Faculty

• Mark W. Nickels MD  is the Residency Program Director. He is also the Director of Transplant Psychiatry and Acting Director of the Psychiatric Consultation Liaison Service.
• Jeff Iler, MD is the Associate Program Director. He is a consultation-liaison psychiatrist who specializes in providing psychiatric care integrated within primary care and women’s health practices. He supervises residents during their Highland Family Medicine and Perinatal Care Clinic rotations in PGY-3.
• Aspen Ainsworth, MD is a graduate of both the residency program and the CL Psychiatry Fellowship.  She is the Director of the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship program, and works as the embedded psychiatrist in the inpatient Medicine in Psychiatry unit.  She is a preceptor for residents.
• Adrienne Allen, MD is a Child and Adolescent psychiatrist who provides supervision.
• Matthew Barry, DO supervises residents at the outpatient VA Clinic elective. 
• Kathleen Baynes, MD is the Director of the Child & Adolescent Fellowship.  She precepts residents and is a member of the residency's Clinical Competency Committee.
• Erik Bobeda, MD is a Board-certified internist who works full-time on the Medicine in Psychiatry unit and is active in resident education and supervision.
• Sheila Briody,SSJ, Dmin supervises residents in a clinical elective at St. Joseph’s Neighborhood Center.
• Mary Burdick, DO is a Child and Adolescent psychiatrist who supervises residents, including at Strong Ties.
• Eric Caine, MD is Professor Emeritus, and is the past Chair of the Department of Psychiatry. He mentors residents, and hosts a weekly case conference for PGY-1s and PGY-2s to help with case reasoning and management.
• Laura Cardella, MD is a Child and Adolescent psychiatrist who is the Director of Psychiatry Clerkships, and oversees medical student education in the Dept., including resident teaching of med students.
• Joy Choi, MD is a consultation-liaison psychiatrist who specializes in transplant psychiatry, particularly in the URMC Heart Transplant and VAD programs. She is also involved in research in that area.  She precepts and supervises residents.
• J. Richard Ciccone, MD is the Founding Director of the Psychiatry and the Law Fellowship.
• Emily Clark, DO works in the Geriatric Psychiatry Division.  She is a Senior Instructor and a graduate of the URMC Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship.
• Kevin Coffey, EdD is the Clinical Coordinator for Strong Minds, the adult ambulatory clinic, and provides didactic sessions on CBT.
• Rebecca Copek, PhD teaches the ‘Foundations in Psychotherapy' seminar in the PGY-1 class, and is the residency’s communications coach.
• Katherine Duffy, MD works in the Geriatric Psychiatry division, supervising residents in the Older Adults outpatient clinic.
• Sue DiGiovanni, MD is the Associate Chair for Clinical Services and Chief of the Adult Psychiatry Division, and also serves as a resident preceptor.
• Sahar Elezabi, MD is a community psychiatrist that teaches residents about private practice and working with insurers.
• Catherine Flannery, MD is a graduate of the URMC Psychiatry residency program and is a community psychiatrist specializing in psychotherapy.  She provides supervision to residents.
• Tyler Fleming, DO, MPH is the residency’s Director of Resident Psychotherapy Education and is the Medical Director of Strong Family Therapy Services, and oversees the resident Psychotherapy Clinic.
• Gretchen Foley, MD is the coordinator of resident education at the Rochester Psychiatric Center and provides clinical supervision to residents at the Rochester Regional Forensic Unit. She is a member of the residency’s Program Evaluation Committee.
• Roma Fortuna-Dwulit, MD is a graduate of the URMC residency and Geriatric Fellowship programs, and provides supervision at Strong Minds, the adult outpatient clinic.
• Annabel Fu, MD is a graduate of the URMC Psychiatry residency program. She is the Medical Director of Strong Minds, the adult ambulatory clinic located downtown, where she supervises residents.  She also participates in the residency's Clinical Competency Committee.
• Giampaolo Gallo, MD supervises residents in CPEP.
• Stephanie Gamble, PhD teaches the PGY-3 IPT (Interpersonal Therapy) and SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment) seminar series.
• David Garrison, MD is an attending on the child & adolescent inpatient service where he supervises PGY-2 residents during rotations there.
• Paul Geha, MD has appointments in Psychiatry, Neurology, and Neuroscience. He is an active researcher in the area of Pain, and works on the CL Psychiatry service.
• Patrick Gibbons, MD provides clinical care and resident supervision at the Rochester Regional Forensic Unit.
• Annalyn Gibson, MD is a graduate of the residency, also the Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Forensic Fellowships.  She supervises residents.
• Oner Gonen, MD supervises residents during their Interventional Psychiatry rotations.
• Jessica Goodman, PhD provides extensive teaching and supervision of residents in Family Therapy.
• Donna Guardino, PhD received her PhD degree from Gallaudet University. She provides individual and group therapy in the Deaf Wellness Clinic. She teaches residents about working with deaf patients. Her research is about mental health care in this population.
• Alma Guerra, MD, PhD is a graduate of both the URMC Psychiatry residency and Child & Adolescent Fellowship programs who supervises PGY-2 residents in the resident Psychotherapy Clinic.
• Laurence Guttmacher, MD is Professor Emeritus, and is the former Program Director of the residency program.  He provides didactic teaching, and does some supervision of residents at St. Joseph's Neighborhood Center.
• Elizabeth Harre, MD is the Medical Director at the Schwarzkopf Clinic at the Rochester Psychiatric Center, where she supervises residents in the care of patients with serious mental illness.
• Deborah Healy, MD supervises residents and has an interest in group therapy.
• Adrianna Hitchins, MD is a graduate of both the URMC CL Psychiatry and the Child & Adolescent Fellowships, who provides psychiatric consultation to the Epilepsy Center and Neurology’s Movement Disorders Clinic.  She supervises residents on the CL rotation.
• Tara Holter, MD is a graduate of both the URMC Psychiatry residency program and Child & Adolescent Fellowship, and supervises residents during their inpatient Child and Adolescent Psychiatry rotations.  She participates in the residency's Clinical Competency Committee.
• Rory Houghtalen, MD is Director of Education at Unity Health Systems, and teaches the PGY-1 "Psychopathology and Psychopharmacology" seminar series.
• Khalid Hubeishy, MD supervises residents in CPEP.
• Farah Hussain, MD is a Child & Adolescent psychiatrist who supervises residents in CPEP and on the Child and Adolescent Inpatient Consultation-Liaison service.
• Tom Jacob, DO is a graduate of the URMC Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship, and supervises residents in the Older Adults outpatient clinic.
• Naila Karim, MD is a consultation-liaison psychiatrist who does Transplant Psychiatry with the Liver and Kidney Transplant programs, and also works on the CL Psychiatry service, supervising residents.
• Mani Kurien, MD is a Child and Adolescent psychiatrist who works with residents in inpatient settings.
• J. Steven Lamberti, MD is the Director of the Severe Mental Disorders Program, Director of the Schizophrenia Treatment Laboratory and Director of the Strong Ties Community Support Program. He precepts and supervises residents and teaches a year-long PGY-2 Schizophrenia seminar series.
• Hochang Ben Lee, MD is the John Romano Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry.  He is strongly committed to helping trainees establish their professional identities and careers.
• Janet Lewis, MD is a community psychiatrist that focuses on environmental psychiatry and teaches on that topic. 
• Jeffrey Lyness, MD, Professor Emeritus, held many leadership roles in the Department of Psychiatry before becoming the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the School of Medicine and Dentistry. He currently is the President and CEO of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN).
• Sasha Massachi, MD is a graduate of both the URMC Psychiatry residency and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship programs, who works with residents in the Child and Adolescent Inpatient Consultation-Liaison service.
• Myra Mathis-Owanogho, MD is an Addictions Psychiatrist who is the Director of the Addictions Psychiatry Fellowship, and Medical Director of Strong Recovery. Dr. Mathis supervises residents on the Strong Recovery rotations and provides didactics about substance abuse treatment.  She also precepts residents.
• Andrew Mietz, MD is a Child and Adolescent psychiatrist who supervises residents and Child and Adolescent Fellows.
• Stephen Munson, MD is the retired Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Program at URMC. He now teaches a "Classics Reading" seminar for Child Track residents and the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellows.
• Rachel Nadbrzuch, MD is a graduate of both the URMC Psychiatry residency and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship programs, and provides supervision to residents.
• George Nasra, MD is the Chief of the Division of Collaborative Care and Wellness, and the Medical Director of Behavioral Health Partners.  He has an MBA and is Board-certified in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Forensic Psychiatry. 
• Josh Nelson, MD is a graduate of the URMC Psychiatry residency program, and the Child & Adolescent and Forensic Psychiatry Fellowships.  He provides clinical care and supervises residents at the Rochester Regional Forensic Unit.
• Aurelian Niculescu, MD is a graduate of our Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship and works in CPEP.
• Mark Oldham, MD is a CL psychiatrist who heads PRIME, the proactive psychiatric consultation program at URMC, and works on the CL service. He is an active researcher, focusing on delirium; he is the President of the American Delirium Society.  He has created a useful guide for using the Bush-Francis Catatonia Rating Scale. He is an enthusiastic resident teacher. He helps run the resident Journal Club.
• Telva Olivares, MD is the Associate Chair of Diversity, Inclusion, Culture and Equity (DICE), Director of the Medicine in Psychiatry Services, and the Director of Lazos Fuertes, a mental health clinic for the Spanish-speaking Latinx community.
• Anna Pettway, PhD provides outpatient care, specializing in trauma-informed treatment.  She provides didactic sessions on this topic to the residents, and she supervises in the PGY-2 resident Psychotherapy Clinic.
• Ellen Poleshuck, PhD is a certified Marriage and Family therapist who is the Director of the Program for Mental Health and Gender Wellness in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She is active in research for OB/GYN patients with depression and co-occurring concerns such as pain, intimate partner violence, and unmet social needs. And she is the Chief of Academic Affairs for the Division of Collaborative Care and Wellness.
• Robert Pollard, PhD is founder of the Deaf Wellness Program and teaches residents clinical interviewing skills of deaf patients.
• Anton Porsteinsson, MD leads the University of Rochester's Alzheimer's Disease Care, Research and Education Program (AD-CARE) and its Memory Disorders Clinic.
• Margaret Puelle, MD graduated from the Department’s CL Psychiatry Fellowship. She works on the CL Psychiatry service, and also specializes in Psycho-Dermatology. She is an ardent educator, working clinically with residents and fellows, and also with Psychiatry Clerkship students.
• Wes Rappaport, MD is a supervisor at the Schwarzkopf Clinic at RPC.
• Shahida Rehmani, MBBS is a graduate of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship, and provide supervision to residents.
• Segundo Robert-Ibarra, MD is a Child Psychiatrist and the Chief of Child and Adolescent Acute Services. He enjoys supervising residents.
• Kyle Rodenbach, MD is the Medical Director of acute adult inpatient services.  He has clinical interest in acute psychiatry, both inpatient and emergency, and enjoys medical education. He is an attending psychiatrist on the acute adult inpatient teaching unit. He participates in the residency’s Clinical Competency Committee. 
• Fatima Rumesa, MD works full-time in CPEP, where she oversees resident and fellow education.  She participates in the residency's Clinical Competency Committee.
• Andrea Sandoz, MD is a graduate of our Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship.  She is a resident supervisor.  She provides clinical care to children and young adults with first-episode psychosis in the OnTrack Clinic of RPC’s Schwarzkopf Clinic, where she supervises residents.
• Elizabeth (“EJ”) Santos, MD is the Director of the Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship Program, Clinical Chief of the Geriatric Mental Health and Memory Care Division, Medical Director of the URMC Memory Care Program, and Director of the Greater Rochester Health Foundation Project ECHO GEMH in Long Term Care Program. Dr. Santos is the President of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. She is very active in teaching, supervising and mentoring residents and fellows.
• Michael Scharf, MD is the Chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Director of Psychiatry Graduate Medical Education. He participates in the residency's Clinical Competency Committee, and is the Chair of the residency's Program Evaluation Committee.
• James Schubmehl, MD is a retired community psychiatrist who is a psychotherapy supervisor, and provides didactic sessions to residents on his specialty area, the Davanloo approach to intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy.
• Margie Hodges Shaw, JD, PhD is the Chair of the Strong Memorial Hospital Ethics Committee. She is an active teacher, including to residents about medical ethics.
• Greg Sherman, MD is a graduate of the URMC Psychiatry residency program and Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship. He provides inpatient care on the geriatric Inpatient unit, does CL work at Highland Hospital, and is a resident supervisor.
• Steven Silverstein, PhD is the Department’s Associate Chair of Research.
• Adam Simning, MD, PhD is a graduate of both the URMC Psychiatry residency program and the Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship.  He is an active researcher, funded through the National Institute on Aging.  He provides clinical care to geriatric patients, and is a resident mentor.
• William Small, MD is a URMC Psychiatry residency graduate who provides clinical care and supervises residents at Strong Ties. He is a resident preceptor, and is active in the residency’s Clinical Competence Committee.
• Irina Statnikova, MD, PhD is a recent graduate of the residency program, and works in CPEP, where she supervises residents.
• Mary Tantillo, PhD teaches the Eating Disorders seminar and also supervises residents during their Eating Disorders rotation at The Healing Connection, an organization which she founded.
• Ronke Tapp, PhD provides patient care and is the Assistant Director of Multiculturalism at the U of R University Counseling Center. She presents an in-depth PGY-3 seminar series on Ethnic Psychologies.
• Paige Thompson, MD is a graduate of the residency program, and works full-time in CPEP.  She also precepts residents.
• Christopher Tidd, MD is a graduate of the URMC Psychiatry residency program who is the Clinical Director of the Rochester Psychiatric Center. He mentors residents. 
• Kimberly Van Orden, PhD teaches residents about DBT (dialectical behavior therapy) and PST (problem-solving therapy), and is an active researcher in the Department focusing on connectedness.
• William Watson, PhD supervises PGY-1 residents when on their Epilepsy inpatient rotations, and runs a process group for interested residents and clinicians.
• Robert Weisman, DO is Senior Medical Director of Adult Ambulatory Services and Director of Clinical Care at Strong Ties for the New York State ACT/FACT team, serving mentally disordered offenders living in the community. Dr. Weisman is also Co-Director of the Charles E. Steinberg Memorial Fellowship in Psychiatry and Law.
• Marsha Wittink, MD, MBE is a Board-certified family physician who works on and is the Medical Director of the inpatient Medicine in Psychiatry unit. She is also the Chief of Academic Affairs for the Division of Medicine in Psychiatry.
• Yilmaz Yildirim, MD, PhD is a Child Psychiatrist who supervises PGY-1 residents during their Mobile Crisis Team rotations, and provides resident didactics sessions.
• Robb Young, MD is a long-time community faculty member, and a graduate of the residency program, who offers a resident elective at Restart Substance Abuse Treatment Center, and teaches about substance abuse treatment.