Faculty




Learn from and ask difficult questions of the foremost experts in mental health. We pride ourselves on having the nation’s leading educators, clinicians, and researchers share cutting-edge research and the latest information and treatment strategies with you to ensure you leave excited and empowered to tackle even your most challenging cases.

CONFERENCE CHAIRMAN
Roger S. McIntyre, MD, FRCPC


Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and of Pharmacology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada 

Chairman and Executive Director, Brain and Cognition Discovery Foundation, Toronto, ON, Canada 

Director and Chair, Scientific Advisory Board, Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, Chicago, IL, USA 

Clinical Professor, State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA 

Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, University of California School of Medicine, Riverside, CA, USA 

Professor and Nanshan Scholar, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China 

Adjunct Professor, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea 

Visiting Professor, College of Medicine, University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines 

CEO, Braxia Scientific Corp, Toronto, ON, Canada


Dr. Roger S. McIntyre is currently a Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology at the University of Toronto and Head of the Mood Disorders Psychopharmacology Unit at the University Health Network, Toronto, Canada. Dr. McIntyre is also Executive Director of the Brain and Cognition Discovery Foundation in Toronto, Canada.    

Dr. McIntyre was named by Thomson Reuters in 2014 and 2015, as one of “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds”. This distinction is given by publishing the largest number of articles that rank among those most frequently cited by researchers globally in 21 broad fields of science and social science during the previous decade.    

Dr. McIntyre is involved in multiple research endeavors which primarily aim to characterize the association between mood disorders, notably cognitive function, and medical comorbidity. His works broadly aims to characterize the underlying causes of cognitive impairment in individuals with mood disorders and their impact on workplace functioning. This body of work has provided a platform for identifying novel molecular targets to treat and prevent mood disorders and accompanying cognitive impairment.    

Dr. McIntyre is extensively involved in medical education. He is a highly sought-after speaker at both national and international meetings. He has received several teaching awards from the University of Toronto, Department of Psychiatry and has been a recipient of the joint Canadian Psychiatric Association (CPA) / Council of Psychiatric Continuing Education Award for the Most Outstanding Continuing Education Activity in Psychiatry in Canada.   

Dr. McIntyre is a contributor to the “Florida Medicaid Drug Therapy Management Program for Behavioral Health: Guidelines for the treatment of adults with Major Depressive Disorder and Bipolar Disorder”. Dr. McIntyre is also the co-chair of the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) Task Force on the Treatment of Comorbidity in Adults with Major Depressive Disorder or Bipolar Disorder and as well a contributor to the “CANMAT Guidelines for the Treatment of Depressive Disorders and Bipolar Disorders”. Dr. McIntyre has published hundreds of peer-reviewed articles and has edited and/or co-edited several textbooks on mood disorders.   

Dr. McIntyre completed his medical degree at Dalhousie University. He received his Psychiatry residency training and Fellowship in Psychiatric Pharmacology at the University of Toronto. 

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Laxman B. Bahroo, DO, MS, FAAN


Professor and Residency Program Director, Department of Neurology, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital Pasquerilla Healthcare Center, Washington, DC


Dr. Laxman B. Bahroo is an assistant professor and co-director of the Neurology Residency Program at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. He attended medical school in New Jersey, and he completed an internship at Saint Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, Pa. Dr. Bahroo completed his neurology residency as served as the Academic Chief Resident in his final year at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. He also completed a two-year fellowship in movement disorders at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. As a board-certified neurologist and member of the Movement Disorders program, his primary areas of focus in movement disorders include the medical and surgical management of Parkinson's disease and essential tremor. He also specializes in therapeutic botulinum toxin injections for dystonia spasticity and excessive drooling.

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Dani Cabral, MD


Assistant Clinical Professor, Departments of Neurology and of Psychiatry, University of Arizona College of Medicine, Phoenix, AZ

Dementia Specialist, Banner Sun Health Research Institute, Sun City, AZ


Dani Cabral, MD is a dual board-certified neurologist and psychiatrist specializing in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias and an Assistant Professor for the University of Arizona College of Medicine Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry. She has cared for patients and families living with neurodegenerative diseases and has served as Principal Investigator for numerous Alzheimer's treatment trials. She currently leads clinical trials of investigational treatments, including psychedelics, for psychiatric diseases in Phoenix, Arizona.

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Leslie Citrome, MD, MPH


Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY


Dr. Leslie Citrome is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York and has a private practice in Pomona, New York. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Clinical Practice, published by Wiley. Dr. Citrome was the founding Director of the Clinical Research and Evaluation Facility at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research in Orangeburg, New York, and after nearly two decades of government service as a researcher in the psychopharmacological treatment of severe mental disorders, Dr. Citrome is now engaged as a consultant in clinical trial design and interpretation.  

Dr. Citrome is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology. Main areas of interest include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder. He is a frequent lecturer on the quantitative assessment of clinical trial results using the evidence-based medicine metrics of number needed to treat and number needed to harm.

Dr. Citrome is the author or co-author of over 400 research reports, reviews, and chapters in the scientific literature, is on the editorial board of 13 different medical journals, reviews for over 90 journals, and has lectured extensively throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, and Asia.

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Andrew J. Cutler, MD


Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY

Chief Medical Officer, Neuroscience Education Institute, Carlsbad, CA


Dr. Andrew J. Cutler attended Haverford College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, earning a BS in Biology. He received his MD from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, where he was also elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) honor medical society and received the Merck Award for outstanding medical scholarship. He completed his medical internship, Internal Medicine residency and Psychiatry residency at the University of Virginia Medical Center, where he served as Chief Resident of Psychiatric Medicine and did research on dopamine receptor pharmacology in the lab of James P. Bennett, MD, PhD.  Dr. Cutler then served as the first Assistant Professor and Director of Psychiatric Medicine at the University of Chicago.  He has been Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Psychiatry. 

Dr. Cutler has been Principal Investigator (PI) on over 400 psychiatric and medical clinical trials.

Dr. Cutler has authored over 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles and has authored and presented over 100 abstracts/posters at various scientific meetings.  He serves as a peer reviewer for many prestigious scientific and medical journals and serves or has served on several Editorial Boards.  He has chaired or attended over 200 Scientific Advisory Boards, delivered over 3,000 pharmaceutical promotional talks and over 250 invited CME lectures and Grand Rounds presentations.  He has also done over 30 national satellite television medical education broadcasts and over 100 national medical web conferences. 

Dr. Cutler is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association, the Florida Psychiatric Society, and the American Medical Association.  He has earned the Certified Physician Investigator (CPI) distinction from the Academy of Physicians in Clinical Research (formerly the Academy of Pharmaceutical Physicians and Investigators). He is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. He has received several professional honors and awards including the Merck Award for outstanding medical scholarship, the University of Virginia Pride Award for outstanding patient care, the William Sorum Award from the American Psychiatric Association, the Outstanding Congressional Fellow Award from the 103rd U.S. Congress, a citation from Florida Hospital for outstanding patient care and the Distinguished Clinical Professional Award from the Mental Health Association of Central Florida. He presents research posters and teaches at professional meetings and has published numerous articles in scientific and medical journals. Dr. Cutler frequently gives talks to community groups and national audiences, and often appears as a medical expert in the local and national media.

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Kari L. Franson, PharmD, PhD, BCPP, FNAP


Professor, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Southern California School of Pharmacy, Los Angeles, CA


Kari L. Franson PharmD, PhD, BCPP, FNAP joined the University of Southern California in 2020. She is the senior associate dean for academic and student affairs and Professor of Clinical Pharmacy. She is an educator with more than 30 years of experience in institutions around the world with expertise in psychopharmacology and the development of an interprofessional healthcare workforce. As a U.S. Board-Certified Psychiatric Pharmacist and Dutch-Certified Clinical Pharmacologist she worked with geriatric psychiatric patients and has performed a variety of clinical studies spanning those in early-phase clinical pharmacology to post-marketing clinical efficacy studies. Dr. Franson has guided national and international professional, legislative, media and commercial groups on the wise study and use of cannabis and sports pharmacy.

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Joseph F. Goldberg, MD


Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, NY


Dr. Joseph Goldberg is a psychiatrist with 25 years of experience in academic research studying the features and treatment of mood disorders, particularly bipolar disorder and other forms of depression. He has spent many years conducting studies of mood disorders at academic medical centers such as the Payne Whitney Clinic/Weill Medical College of New York Presbyterian Hospital, the Zucker Hillside Hospital-North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System, and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Presently he supervises and teaches psychopharmacology to medical students and residents at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and maintains a private practice in Norwalk, CT. His goal is to integrate knowledge from that research background by taking a scholarly approach to psychopharmacology and applying it in tailored fashion to the unique needs of an individual patient. 

Dr. Goldberg has published over 180 original research publications in major psychiatric journals as well as 3 books on topics related to mood disorders, focusing on the use of anticonvulsant mood stabilizers and atypical antipsychotics, safety risks with antidepressants in bipolar disorder, management of drug side effects, features related to rapid cycling bipolar disorder, suicide risk in bipolar disorder, cognitive dysfunction in bipolar disorder, pharmacogenetics in bipolar disorder, comorbid psychiatric disorders in bipolar disorder, and the long-term functional course and outcome of bipolar disorder and depression. He serves on the board of directors of the American Society for Clinical Psychopharmacology and has lectured nationally and internationally at major scientific meetings and conferences, such as the American Psychiatric Association, the Society of Biological Psychiatry, the American Society for Clinical Psychopharmacology, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum, the International Society for Affective Disorders, and the International Society for Bipolar Disorders.    

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David W. Goodman, MD, FAPA


Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD

Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Norton College of Medicine, State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY


Dr. David W. Goodman is an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, and the director and founder of the Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Center of Maryland in Baltimore, MD. His interests include adult ADHD, associated mood/anxiety/substance use disorders, and complex psychopharmacology.

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Napoleon B. Higgins, Jr., MD


Executive Director, Black Psychiatrists of America


Dr. Napoleon Higgins is a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist in Houston, Texas. He is the owner of Bay Pointe Behavioral Health Services and South East Houston Research Group.

Dr. Higgins received his MD from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, and he completed his residency in Adult Psychiatry and his fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He is the Executive Director of the Black Psychiatrists of America, CEO of Global Health Psychiatry, President of the Black Psychiatrists of Greater Houston, and Past President of the Caucus of Black Psychiatrists of the American Psychiatric Association

Dr. Higgins is co-author of Bree’s Journey to Joy: A Story about Childhood Grief and Depression, How Amari Learned to Love School Again: A Story about ADHD, Mind Matters: A Resource Guide to Psychiatry for Black Communities and author of Transition 2 Practice: 21 Things Every Doctor Must Know In Contract Negotiations and the Job Search. He also specializes in nutrition and health to improve patients’ lives mentally and physically. He emphasizes that good mental and physical health are key in the practice of psychiatry and medicine.

Dr. Higgins has worked with and founded many programs that help to direct inner-city young men and women to aspire to go to college and finish their educational goals. He has worked with countless community mentoring programs and has special interest in trauma, racism, and inner-city issues and how they affect minority and disadvantaged children and communities.

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Judge Steven Leifman


Associate Administrative Judge, Miami-Dade County Court Criminal Division, Miami, FL


Judge Steve Leifman is the Associate Administrative Judge of the Miami-Dade County Court Criminal Division. He previously served as Special Advisor on Criminal Justice and Mental Health for the Supreme Court of Florida and currently chairs the Florida Supreme Court’s Steering Committee on Problem Solving Courts.

Judge Leifman is the co-chair of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Mental Health Committee and co-chair of the Judges and Psychiatrists Leadership Initiative. He serves on the Florida Statewide Task Force on Opioid Abuse, the Florida Drug Policy Advisory Council, and the National Institute on Drug Addiction’s (NIDA) Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network. Judge Leifman is a member of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP), a Lecturer in Psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and a Voluntary Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Judge Leifman was appointed to serve on the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts' Response to Mental Illness and the Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee (ISMICC) established by the 21st Century Cures Act.

In 2015, Judge Leifman received the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence. One of the nation’s highest judicial honors presented by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the Rehnquist Award is presented annually to a state court judge who exemplifies judicial excellence, integrity, fairness, and professional ethics. Judge Leifman is also the first recipient to receive the Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Award for Judicial Excellence (2015). He was named a 2016 Governing Magazine Public Official of the Year. More recently, Judge Leifman was awarded the 2020 Dade County Bar Association (DCBA) David W. Dyer Professionalism Award, the 2018 Pardes Humanitarian Prize in Mental Health, the 2019 Yale-NAMI Mental Health Advocacy Award and a 2019 Presidential Commendation by the American Psychiatric Association.

On October 22, 2023, Judge Leifman was bestowed the Papal Medal Benemerenti from Pope Francis by Archbishop Thomas Wenski for his work in the judicial system on behalf of people with mental illnesses.

Judge Leifman has authored and published numerous articles and has been featured in many national and local television programs, radio programs, and articles regarding mental health and the criminal justice system. His most recent co-authored article was published in the Atlantic Magazine on May 30, 2022. Judge Leifman is the subject of the Documentary, The Definition of Insanity which aired nationally on PBS on April 14, 2020 - https://doifilm.com/

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Rajnish Mago, MD


Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Norton College of Medicine, State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY

Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Simple and Practical Mental Health


Rajnish (“Raj”) Mago, MD is the Founder and Editor of Simple and Practical Medical Education (simpleandpractical.com), a website that helps mental health clinicians to become expert Psychopharmacologists by providing advanced clinical tips to help with practical challenges that psychopharmacologists face regularly. He is also the author of the widely-acclaimed book Side Effects of Psychiatric Medications: Assessment, Prevention, and Management, Second Edition (2020).

He is a clinical professor of psychiatry at SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, and a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, where he is the director of the psychopharmacology curriculum.

Dr. Mago is equally a clinician, researcher, and educator, with each of these areas informing the others.

As a clinician, he provides specialized second-opinion consultations as well as ongoing care to adults with mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and ADHD.

As a researcher and academic, he has done studies on tools for identifying and assessing symptoms that may be adverse effects, on the treatment of side effects like antidepressant-induced excessive sweating, and on the use of genetic testing to predict who may be more likely to have adverse effects.

As an educator, his website (simpleandpractical.com) continues to help thousands of mental health clinicians in over 70 countries. At the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA, he designed and leads a four-year psychopharmacology curriculum for psychiatry residents. He is also actively involved in continuing medical education in his capacity as chair of the education committees for both the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society and the Philadelphia Psychiatric Society, and as a member of the CME committee for the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology. Dr. Mago is also an associate editor of the periodical Current Psychiatry.

Dr. Mago has been widely recognized for being an exceptional teacher and has received many awards for his teaching. These include the following (in reverse chronological order):

- Indian American Psychiatric Society's Outstanding Academician award (2023)
- Albert Stunkard Faculty Recognition Award from the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania (2019)
- Philadelphia Psychiatric Society’s award for being the Psychiatric Educator of the Year (2014)
- Dean’s Award for Excellence in Education at Jefferson Medical College (2013)
- Robert Waelder Award for teaching from the graduating residents (Class of 2012) at Thomas Jefferson University (2012)
- Philadelphia Psychiatric Society’s Daniel Blain Award (2011)
- American Psychiatric Association's Irma Bland Award for Excellence in Teaching Residents (2011)
- American Psychiatric Association's Nancy C.A. Roeske MD Certificate of Recognition for Excellence in Medical Student Education (2010)

Contact information: mago@simpleandpractical.com. Phone 201-762-4620. Fax 888-312-4146

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Vladimir Maletic, MD


Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, SC


Dr. Vladimir Maletic is a clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Greenville, and a consulting associate in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Maletic received his medical degree in 1981 and his master’s degree in neurobiology in 1985, both from the University of Belgrade in Yugoslavia. He went on to complete a residency in psychiatry at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, followed by a residency in child and adolescent psychiatry at Duke University. 

Dr. Maletic is a member of several professional organizations, including the Southern Psychiatric Association and The American College of Psychiatrists. He has published three books, including “The New Mind-Body Science of Depression”, numerous articles and several book chapters. Dr. Maletic has participated in various national and international meetings and congresses. His special areas of interest include the neurobiology of mood disorders, schizophrenia, pain, and the regulation of sleep and wakefulness. Dr. Maletic is board certified in psychiatry and neurology.

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Desiree M. Matthews, PMHNP-BC


Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Advanced Practice Clinical Liaison Monarch, Charlotte, NC Stanley, North Carolina


Desiree Matthews is a board certified psychiatric nurse practitioner with expertise in treating patients living with severe mental illness. Beyond clinical practice, Desiree has provided leadership in advocating for optimal outcomes and elevating healthcare provider education. Desiree is the founder and owner of Different MHP, a telepsychiatry practice founded with the mission of providing affordable, accessible precision focused, integrative psychiatry to patients through a rich and comprehensive mentorship of the health care providers within the company.

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Adelaide S. Robb, MD


Distinguished Endowed Professor and Chair, Division of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Children’s National Hospital, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC

Chair, Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), National Institute of Mental Health



Thomas L. Schwartz, MD


Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Norton College of Medicine, State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 


Dr. Thomas L. Schwartz is active on many teaching, administrative and curriculum committees at SUNY, he also provides direct resident supervision, lectures in several courses, and directs and organizes continuing medical education events for the psychiatry department.   

Dr. Schwartz received his medical degree from and completed his residency in adult psychiatry at the State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. 

Dr. Schwartz’s abilities as a medical educator have been recognized with the Marc H. Hollander, MD, Psychiatry Award, Teacher of the Year, and Mentor of the Year awards from SUNY Upstate Medical University, Nancy Roeske, MD, Irma Bland, Certificates of Recognition for Excellence in Medical Student and Resident Education from the American Psychiatric Association, the SUNY Upstate President’s and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Teaching.

Dr. Schwartz is the author of Practical Psychopharmacology: Basic to Advanced Principles, "Stahl’s Essential Psychopharmacology” Case Studies Volume 2, Integrating Psychotherapy and Pharmacotherapy, Antipsychotic Drugs: Pharmacology, Side Effects and Abuse Prevention, Second and Third Generation Antipsychotics. He is the editor of Depression: Treatment Strategies and Management, 1st and 2nd Eds. and is the Deputy Editor for the journal CNS Spectrums.

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Manpreet K. Singh, MD, MS


Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 


Dr. Manpreet K. Singh is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and leads a program aimed to accelerate understanding and treatment in youth with or at high risk for developing lifelong mood disorders.  

Dr. Singh earned her MD at Michigan State University and her MS at University of Michigan.  She completed her combined residency training in Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. After two years of T32 postdoctoral training at Stanford’s Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research, she joined the faculty in 2009.   

Dr. Singh leads a multidisciplinary team that evaluates and treats youth with a spectrum of mood disorders as young as age 2 and well into their 20s. Her NIMH and industry funded studies examine mechanisms underlying mood disorders and apply cutting edge strategies to directly modulate the brain using transcranial magnetic stimulation and real time neurofeedback.  She is also investigating the efficacy and safety of pharmacotherapies and psychotherapies, such as family focused psychotherapy and mindfulness meditation, to reduce mood symptoms and family stress. All these areas of research aim to elucidate core mechanisms underlying mood disorders and how treatment early in life can pave the path to more adaptive outcomes. 

In her spare time, Dr. Singh enjoys traveling and hiking with her husband and three children, and avidly teaches Indian classical music.

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Stephen M. Stahl, MD, PhD, DSc (Hon.)


Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, University of California, Riverside School of Medicine, Riverside, CA  

Adjunct Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA  

Honorary Visiting Senior Fellow, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK   

Editor-in-Chief, CNS Spectrums  

Director of Psychopharmacology Services, California Department of State Hospitals, CA  


Dr. Stephen M. Stahl received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Northwestern University in Chicago, as a member of the Honors Program in Medical Education, and his Ph.D. degree in pharmacology and physiology from the University of Chicago. Dr. Stahl has trained in three specialties: internal medicine at the University of Chicago; neurology at the University of California in San Francisco; and psychiatry at Stanford University. He is board certified in psychiatry.  

Dr. Stahl has held faculty positions at Stanford University, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the Institute of Psychiatry London, the Institute of Neurology London, and, currently, as professor at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and as an Honorary Visiting Senior Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge in the UK. He also directs psychopharmacology services and academic programs for the eight-facility, 6500 patient California Department of State Hospital System, where he also heads their assessment and treatment efforts to reduce violence. Dr. Stahl was formerly Executive Director of Clinical Neurosciences at the Merck Neuroscience Research Center in the UK for several years. Dr. Stahl’s major interests are dedicated to producing and disseminating educational information about diseases and their treatments in psychiatry and neurology, with a special emphasis on multimedia, the internet and teaching how to teach.      

Dr. Stahl currently serves as editor-in-chief of CNS Spectrums. He is also past associate editor of Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, former clinical field editor for the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology and is currently on numerous editorial boards of other leading journals including the ACNP’s journal Neuropsychopharmacology. He has conducted numerous research projects during his career awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), by the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) and by the pharmaceutical industry. Author of over 500 articles and chapters, and more than 1600 scientific presentations and abstracts, Dr. Stahl is an internationally renowned clinician, researcher, and teacher in psychiatry with subspecialty expertise in psychopharmacology. Dr. Stahl has written 35 books and edited 12 others, including the best-selling and award-winning textbook, Stahl’s Essential Psychopharmacology, now in its fifth edition, the best-selling and award-winning clinical manual, Essential Psychopharmacology Prescriber’s Guide, now in its sixth edition.  

Lectures, courses, and preceptorships based upon his textbooks have taken him to dozens of countries on 6 continents to speak to tens of thousands of physicians, mental health professionals and students at all levels. His lectures and scientific presentations have been distributed as more than a million CD-ROMs, internet educational programs, videotapes, audiotapes, and programmed home study texts for continuing medical education to hundreds of thousands of professionals in many different languages. His courses and award-winning multimedia teaching materials are used by psychopharmacology teachers and students throughout the world.    

Dr. Stahl serves as a fellow of the ACNP (American College of Neuro-psychopharmacology), of the British Association of Psychopharmacology (BAP) and of the CINP, where he was formerly vice president and is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). He also has served on numerous medical and scientific advisory boards for the pharmaceutical industry, for the biotechnology and medical information industry, and for various nonprofit and public service organizations, including appointment by the State of California and past Chair of the Medi-Cal Oversight Board for Medicines (Drug Utilization Review Board).    

His educational research programs are monitoring changes in diagnosing and prescribing behaviors as outcomes from various educational interventions for programs organized by the Neuroscience Education Institute, which he chairs. He also has an active clinical practice specializing in psychopharmacologic treatment of resistant cases.

He has been awarded the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP) Lundbeck Foundation Award in Education for his contributions to postgraduate education in psychiatry and neurology. His books have won the British Medical Association’s Book of the Year Award and Arbor Scientia has been awarded the business of the year award from the local chamber of commerce. Dr. Stahl is also the winner of the A.E. Bennett Award of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, the APA/San Diego Psychiatric Society Education Award, the UCSD department of psychiatry residency teaching award, and has been cited as both one of “America’s Top Psychiatrists” and one of the “Best Doctors in America.” He was honored with the Distinguished Psychiatrist Award of the APA and gave the Distinguished Psychiatrist Lecture for 2013. Recently, his alma mater Northwestern University honored him by naming their annual award for the best medical student going into psychiatry the Stephen Stahl award. Dr. Stahl was named the 2016 David A Mrazek Memorial Award Winner by the American Psychiatric Association and delivered the Mrazek Lecture at the annual meeting of the APA.

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Jeffrey R. Strawn, MD


Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH


Dr. Jeffrey R. Strawn's early work examined the neurophysiology, neurochemistry, and neuroanatomy of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. His examination of cortical thickness in adolescents with anxiety, revealed abnormalities in cortical thickness in an ensemble of regions responsible for fear learning, fear extinction, reflective functioning (e.g., mentalization), and regulation of the amygdala. Additionally, gray matter volumes in youth with anxiety disorders are greater in the dorsal anterior cingulate and decreased in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex), cuneus/precuneus, as well as decreased amygdala gray matter volumes in the amygdala which is consistent with his functional MRI data suggesting increased activation in youth with anxiety disorders, relative to healthy comparison subjects, during a continuous processing task with emotional and neutral distractors. Additionally, from a neurochemistry standpoint, he has demonstrated that glutamatergic tone in the anterior cingulate cortex is directly linked with anxiety symptom severity in youth with anxiety. These studies suggest that anxiety disorders are associated with structural, functional, and neurochemical abnormalities with prefrontal-amygdala circuitry. By providing evidence of these structural, functional, and neurochemical abnormalities, this body of work has propelled additional studies of these structures in youth who are at risk for developing anxiety disorders and in studies which have allowed the integration of psychopharmacologic treatment studies with neuroimaging evaluations of anxious youth. 

In parallel with Dr. Strawn's work on the neurophysiology of mood and anxiety disorders in children and adolescents, he has worked to increase the evidence base for treatment interventions in youth. Using meta-analysis, he demonstrated that antidepressants are well-tolerated in pediatric patients with anxiety disorders, but also examined specific class-specific side effects (e.g., activation). Also, he has examined the unique tolerability of antidepressants in special populations of adolescents with depressive and anxiety disorders (e.g., those who are at high risk for the development of bipolar disorder) and has observed that antidepressants are poorly tolerated in this population with likelihood of antidepressant adverse events leading to discontinuation being directly related to age. Additionally, he has extensive expertise in the conduct of double blind, placebo-controlled trials in youth with anxiety disorders. As an example, with his collaborators, they demonstrated the efficacy of duloxetine in a double-blind placebo-controlled trial of duloxetine which culminated in an FDA indication for duloxetine in children and adolescents with GAD (age 7-17).

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Contesa Tate, MA


Program Director, Angelo Quinto Community Response Team, Felton Institute, Alameda, CA


Contesa Tate has extensive experience in the field of outreach, counseling and therapy and advocates for mental and social development. With years of experience in working with At Risk populations, Contesa Tate has helped individuals, families and veterans who were homeless, addicted to alcohol or other drugs, suicidal and in crisis, mentally ill, conflicts with the law, rape and abuse and more.

Contesa’s interest to provide empowerment services led to creating A Virtuous Women Ministry, a ministry she created in 2008 while earning her Baccalaureate Degrees at the University of California, Davis. The ministry has provided a safe haven where adult and young women could give testimonies, ask for spiritual guidance and reassurance.

With a growing interest in serving the community by way of mental, social and spiritual health, Contesa continued her education and earned her master’s in counseling psychology with an Emphasis on Marriage, Family Therapy in 2014. As a therapist, Contesa has provided individual and group therapy for child and family bonding with Early Childhood mental health, individual and group therapy for severely mentally ill Transitional Aged Youth with Fred Finch in Contra Costa County, individual therapy and case management for Re Entry population in Solano County through Bay Area Community Services, as well as provide mental health oversight of group therapy and individual case management for substance use clients, single adults, veterans and women and children who were eligible through the SAMHSA program.

Along with her education in secular maters, Contesa was eager to expand her education spiritually, thus earning her License as an Evangelist Missionary in the Church of God in Christ. As a licensed minister, Contesa conducted trainings and outreach in Labor and Sex trafficking, premarital and domestic counseling, and conducted Spiritual Based Mental Health services to community members, church members and clergy leaders. Contesa’s efforts were to educate and train faith leaders to understand how to effectively determine when services, offered to their congregations, should implement faith practices and/or social service linkages. This bridge between spirituality and mental health would help eliminate negligence and unethical services rendered by church leadership and ministers.

To exercise her business and nonprofit offerings, Contesa established TLC Coaching and Consulting LLC, whose purpose is to support small businesses and nonprofits build sustainable infrastructures and implement growth strategies that will improve business management, executive leadership skills building, grant writing, fundraising, marketing, and strategic planning. 

Currently, Contesa serves as a Director of the Angelo Quinto Community Response Team (AQCRT), where she has created, staffed, and trained a 24/7 community response team that responds to low-level, non-life-threatening 911 calls. In collaboration with the City of Antioch, the Antioch Police Department, and local community-based organizations, our trained staff provide community members with mental health support, service linkage, and lifesaving skills.

Contesa takes pride in her family, including her husband of 14 years and enjoys homeschooling her beautiful daughter and handsome son!

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Sarah Y. Vinson, MD


Interim Department Chair; Clinical Associate Professor; Director, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Program; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA