Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry; Medical Student Education Director
Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
Psychiatry
I am board-certified in psychiatry, and I work as an adult inpatient psychiatrist at Erie County Medical Center (ECMC). I regularly care for six hospitalized patients who have diagnoses ranging from schizophrenia to substance use disorders. I have been recognized with awards for my compassionate care of psychiatric patients.
I am also engaged in research, with a primary interest in medical student education. I have presented at a professional meeting--usually at the national level--every year since completing my residency. My topics have included a variety of areas in teaching, e.g., curriculum innovations and use of media in education, with an emphasis on psychiatric material. I also have a research interest in the stigma of mental disorders. One of my current projects looks at attitudes toward the mentally ill held by medical students. I am interested to see whether education in the form of a psychiatry clerkship would decrease the stigma of mental illness and, perhaps, increase the numbers of students choosing psychiatry as a medical specialty.
I am deeply committed to teaching and mentoring the next generation of physicians who will care for the mentally ill. My inpatient unit is one of the primary teaching units at ECMC, and I serve on one of the primarily psychiatry teaching services at the hospital. As director of medical student education in psychiatry, most of my responsibilities and day-to-day activities include teaching and training medical students and residents. I orient and lecture the third-year medical students in my role as clerkship director, oversee the third-year medical student curriculum, coordinate the three-week psychiatry segment of the Neuroscience and Behavior course for the second-year students and lecture for a significant part of the course. I also teach the psychiatry residents on my inpatient unit and regularly deliver resident lectures.
I have been recognized for teaching throughout my career, both at the school and national levels. For example, I twice received the Mentor of the Year award from UB’s psychiatry residents, and I received the Irma Bland Award for Excellence in Teaching Residents from the American Psychiatric Association.