Why UTSW Psychiatry?

My goal is to be an academic psychiatrist who conducts cutting-edge research and provides high-quality clinical care. UT Southwestern provides excellent training on both ends.

I was accepted here as a research track resident. UT Southwestern is one of the few programs that offer an NIMH R25 funded research track position for general psychiatry residents. Here, I get to work with such seminal figures like Dr. Graham Emslie and Dr. Madhukar Trivedi. I remember reading their studies when I was in medical school at Iowa. Dr. Emslie helped coordinate the Treatment for Adolescents with Depression study and the Treatment of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor-Resistant Depression in Adolescents study, and Dr. Trivedi was the lead on the influential Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression study. In addition, Dr. Trivedo's paper on bupropion and naltrexone for methamphetamine use disorder (published in the New England Journal of Medicine), guided my clinical decision-making in adult inpatient psychiatry at Iowa. I am thrilled to be working in Dr. Trivedi's lab with Dr. Rabia Ayvaci, an excellent child psychiatrist and researcher. It was actually difficult for me to choose a lab, because there are so many amazing scientists here, but I'm really excited about my research project looking at biomarkers of suicidality in children and adolescents. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in children and adolescents, and it is meaningful to know that our research can help address suicide in this population.

The clinical training here is phenomenal. There is a diverse array of patients, with excellent faculty to help guide us. We also have all the different types of ACGME-accredited psychiatry fellowships here at UT Southwestern. Plus, there's a big focus on therapy. At my medical school in Iowa, the program director wrote a chapter in my current program director’s book Psychotherapy: A Practical Introduction.

Career Goals

I want to stay in academics. I enjoy teaching and having trainees around. I also want to continue doing research and providing clinical care. I'm unsure if I want to do inpatient work vs. outpatient work vs. consult liaison. But what's great here at UT Southwestern is that you'll get good training in all these different aspects. My goal is to specialize in child and adolescent psychiatry.

Education