Faculty—The MedStar Health—Georgetown University Hospital Residency Program in Psychiatry

Vice Chair, Education; and Director, Residency Training Program

Psychiatrist specializing in neuropsychiatry, and Director, Huntington's Disease Care, Education and Research Center at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital

Karen Anderson, MD, is a psychiatrist specializing in neuropsychiatry, and director of the Huntington's Disease Care, Education and Research Center at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. Dr. Anderson sees adult patients and families dealing with behavioral symptoms caused by neurological conditions such as Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and brain injuries. She is also an associate professor of psychiatry and neurology at Georgetown University Medical Center.

Dr. Anderson's work combines her lifelong interest in behavior with an interest in understanding how disease can affect the brain and cause behavioral symptoms. In addition to seeing patients and their families, Dr. Anderson is active in research. She's currently the co-principal investigator on a clinical trial studying a medication to treat Huntington's disease, and another studying a medication for tardive dyskinesia, a neurological disorder. Dr. Anderson is also involved in research to develop treatment for the behavioral symptoms of Parkinson's disease, brain injury and Alzheimer's disease.

Dr. Anderson is on the executive committee of the Huntington Study Group, a collaborative organization of physicians and healthcare providers from around the world dedicated to clinical research of Huntington's disease. She's also an affiliate member of the European Huntington's Disease Network. In 2013, the Baltimore Huntington Disease Society of America affiliate awarded her their Celebration of Hope Award for excellence in Huntington's disease clinical care.

Areas of Research: Huntington’s Disease Care

Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Medstar Georgetown University Hospital

Emily Aron, MD is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital. She directs a multidisciplinary autism clinic, providing comprehensive evaluation and treatment for children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders. She also provides consultation to KIPP DC charter schools and has a strong commitment to improving access to care through school-based mental health. Furthermore, Dr. Aron is devoted to treating youth that have been exposed to trauma from infancy to young adulthood. In addition to clinical work, supervising psychiatry trainees and participating in medical education is a part of her daily work at Georgetown.

Dr. Aron earned a B.S. studying Human Development and Family Studies at Cornell University. She earned her MD from Georgetown University School of Medicine and completed general psychiatry residency training at Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai in New York, NY. She completed her child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at NYU.

Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
Adult Psychiatrist

Dr. Azad has clinical interests in infant and early childhood mental health, perinatal mental health, trauma, transitional age youth, eating disorders, school-based mental health, and collaborative care. She enjoys working with families in a collaborative 2-generation clinic based in the Appletree Schools providing care and support for underserved families. She also provides care for children of all ages in the Georgetown outpatient clinic. Dr. Azad is not just a clinician, but an advocate and educator. She strives to help each patient recognize their full potential by performing comprehensive evaluations that includes identifying strengths and weaknesses and then formulating individualized plans that connect everyone to the pertinent tools that will allow them to live their best life possible. Her goal is to help optimize function in the simplest and most parent-driven way with the primary goal to help empower the parent and child to build resiliency and to increase the overall thriving of the family system.

Dr. Azad completed her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience and South Asian Studies at Wellesley College and then pursued a Master of Science in Global Health at The University of Edinburgh in Scotland prior to obtaining a medical degree at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine-NY. She completed both her general psychiatry residency and child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship training at Georgetown University Hospital and has most recently transitioned to faculty within the department of psychiatry in 2019.

Andres Barkil-Oteo, MD, MSc

Outpatient Psychiatrist and Collaborative Care

Associate Training Director, Psychiatry Residency Program

Dr. Shaheja Bandealy is the Associate Program Director and also a graduate of our program. She is an outpatient psychiatrist at both Medstar Georgetown and Medstar Washington Hospital Center with special interests in collaborative care, telepsychiatry and community psychiatry. Joining the residency leadership team in 2019, Dr. Bandealy has developed an antiracism curriculum for our training program and co-leads the department’s Anti-Racist Psychiatrist Curriculum Development Committee.

Chief, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Georgetown University Hospital
Associate Professor, Clinical Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Georgetown University School of Medicine

Matthew Biel, MD, MSc is Chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Georgetown University Hospital and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Georgetown University School of Medicine. He co-directs the Early Childhood Innovation Network, a citywide effort to improve developmental outcomes for children and families living in underserved communities in Washington, DC. Dr. Biel’s work addresses the impact of adversity and stress upon children and families. His clinical efforts focus on children and adolescents with anxiety and stress disorders, trauma-related conditions, autism spectrum disorders, and complex medical illnesses. His research has centered on reducing health disparities, improving access to mental health care for underserved children and families through projects based in primary care and school settings, and clinical interventions focusing on trauma and resilience, anxiety, and autism. He has published numerous articles and book chapters and is involved nationally in psychiatric education and advocacy for children’s mental health. Dr. Biel received his medical degree and a master’s degree in Community Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He trained in general psychiatry and in child and adolescent psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine.

Areas of Research: Health disparities, Mental health interventions in pediatric primary care, Coexisting medical and psychiatric conditions in children, Autism spectrum disorders, Trauma, Anxiety and mood disorders in children and families

Member of the Faculty, Child Psychiatry, Georgetown University Hospital

Jeff Bostic, MD, EdD, is a member of the child psychiatry faculty at Georgetown University Hospital, active in the intake clinic, DC MAP consultation program to primary care clinicians, and consultation to local DC schools. He remains affiliated with Harvard/Mass General Hospital, where he was the Director of School Psychiatry from 1997-2016. Dr. Bostic remains active on the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) Committees for Schools and for Continuing Medical Education, and an assistant editor of their Journal. He received his MD and doctorate in education at Texas Tech University, psychiatry training at Timberlawn/UT Southwestern-Dallas, and child psychiatry training at the Harvard MGH/McLean program. His clinical and research interests include school consultation and enhancing mental health, police training to improve child/adolescent interactions, and sports psychiatry.

Dr. Cohen joined the Department of Psychiatry at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in 2016. He provides clinical care for adults on the inpatient psychiatric unit at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital and for children, adolescents, and adults in the outpatient clinic. He teaches and provides clinical supervision for Georgetown medical students, psychiatry residents, and child psychiatry fellows. Dr. Cohen completed a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Georgetown University. He completed a psychiatry internship and residency in The Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia, and he earned his M.D. from Jefferson Medical College. Prior to medical school he earned a B.A. in Philosophy from Wesleyan University and then worked in Utah as a wilderness therapy field instructor for adolescents. Particular areas of clinical and research interest include mood and anxiety disorders, emergency and disaster psychiatry, and adolescent and transitional aged populations.

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Georgetown University Medical Center

Dionne Smith Coker-Appiah, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical Center. Dr. Coker-Appiah has engaged in a focused program of research and training experiences over the past decade. Each research phase has consistently and strategically informed subsequent phases in an effort to build a comprehensive ADV research program. Dr. Coker-Appiah’s research program focuses on using community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches to study adolescent health, more specifically, adolescent dating violence, adolescent mental health, and adolescent sexual health among rural African Americans. She has collaborated on several federally and non-federally funded research projects. It has been well documented that there are ADV disparities among rural African Americans, therefore, a thorough understanding regarding how to design, conduct, and evaluate culturally and geographically appropriate interventions for this population is critical. Further, with an understanding of the intersecting public health disparities that often co-exist with ADV, Dr. Coker-Appiah has chosen to also focus on appropriate and effective ways to integrate health implications into ADV prevention interventions. Overall, her research program is designed to (a) prevent adolescent dating violence and the associated health implications among rural African Americans, (b) build effective and sustainable community partnerships that build rural communities’ capacity to address these issues, (c) reduce health disparities and promote health equity among rural youth of Color. In addition, Dr. Coker-Appiah has received NIH training in adolescent neuropsychology in the Section on Affective and Cognitive Neuroscience at NIMH (Mentor: Dr. James Blair). She is specifically interested in exploring the neuropsychology of both adolescent perpetrators and victims of dating violence.

Areas of Research: Adolescent dating violence, Adolescent mental health, Adolescent sexual health, Child/Adolescent exposure to interpersonal violence, Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), Low income and minority populations, Adolescent Neuropsychology

Director, Women’s Mental Health Program, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital

Aimee Danielson, PhD, is the director of the Women’s Mental Health Program at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. She is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in women’s reproductive health issues. Arriving at Georgetown in 2008, Dr. Danielson’s unique approach to the provision of specialized evaluation, and treatment for women with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, resulted in the creation of the Women’s Mental Health Program. In addition to her clinical practice, she is an assistant professor within the medical school and teaches medical students and residents on the motherhood transition and perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.

Dr. Danielson received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia and earned her doctorate in clinical health psychology from the University of Miami in 2002. She completed her clinical internship at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, followed by a one-year fellowship program in women’s mental health. During these training years, she began specializing in the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders in pregnant and postpartum women, and became particularly interested in working with women with postpartum depression. Since then, she has remained committed to helping women experiencing difficulties with the transition to motherhood by providing consultation, ongoing individual therapy, couples counseling, and group therapy for pregnant and postpartum women and couples. Dr. Danielson has expertise in cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, as well as insight-oriented approaches to treatment.

Priscilla Dass-Brailsford, EdD, MPH, studies the effects of trauma and violence and other stressful events, especially whether individuals from historically oppressed or stigmatized groups experience unique stressors or exhibit culturally specific coping processes. Dr. Dass-Brailsford has several ongoing research projects on HIV/AIDS: understanding maternal disclosure of HIV, developing an intervention for women living with HIV/AIDS who have histories of trauma and addictions and investigating the life histories of women living with HIV/AIDS. In the past she has worked with at-risk families in urban communities exposed to violence in the home and community. She has submitted grant proposals that sought to develop interventions to support parents in the aftermath of disasters and community violence. Besides numerous peer-reviewed publications, she is the author of two books: A Practical Approach to Trauma: Empowering Interventions (2007) and Disaster and Crisis Response: Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina (2009). Dr. Dass-Brailsford is an APA Fellow and has a trauma focused clinical practice.

Areas of Research: Psychological effects of trauma and violence on ethnic minority women and children, Understanding and developing interventions for Maternal HIV disclosure, Co-morbidity of HIV, PTSD and Substance Abuse among Women living with HIV, Mental health consequences of natural disasters

Associate Professor and Associate Outpatient Director for Psychotherapy

I came to Georgetown University in 2004 as a Research Assistant Professor and a member of the Cancer Control Program (CCP) of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center (LCCC) and as a member of the Department of Psychiatry. My research focuses primarily on the routine assessment of symptoms and health-related quality of life (HRQL) and the treatment decision-making processes of cancer patients, survivors and their families.

Since 2006, I have been providing individual therapy to cancer patients and their families coping with the myriad issues involved in cancer, from initial diagnosis and treatment side effects to concerns at the end-of-life and survivorship. I established a multidisciplinary psychosocial oncology team which meets weekly with the goal of positively impacting overall patient quality of life and therefore their overall oncology care. Specifically, I work very closely with physicians, the palliative care team, nursing staff and other clinical and administrative staff at LCCC and throughout the hospital to address the psychological needs of patients and their family members through distress screening, psychological consultations, and on-going psychotherapy. On average, I provide therapy to 15-17 cancer outpatients per week.

Since 2013, I have been instrumental in the development and implementation of an assessment tool to screen for psychological distress in cancer patients at LCCC. In November 2014, we began to assess LCCC patients for psychological distress using a self-administered electronic tool adapted from the NCCN Distress Thermometer, the results of which can be integrated into patient’s electronic medical record and which allowed us to be in compliance with the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer mandate that all Comprehensive Cancer Centers screen all patients for distress starting January 2015. Most of 2015 was spent working through logistic issues and challenges to implementing the screening as a routine part of the outpatient clinical care process. By October 2015, we had a working system by which all new LCCC patients completed a distress screen at their initial visit prior to seeing their physician. The team developed specific follow-up protocols based on patient distress scores. Through our monitoring of the follow-up protocol we have had to make modifications to the follow-up protocol due to lack of sufficient resources to address patient needs. My understanding of the field of Psychosocial Oncology and my recognition of the current and future mission of MedStar Health to advance the health of diverse communities through greater access to high-quality, patient-centered, coordinated cancer care for the whole person, has resulted in my recent efforts to establish the MedStar Georgetown Cancer Network Psychosocial Oncology Program. Dr. Lou Weiner, head of LCCC, has requested a business plan for the program, which is in progress.  

Member of the faculty, Department of Psychiatry, Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University
Senior Scientist, Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)

Domitrovich is a member of the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Georgetown University located in the Center for Child and Human Development and a Senior Scientist at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). She maintains professional affiliations with the Prevention Research Center at Penn State University and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Dr. Domitrovich is a prevention scientist who is interested in the development and evaluation of interventions that promote children’s adjustment and reduce the negative effects of exposure to risk. Her area of specialty is social and emotional learning. Dr. Domitrovich is interested in creating systemic intervention approaches that include the necessary supports to ensure the high quality implementation of evidence-based interventions at scale.

Areas of Research: Enhancing Outcomes of an Evidence-Based Social-Emotional, Enhancing Outcomes of a School Support Model to promote social and Emotional Learning

Professor and Vice-Chair, Research, Department of Psychiatry, Georgetown University Medical Center
Co-Director, Community Engagement and Research core of the Georgetown Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science

Mary Ann Dutton, Ph.D. is Professor and Vice-Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry, Georgetown University Medical Center and Co-Director of the Community Engagement and Research core of the Georgetown Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science. Dr. Dutton’s research focuses on trauma and mental health. She has received numerous federal grants for longitudinal studies, randomized behavioral clinical trials involving mindfulness and telehealth interventions. Dr. Dutton has also focused o immigrant women’s use civil protection orders and trauma-informed legal advocacy. Dr. Dutton teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. Dr. Dutton is the author of numerous scientific journal articles and books.

Areas of Research: Trauma exposure, Post-traumatic stress, Mindfulness interventions, Telehealth

Clinical Psychologist,
Assistant Professor, Outpatient Program, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital

Dr. Ela is a licensed clinical psychologist and assistant professor within the Outpatient Program at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. He provides individual psychotherapy to adults and adolescents. Specific areas of focus include mood and anxiety disorders, relationship challenges, and issues related to grief and loss. He also specializes in group therapy, which he teaches at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. Dr. Ela received his Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College and his doctorate in psychology from The George Washington University. He completed his internship at Pennsylvania Hospital within the University of Pennsylvania Health System, where he worked with adult, adolescent, and pediatric patients.

Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry, Georgetown University School of Medicine
Chief of Service, Department of Psychiatry, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital

Dr. Steve Epstein is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry of the Georgetown University School of Medicine and Chief of Service of the Department of Psychiatry of MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. He is also Physician Executive Director for Behavorial Health for MedStar Health, a non-profit healthcare organization that includes ten hospitals in DC and Maryland. In this role, he oversees physician recruitment, strategic planning, and quality improvement in inpatient and outpatient psychiatric settings.

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale College and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. After completing a residency in psychiatry at Tufts-New England Medical Center, he was a fellow in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at Georgetown/Fairfax Hospital. From 1990 to 2000 he directed Georgetown’s Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry service and he became department chair in 2001. He currently directs Georgetown’s Physician Health Committee and Physician-Patient Communication Program.

Dr. Epstein has conducted NIH-funded research and published extensively in the area of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. In 2001, he was awarded an RO1 grant from NIMH to study primary care physicians’ decision-making in the evaluation and treatment of depression. He has also been principal investigator on two other NIMH grants in this area. He has been the recipient of four teaching awards from Georgetown psychiatry residents. In 2011 he was elected by his peers to the MAGIS Society of Masters Teachers of the Georgetown University School of Medicine. He is also co-chair of the Committee on Medical Education for the medical school.

In 2016 Dr. Epstein served as President of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, the 1400 member national organization for Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. He recently ended his term as Vice Chair of the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Committee of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. In July 2015, he was appointed to a six-year term as a member of the Psychiatry Review Committee for the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. For the past six years he has been a visiting Professor at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya.

Attending Psychiatrist

Risa Fishman, MD, is an outpatient physician at MWHC's Outpatient Behavioral Health Clinic. As an attending psychiatrist, she treats patients with various diagnoses, using pharmacotherapy and other treatment modalities. She also supervises psychologists, social workers and other allied health professionals; teaches clinical psychiatric evaluation, diagnosis and treatment to residents and medical students; and facilitates a weekly outpatient clinical case conference. Dr. Fishman is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Her medical degree is from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She completed an internship in Medicine and Neurology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and served as chief resident at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.

Dr. Hoge’s research focuses on treatments and markers of treatment for anxiety disorders and depression. She has NIH funding to examine meditation and other contemplative traditions as treatments for anxiety and stress, and to determine biomarkers of treatment which may indicate mechanistic pathways that could be targeted for treatment optimization or novel therapies.

Areas of Research: Anxiety Disorders diagnoses and treatment, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Mind-Body interventions for anxiety and insomnia, Oxytocin and anxiety

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry

Dr. Hsu investigates how basic cognitive processes (e.g., attention, executive functioning) impact the etiology and exacerbate symptom severity of depression and anxiety. He is also interested in scalable mental health interventions (e.g., cognitive training, brief interventions) and examining mechanisms underlying psychotherapeutic interventions, as well as increasing awareness of issues surrounding mental health and stigma in communities that are typically under-served or under-utilize mental health services. Clinically, Kean specializes in the treatment of depression, anxiety disorders, and stress in adults.

Kean completed a B.A. in psychology (with a behavioral neuroscience specialization) at Yale University before receiving his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Southern California in 2014. He completed postdoctoral research fellowships at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Texas at Austin. Most recently, Kean was a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin in the Institute for Mental Health Research and the Department of Psychology. He also co-directed the Anxiety and Stress Clinic with Jasper Smits, Ph.D., at UT-Austin.

Specifically, Dr. Hsu has helped to develop two mental health interventions, BASIC (Brief Assessment-informed Skills Intervention for COVID-19) and STAT (Short-term Transdiagnostic Anxiety Treatment). He is already actively involved in integrating BASIC, a brief personalized treatment based on patient-identified treatment targets using skills adapted from empirically supported interventions, into the Department of Psychiatry’s fast-track response to COVID-19 for Medstar associates. He will be offering training in BASIC to residents, fellows and faculty in the near term.

Clinical Psychologist
Associate Director, Georgetown Center for Trauma and the Community

Stacey Kaltman is a licensed clinical psychologist and an Associate Director of the Georgetown Center for Trauma and the Community. Dr. Kaltman’s research focuses on the development and evaluation of sustainable mental health interventions for underserved populations in primary care settings. In particular, she develops intervention for patients with uncontrolled diabetes and depression. Her education-related research focuses on how best to train medical students to achieve competence in medical interviewing and advanced communication skills. She is also the ombudsperson for the medical school.

Areas of Research: Trauma and loss, Latino mental health, integration of mental health services into the primary care setting, mental health disparities

Pediatric Psychologist

Dr. Katz is a pediatric psychologist who provides evaluation and treatment of children with problems with emotional regulation, anxiety, sleeping, and feeding. Previously the director of psychology training in Georgetown’s Center for Child Development, she has long experience in the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders. Her more recent work has included helping children deal with parent separation and divorce. Dr Katz’s research focuses on improving developmental outcomes for children with various medical and social risk factors. Dr Katz is an associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Georgetown. She teaches and supervises child and adolescent psychiatry fellows, pediatric residents and medical students. Dr Katz received her Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and her doctorate in clinical psychology from Rutgers University. She completed a clinical child psychology internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard-affiliated Judge Baker Children’s Center and Boston Children’s Hospital.

Clinical Psychologist
Founder and Director, Trauma and Loss Program at Georgetown University

Dr. Janice Krupnick is a licensed clinical psychologist and the founder and director of the Trauma and Loss Program at Georgetown University. Dr. Krupnick’s research focuses on the development and testing of psychological treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder. Recently, the populations that have been the focus of her research include low-income women and Veterans with PTSD.

Areas of Research: Posttraumatic stress disorder, psychosocial treatment development, low-income women and adolescent girls

Dr. Kupersmith has served on the faculty of the medical schools of New York University, the University of Louisville, Michigan State University, and Texas Tech University. A former ballet dancer with the New York City Ballet Company, Dr. Kupersmith has established innovative and successful performing arts programs at these medical centers. She has made numerous presentations across the country in the area of mental health of performing artists.

In addition to her clinical roles, Dr. Kupersmith has extensive experience as a general psychiatry and psychotherapy supervisor. In recognition of her expertise, she has received resident teaching awards at Michigan State, Texas Tech and Georgetown University.

Medical Director, Inpatient Psychiatry

Dr. Alan Langlieb currently serves as the Medical Director of the inpatient psychiatric unit of Medstar Georgetown University Hospital. He is also an author and educator, whose career interests have spanned three decades in a broad range of professional areas, including mental health in the workplace, trauma and resilience, health services research, health promotion, forensic psychiatry, and preventive medicine.

Dr. Langlieb specializes in treating adults with a variety of mood and behavioral disorders in the inpatient, outpatient, and partial hospitalization settings. He speaks nationally on topics such as health promotion and wellness, the benefits and assessment of quality care, stress and resilience, functional outcomes and productivity, employee safety, violence in the workplace, disability prevention, and the cost-effectiveness of psychiatric care.

Prior to joining Georgetown University Hospital, Dr. Langlieb spearheaded initiatives between academia and the corporate communities in his role as both past-Chairperson of the American Psychiatric Association Committee on Business Relations and as full-time faculty at both The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has expertise in forensic medicine and has contracted with government agencies including the CIA and the US Department of Justice. Additionally, he has co-developed innovative health promotion initiatives in preventive medicine and public health which resulted in strategic collaborations with corporations such as Johnson & Johnson, Glaxo SmithKline, Constellation Energy Group, Children's Television Workshop, The Lyons Group, NBC-TV, and the Maryland Department of Education.

As a recipient of the American Medical Association's Award for Excellence, Dr. Langlieb has been published in numerous peer-reviewed medical journals and has served as a peer reviewer for The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Journal of Managed Care, The European Journal of Psychiatry, and The Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. He is a past editor of the student section of JAMA. He is co-editor of a widely used textbook in the field of occupational medicine and psychiatry entitled, "Mental Health and Productivity in the Workplace." He is currently an Associate Editor of the journal Crisis, Stress, and Human Resilience.

Dr. Langlieb received his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine. He earned his MPH and MBA degrees and completed two residencies in both Psychiatry and Preventive Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University and is a Diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. 

Director, Adult Outpatient Program

Kara obtained her Master of Social Work degree in 2008 from Washington University. Since 2012 she has been the Director of Behavioral Health at Mary's Center where she also served as Senior Clinical Manager and psychotherapist.  

Clinical Psychologist

Karyn Hartz-Mandell, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in the Child and Adolescent Division of Psychiatry at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical Center. Dr. Hartz-Mandell's clinical work focuses on early childhood mental health, child group therapy, and parent training and support, including treatment for childhood anxiety, adjustment disorders, and behavioral disorders. Dr. Hartz-Mandell leads the Resilience Builder cognitive-behavioral group therapy program for children and adolescents in the psychiatry department. Dr. Hartz-Mandell provides supervision and teaching for psychology externs and psychiatry fellows.

Dr. Hartz-Mandell is part of the Early Childhood Innovation Network (ECIN) where she engages in research and evaluation of early childhood programs, including early childhood mental health consultation in early learning environments as well as child development and mental health support in pediatric primary care. Dr. Hartz-Mandell's research interests include early childhood mental health, teacher-child relationships, classrooms interactions, and the implementation of prevention and intervention programs to support children's social, emotional, and behavioral wellbeing.

Dr. Hartz-Mandell completed her Bachelors Degree at Cornell University. She then completed her PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Virginia Curry School of Education, her clinical internship at the Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital, and her postdoctoral fellowship specializing in early childhood mental health at Brown University.

Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, Georgetown University School of Medicine
Associate Director, Residency Training, Department of Psychiatry, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital

Dr. Ted Liao is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine and is the associate director of residency training for the Department of Psychiatry at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and his medical degree from the College of Physicians & Surgeons at Columbia University before completing his residency in psychiatry at Georgetown University Hospital, where he also served as chief resident. Dr. Liao was honored with several awards for teaching medical students and was named Resident Psychiatrist of the Year by the Washington Psychiatric Society. Prior to joining the faculty, he completed a psychosomatic medicine fellowship in the department of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine. In addition to seeing patients in the outpatient program for psychotherapy and psychopharmacology, Dr. Liao’s clinical work at Georgetown also includes evaluations of organ transplant candidates, care of patients undergoing treatment for cancer, and consultations on medically hospitalized patients.

Dr. Mete earned a bachelor's degree in Management Engineering, with a specialization in Economics and Mathematics, from Istanbul Technical University and received a PhD in Political Science, with emphasis on statistical methods, from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University and University of Georgia. She taught public policy, statistics and research methods at Georgetown University as a visiting professor and at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) as an adjunct faculty. Currently, she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry’s Research Division and manages the Biostatistics Department at MedStar Health Research Institute.

Dr. Mete has extensive collaboration experience and routinely assists MedStar and GU investigators in the development and management of quantitative interdisciplinary research. Specifically, she develops proposals, analyzes data, and assists with manuscript preparation and submission.She has a broad research portfolio that includes studies in mental health, diabetes, nutrition and cardiovascular disease.

Areas of Research: Anxiety, stress and depression, Nutrition, obesity and diabetes and their relationship to mental health, Stress and cardiovascular disease, Research design and statistical modeling

Michael Morse, MD, MPA is a child and adolescent psychiatrist whose clinical interests include ADHD across the lifespan and whose research and education interests include global mental health. He is the Executive Director of the Palestinian Medical Education Initiative (PMED), a non-governmental organization founded by Dr. Morse while he was a student at Harvard Medical School in 2007. PMED works to support Palestinian society through international partnerships in medical education, clinical program development, and policy planning. He is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and in addition completed a Masters in Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Palestinian Medical Education Initiative

Dr. Nicole Perras is a psychiatrist who specializes in Maternal Mental Health and Reproductive Psychiatry. She joined the faculty at MedStar Georgetown University in 2016 and is working primarily in the Georgetown Women’s Mental Health Program. Her main focus is on the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders during pregnancy and in the postpartum period and supporting women through transition stages such as infertility and motherhood. Dr. Perras also practices at Mary’s Center and Washington Hospital Center and is currently working to develop perinatal mental health programs at these institutions. In addition to her work in maternal mental health, Dr. Perras also sees adult patients in general psychiatry and supervises resident psychiatrists in the MedStar Georgetown University Hospital psychiatry clinics. Dr. Perras received her medical degree at Boston University School of Medicine and she completed her psychiatry resident training at George Washington University Hospital.

Dr. Pustilnik is the director of the Inpatient Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry service and provides consultative service to medically ill pediatric inpatients, outpatient consultation through the Integrated Care Clinic at Georgetown Pediatrics of Tenleytown, and telephonic consultation through the DC MAP program, as well as psychiatric care of children with mood and anxiety disorders, disruptive behavior disorders and ADHD. His clinical and teaching interests include pediatric psychosomatic medicine and the integration of mental health into pediatric primary care. Dr. Pustilnik completed his B.A. in Behavioral Biology at Johns Hopkins University, M.S. in Physiology and Biophysics at Georgetown University, and graduated from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. He completed his General Psychiatry Residency at the VCU School of Medicine hospital, and fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical Institution.

Attending Psychiatrist

Andrew Radu, MD, is a dedicated community outpatient psychiatrist at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and teaches our residents. He holds a BA in psychology and a Master of Bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Sidney Kimmel Medical College and completed his psychiatry residency at Albert Einstein Medical Center. Dr. Radu is passionate about treating underserved populations and has a special interest in athlete psychiatry. For fun, he enjoys competitive fencing and is the reigning US national champion Veteran Men's Foil.

Clinical Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry

Aaron Rakow, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Rakow’s professional background focuses on improving access to empirically supported mental health interventions via training and dissemination efforts within school systems and primary care offices. His teaching and clinical emphasis focuses on cognitive behavioral therapy for child and adolescent anxiety disorders. He also provides supervision in the child and adolescent fellowship program.

Madhu Rao, MD, MS

Outpatient Psychiatrist
and Collaborative Care

Clinical Psychologist

Lindsey Sankin, PhD is a CBT therapist specializing in behavioral treatments of mood, anxiety, and personality disorders, with a specific focus on major depression and borderline personality disorder. She will also provide education and supervision for our residents and students.

Dr. Sankin completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology and Hispanic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Westchester Division. Prior to joining us, Dr. Sankin was on the faculty at Weill Cornell Medicine for three years. In addition to expertise in CBT, she is trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy. She is also a bilingual therapist, providing psychotherapy in both English and Spanish.

Shilpa Saroop, PhD is a licensed psychologist in the Women’s Mental Health Program. She specializes in women’s perinatal mental health and treats mood and anxiety disorders during pregnancy and postpartum. Dr. Saroop also provides support for women as they transition to motherhood. She conducts individuals, couples, and family therapy in the Women’s Mental Health Program. Another area of focus for Dr. Saroop includes providing support to families of babies receiving care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). There, she provides on-site consultation to treatment providers and brief interventions, assessment and referrals for individuals and families who have a child receiving care in the NICU. She also leads support groups for family members. Dr. Saroop also participates in the training of psychiatry residents here at MGUH. Prior to joining MGUH, Dr. Saroop served as an assistant professor and directed clinical services and training of medical and non-medical students in the Department of Psychiatry at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA.

Clinical Psychiatrist for Burn

Daniel Schneider, PsyD, RYT, is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and a behavioral health specialist in the Trauma, Burn Division. He is a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and surgery at Georgetown University School of Medicine and also teaches residents.

Dr. Schneider received his undergraduate degree from the Florida State University as a double major in Criminology and Psychology. He completed his master’s and doctorate degrees from the American School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Washington, D.C. He completed an American Psychological Association (APA) Accredited Pre-Doctoral Clinical Psychology Internship at Friends Hospital in Philadelphia and then did his post-doctorate fellowship at Florida State Hospital with a focus on trauma and forensic issues. 

Training Director, Child and Adolescent Residency Training Program

Dr. Stewart is the training director for the Child and Adolescent Residency Training program. He also provides clinical care, including directing a clinic dedicated to diagnosis and treatment of ADHD and disruptive behavior disorders. Dr. Stewart completed his internship and residency at UCSF and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at Emory University School of Medicine. He serves on the AAMC’s Group for Diversity and Inclusion.

Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist

Pauline Tsai, MD joined the outpatient psychiatry department at Georgetown in fall 2016, with a focus on patients with chronic medical illness. She also supervises residents, fellows, and medical students in the inpatient consultation liaison service at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and in the outpatient clinic. Dr. Tsai is board certified in adult psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine and completed medical school at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. She completed her residency and psychosomatic training at NYU/Bellevue. Particular areas of interest include: cultural psychiatry, especially work with the Chinese American population, clinical ethics, collaborative care.

Director, Substance Abuse Program, Department of Psychiatry

Babette A. Wise, LICSW, is the director of the Substance Abuse Program in the Department of Psychiatry. She has been a full-time member of the department since July 1982. At that time she and Dr. William E. Flynn established the addiction program. She treats individuals, couples and families who are struggling with the disease of substance abuse.

Ms. Wise completed her Master of Arts in special education from The George Washington University in 1975 and her Master of Social Work from The Catholic University of America in 1981. She teaches medical students and psychiatric residents about substance abuse. She also supervises residents in psychotherapy. She has been interviewed extensively over the years in a variety of media outlets about substance abuse and is a resource for colleagues and members of the community about the disease of addiction and treatment.

Clinical Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry, and Department of Pediatrics

Karimah Ware, Psy.D. is a Clinical Psychologist with joint appointments in the Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics. She is licensed in both DC and MD and has an expertise in child and adolescent psychology. Dr. Ware has a particular interest in working with youth, whom research has indicated, as being at an increased risk for development of mental disorders. Her areas of specialty are school mental health; conducting various psychological assessments; facilitating individual, group, and family therapy; providing supervision and training; crisis management; and teacher, psychiatric, and parent consultation. Dr. Ware has worked with patients diagnosed with disorders such as anxiety, depression, bereavement, trauma, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

Dr. Ware, who holds a Psy.D. from the American School of Professional Psychology, has worked in settings ranging from schools to community mental health centers to psychiatric hospitals. In addition, Dr. Ware has facilitated various workshops, to include effective classroom management, depression in youth, and parenting trainings, to name a few. She has a passion to train and supervise others entering the mental health field, and has formed great working relationships with other local universities, as she has had the opportunity to supervise and train clinical psychology externs, interns, associates, and other licensed psychologists. Dr. Ware successfully completed post-licensure, advanced training at the Washington School of Psychiatry in its two-year child and adolescent psychodynamic psychotherapy training program.

Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist

Director of the PHP Program and Outpatient psychiatrist

Dr. Zack received her Ph.D. from the Clinical Social Work Institute and her Masters from McGill University. She is an experienced clinician and supervisor and provides individual and couples therapy with a focus on psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and supportive psychotherapy. She supervises and teaches in the residents training program. Her areas of interest include women’s mental health, mood and anxiety disorders, and stage-of-life transitions.

Joyce Y. Chung, MD, received her Bachelor of Science and medical degree from Northwestern University. She completed her psychiatric residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and then a research fellowship in medical anthropology at Harvard Medical School. Her research interests include the study of sociocultural barriers to mental health care, treatment interventions for mental health problems in minority populations, ethnographic and qualitative research methods, and patient-provider discourse and communication. She is the recipient of several research grants.

Dr. Chung has also been active in the area of HIV psychiatry through her clinical practice, educational lectures and published articles about psychiatric complications associated with HIV and AIDS. She helped formulate and was the chief writer for the American Psychiatric Association's Practice Guidelines for the Treatment of Patients with HIV/AIDS. During her eleven-year affiliation with Georgetown, Dr. Chung has served as chief of the Consultation-Liaison service at the Washington VA and as medical director of the Mental Health Care Unit at Georgetown University Hospital. She is a member of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, American Anthropological Association and Alpha Omega Alpha.

Clinical and Deputy Scientific Director, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health

Dr. Pao is clinical and deputy scientific director of the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health. She is chief of the Psychiatry Consultation Liaison Service (Adult and Child) in the Clinical Center.

A native of Bethesda, MD, Dr. Pao attended Wellesley College before completing a Bachelor of Arts/Medical Degree Program at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She completed pediatric and psychiatric residency training as well as a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Pao was the director of the Pediatric Consultation Liaison Service in the Children's Center of Johns Hopkins Hospital as well as the director of pediatric consultation liaison and emergency psychiatric services at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She is board-certified in general psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, and psychosomatic medicine. Dr. Pao is a past recipient of the NIMH Outstanding Resident Award (1991) and has received teaching awards both during her time at Johns Hopkins and at Children's National Medical Center. She also received the NIMH Hannah Cashman Memorial Award for Excellence in Psychiatric Consultation Liaison Service (2003).

Dr. Pao's clinical and research interests are in the complex interactions between somatic and psychiatric symptoms in chronic diseases of childhood such as HIV, other primary immune disorders, and pediatric oncology. Dr. Pao is Co-Chair of the Physically Ill Child Committee in the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and councilor of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. She was elected to the American College of Psychiatrists in 2010. She has written more than 120 papers and chapters and served as a senior editor for the Quick Reference for Pediatric Oncology Clinicians: The Psychiatric and Psychological Dimensions of Pediatric Cancer Symptom Management, Oxford University Press (2015). She helped develop the ASQ™ (Ask Suicide-Screening Questions), a suicide screening tool for pediatric emergency departments, and Voicing My CHOICES™, an advance care planning guide for adolescents and young adults. Dr. Pao is recognized for her leadership and training in pediatric psychosomatic medicine.

Sarah Kleinfeld, MD

Psychiatry Residency Site Director at Washington, D.C. VAMC

The WRIISC-DC is a national VA Post-Deployment Health Resource and provides post-deployment health expertise to Veterans and their health care providers through clinical programs, research, education, and risk communication. Dr. Reinhard obtained his B.A. degree from Long Island University, his M.A. and Doctorate of Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University, and interned at the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center (APA). He completed a two-year National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) post-doctoral fellowship in neuropsychology at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.

Areas of Research: Cognitive and Neuropsychological factors of PTSD, Complimentary and Integrative treatment for PTSD, Deployment health, Neurocognitive effects of environmental toxin exposure

Dr. Schwartz’s research program is focused on understanding cognitive and emotional impairments in schizophrenia. Her research extends from basic studies of human memory to clinical trials designed to reduce cognitive impairment, symptoms, and functional disability. Her research group has used experimental cognitive and behavioral tasks, eye tracking, brain imaging, and pharmacological challenges to study cognitive functioning in clinical disorders.