Dr. David Cates, Dr. Mark Thomsen, Dr. Howard Liu and Jeanne Lincoln gather for a picture after Dr. Thomsen agreed to join the UNMC Department of Psychiatry faculty.
Dr. Mark Thomsen will join the UNMC Department of Psychiatry faculty on July 31. While he could have left Omaha after his residency, he said it was an easy decision to stay in Nebraska.
“Omaha is home,” Dr. Thomsen said. “My wife and I have family here and we want to raise our children here. I honestly never considered looking elsewhere.”
Dr. Thomsen will be splitting his time with UNMC/Nebraska Medicine and Lasting Hope — a 64-bed adult psychiatric facility in Omaha. At UNMC, Dr. Thomsen said he hopes to be a part of a specialty outpatient clinic to help care for patients with severe and persistent mental illnesses, including Bipolar disorder and primary psychotic disorders. Dr. Thomsen said it was essential to him to continue working at both places after his residency.
“I had amazing shadowing experiences with Dr. Qadri at Lasting Hope and Dr. Wengel at UNMC before medical school and then working with Dr. Liu and the Psychiatry Interest Group during medical school. While other things played into it, these and other mentors were the most crucial,” he said.
Dr. Thomsen will officially start in July, along with fellow Creighton residents Dr. Steven Ayers, Dr. Andrew Baumgartner, Dr. Melissa O’Dell, and Dr. Dana Raml. Dr. Thomsen said it’s great to be starting at UNMC with longtime friends.
“This means a great deal to me,” Dr. Thomsen said. “These are some incredible people, many of whom I’ve known since medical school and even before that. They’re the kind of friends and colleagues that anyone would dream of, and it’s very cool that we have diverse interests and strengths, too. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the five of us work together in Omaha for a very long time!”
Dr. Thomsen graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 2005 and from the UNMC College of Medicine in 2015 after a career in the medical device industry. He and his wife, Lisa, have three young girls — a five-year-old and three-year-old twins.
“We enjoy traveling and wine, and I’m an avid hunter, especially bowhunting. My oldest daughter is starting to hunt with me now, which has been amazing.”