The UNMC Department of Psychiatry Residency Program keeps growing.
On March 21, 2025, six future psychiatrists matched with the program, bringing the number of psychiatrists training in the department to a program-high 21.
Sadie Keesler (Creighton University Medical School), Andrew Leavitt (UNMC), Hannah Manoj (UNMC), Hitesh Rai (Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine), Nikhil Rajulapati (Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic), Meena Sreedhara (University of Kansas School of Medicine) matched with UNMC and will begin training this summer.
“This year’s match class demonstrates an ongoing commitment to the future of mental health access in every community,” said Department of Psychiatry Chair Howard Liu, MD, MBA. “Congrats to all of our new psychiatrists!”
Daniel Gih, Vice-Chair of Education and Psychiatry Residency Program Director for the Department of Psychiatry, said his team will be ready to train the record-breaking number of residents. To help, on March 1, 2025, Dr. Gih added Riley Machal, MD, to the leadership team as a second Associate Program Director. The program also includes Associate Program Director Jeana Benton, MD, and Program Coordinator Ellie Corbaley. Dr. Gih, Dr. Benton and Corbaley have been a part of the program since it was only four interns strong in 2020. Dr. Benton will work on curriculum development and assessment. Dr. Machal will deal with clinical competency and professional development.
“There’s always a little anxiety with a change or addition, but we feel confident because we have a strong leadership team,” Dr. Gih said. “We feel like we are in a great position for this growth.”
Leavitt and Manoj are two of 10 UNMC College of Medicine students who matched with a Psychiatry Residency program—more than twice as many as in 2024. Dr. Gih said more and more medical school graduates are choosing psychiatry as a career field.
“It’s not just this year. Over the last decade-plus, psychiatry has been growing and now is one of the most competitive specialties,” Dr. Gih said.
The Department has filled every training spot since the program returned in 2020. Dr. Gih said the department’s clerkship team, which includes Phase 3 director Dana Raml, MD, deserves a lot of credit for medical students choosing psychiatry and for all the UNMC graduates who decide to continue on campus.