The UNMC Department of Psychiatry promoted outstanding new leaders in 2019. The year started with interim chair Dr. Howard Liu being named permanent chair on January 23 by Dean Bradley Britigan and CEO Dr. Jim Linder.
New clinical leaders in the department included:
- David Cates named as Vice Chair of Clinical Services and continuing in his role as Director of Behavioral Health, Nebraska Medicine.
- Ashish Sharma appointed as Adult Inpatient Psychiatry Division Director and Medical Director of ECT.
- Ryan Edwards named Interim Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division Director.
- Steve Wengel confirmed as Geriatric Psychiatry Division Director.
- Celeste Akers selected as Lead Community Services Technician.
- Stephen Salzbrenner has been appointed Director of the Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD) specialty clinic.
- Jeana Benton and Mark Aksamit were appointed Co-Directors of the Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD) specialty clinic.
New academic leaders in the department included:
- Marley Doyle selected as the new Director of the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska; a statewide workforce agency promoting all licensed behavioral health professions.
- Daniel Gih appointed as the Education Director of the Department of Psychiatry as well as the founding Program Director of the new adult psychiatry residency program.
- Jeana Benton named as the inaugural Associate Program Director for the new adult psychiatry residency program and former Phase 3 Director.
- Maggie Emerson appointed as Director of Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Workforce.
- Rebecca Wysoske confirmed as the new Phase 3 Director of undergraduate medical education, overseeing M4 year psychiatry rotations.
- Sharon Hammer selected as the Co-Director of Medical Student Education alongside Dr. Sheritta Strong.
- Ken Zoucha appointed as inaugural Fellowship Director for the Addiction Medicine Fellowship.
Promotions in Rank in the department included:
- Lauren Edwards promoted to Assistant Professor.