she joined the clinical faculty of University of Nevada, Reno. She also was the medical supervisor of the HealTherapy Equine-Facilitated Mental Health Service and served as Pediatric Psychiatry Consultant to the State of Nevada Division of Child and Family Services. In recent years Dr. Freeman also maintained her own private practice in child and adolescent psychiatry in Reno. At UAB Dr. Freeman's clinical and teaching responsibilities will be on the UAB Adolescent Inpatient Unit. She will also be providing outpatient services at Children's of Alabama.

 

 The Division and the Department are excited by the recent recruitment of these two new members of our faculty, who represent an ongoing commitment to further expand psychiatric care for children statewide through a robust partnership between UAB and Children’s of Alabama.

 

By: Darlene Murdoch Published Date: Aug 30

Soumya Sivaraman, M.D. was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Adult Psychiatry of the UAB Department of Psychiatry on July 1, 2017.  Dr. Sivaraman received her MBBS from the Coimbatore Medical College in India, and pursued Psychiatry training at the prestigious National Institute of Mental health and Neurosciences in Bangalore. She pursued a second US-based residency training program in Psychiatry at UAB as a member of our residency research track, and was successfully recruited to our faculty following completion of her training. Dr. Sivaraman is now a member of the UAB hospital-based Psychiatry Consultation-Liaison program, and also provides care in outpatient clinics at the Community Psychiatry Clinic (CPP) within the Department that serves those with severe mental illness such as schizophrenia.   Dr. Sivaraman has also joined our ECT program, and will significantly expand the Department’s capacity to provide this clinical service.  We are excited to welcome Dr. Sivaraman to the faculty of UAB Psychiatry, and are delighted that she has chosen to remain a part of the Department following her postgraduate training.

By: Darlene Murdoch Published Date: Jul 26 Justin Thomas, Ph.D. joined the faculty of the UAB Department of Psychiatry as an Assistant Professor in July 2017. Dr. Thomas received BS degrees in both Biology and Psychology from UAB, and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Alabama.  After his Ph.D. was awarded, he was a postdoctoral fellow at UAB in the Hypertension Research Center in the Department of Epidemiology.  His clinical and research interests focus on sleep and sleep disorders.  He will have an outpatient psychology practice in UAB Psychiatry primarily focused on sleep related issues, including using CBT for Insomnia (CBT-I) as a treatment modality. His research interests also are related to understanding sleep disorders.  He brings to UAB Psychiatry much needed expertise on sleep disorders, and is a welcome addition to the faculty of the department.

By: Darlene Murdoch Published Date: Jul 24  UAB Psychiatry faculty members Adrienne Lahti,(left) M.D. and Nina Kraguljac, M.D. (right)received the 2017 Kempf Fund Award for Research Development in Psychobiological Psychiatry at the annual meeting  of the American Psychiatric Association in San Diego in May 2017. This prestigious prize honors research excellence in the physiological, psychological, and/or sociological causes and treatment for schizophrenia. This award recognizes a senior researcher who has made significant contributions to research on the causes and treatment of schizophrenia as both a researcher and a mentor, as well as an outstanding junior research psychiatrist working in a mentor-trainee relationship with the senior recipient of this award.  Dr. Lahti was singled out for her contributions and exceptional achievements in schizophrenia research and mentorship of early career psychiatrists. The award selection committee recognized Dr. Kraguljac’s excellence in schizophrenia research as an early career psychiatrist. This is an important award in schizophrenia research, and a well-deserved honor for these two outstanding members of the UAB Department of Psychiatry.

By: Darlene Murdoch Published Date: Jul 20 The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees at their most recent meeting approved the appointment of Dr. Karen Cropsey as the inaugural holder of the Vivian Conatser Turner Endowed Professorship in Psychiatry. Dr. Cropsey joined the faculty of UAB Psychiatry nearly ten years ago. She received her Psy.D. from Indiana State, and pursued postdoctoral training at Mississippi State and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). She was recruited to UAB from a faculty position at VCU in 2007, and she has been with UAB since, primarily as a researcher but also with meaningful roles in Department of Psychiatry clinics and education activities. Karen's research focuses on addiction and substance abuse in vulnerable population, especially in the criminal justice system and those with HIV/AIDS, and in comorbid psychiatric conditions such as depression. She has studied multiple drugs of abuse, including alcohol, nicotine, and opiates. She has been exceptionally well-funded and extensively published over her career. After an extensive national search for a holder of this newly established Endowed Professorship in the Department of Psychiatry, she emerged as an ideal candidate given her extensive research credentials, passion for understanding and treating substance abuse in these most at risk populations, and her interest in the interface of addiction and depression. 

By: Tyler Furgerson Published Date: Jan 19

The UAB Department of Psychiatry is delighted to announce that Dr. Jesse "Tobias" Martinez has accepted the invitation to join the faculty of the UAB Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology effective July, 2016. He will be appointed as Assistant Professor and will hold the title Director of Psychiatric Consultation/Liaison and Emergency Services.

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By: Darlene Murdoch Published Date: Jan 18

The UAB Department of Psychiatry is delighted to announce the appointment of Karen Gamble, Ph.D. to the Tate Jordan Thomas Professorship in Psychiatric Medicine. Dr. Gamble is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, recruited to UAB from Vanderbilt in 2009. She leads an outstanding research program and has been a leader in translational neuroscience, especially as it relates to psychiatric illnesses. Dr. Gamble's research focuses on chronobiology, regulation of which is disrupted in a number of psychiatric disorders including depression, schizophrenia, and ADHD, and is artifically dysregulated in shift-workers. This is a singular honor for Dr. Gamble, and is well-deserved recognition of her outstanding researach.

By: Darlene Murdoch Published Date: Jun 13

The Department of Psychiatry is pleased to announce the appointments of our Cheif Residents for General Program for the 2016-2017 academic year.

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By: Darlene Murdoch Published Date: Jun 07

We are pleased to announce the following applicants have been matched for General Residency Match 2016 and will begin their training in July.

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By: Darlene Murdoch Published Date: Dec 11

UAB Psychiatry is proud to announce that six faculty members were named in the 2015-2016 ‘Best Doctors’ list. The Best Doctors in America list includes the nation’s most respected specialists and primary care physicians. These are the doctors that other doctors recognize as the best in their fields. Choosing from thousands of the nation’s top physicians, six psychiatrists within the Department were included in this latest edition of the Best Doctors in America. Among these were Drs. Lee Ascherman, Jacqueline Feldman, Peter Penherski, Samuel Rubin, F.Cleveland Kinney, and Richard Shelton.

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By: Darlene Murdoch Published Date: Jul 16 "Our aim is to create the appropriate culture to provide nonjudgmental mental health care through awareness, training and education"        
-Stephanie Perry,
Administrative Manager of Psychiatric Clinics
A mental health and wellness clinic specifically for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning individuals will open Monday, July 20, 2016 at UAB Department of Psychiatry.

The mission of the UAB LGBTQ Mental Health and Wellness Clinic is to provide culturally competent outpatient psychopharmacology and therapy that is safe, supportive, and affirming for the LGBTQ community in Birmingham and surrounding areas. Additionally, the goal is to raise awareness of the unique mental health needs of this community and provide culturally sensitive training opportunities for health care professionals. Until now, there have been no formal comprehensive standards to help medical schools and health care organizations train providers in the health care needs of these patients. UAB, along with other medical schools in the country, has created curricula for all medical students in the care of LGBTQ patients. Larry McMillan, M.D., who will see adult and adolescent patients at the clinic, says "many LGBT people avoid seeking professional help out of fear of being marginalized or stigmatized." McMillan hopes the new clinic will be a welcoming environment where those who identify as LGBTQ will feel comfortable enough to seek assistance for their mental health needs.

For more information on this story follow the link provided below:
http://www.uab.edu/news/service/item/6290-uab-to-open-mental-health-and-wellness-clinic-for-lgbtq-community

By: Published Date: Jun 22 Yogesh Dwivedi, Ph.D., Elesabeth Ridgely Shook Endowed Professor and Director of Translational Research, UAB Mood Disorders Program, in the Department of Psychiatry has been awarded a five-year, $3.5 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Dwivedi is searching for a biomarker that will indicate the likelihood of a person’s attempting suicide. This grant will be used to follow up promising preliminary findings — that specific microRNAs (miRNAs) may be associated with suicide ideation. Congratulations to Dr. Dwivedi on being recognized for receiving this grant and for being acknowledged for his very exciting and valued research.

This story can be accessed at the following links:

http://www.uab.edu/medicine/news/latest/item/721-3-5-million-uab-grant-to-find-biomarkers-that-tell-likelihood-of-suicide and http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/news/2015/06/18/uab-receives-3-5m-grant-to-study-the-suicidality.html