August 2023 Kudos
SAVE THE DATES
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT SEMINARS
Upcoming faculty development seminars, which will be held from 9:00-10:30a, Zoom link:
Wednesday September 20, 2023 – Email Management Tools with David Thylur and Mike Lucido
WRITING GROUPS: UPCOMING
The Writing Group is the 1st Wednesday of every month from 8:00-9:00am. These meetings are on Zoom.
SPOTLIGHTS
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: Justine Welsh, MD
Justine Welsh is an Associate Professor and founding Director of the Emory Healthcare Addiction Services. She is also Medical Director of the Addiction Alliance of Georgia, a collaboration between Emory University and Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. Justine completed a combined BS/MD program at Northeast Ohio Medical University, psychiatry residency at Emory and a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship through Cambridge Health Alliance. She subsequently pursued an addiction psychiatry fellowship through Mass General Brigham. She returned to Emory shortly after her fellowships and developed our first adolescent addiction clinic prior to expanding to adult addiction services. The recently opened Emory Addiction Center now has a multidisciplinary team, OP/IOP services, fully operational lab and education/research programs.
Justine is a current MPI (Welsh/Hall) on an R01 through NIAAA investigating the implementation of screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT) for substance use in family planning clinics. For the last three years, she has served as an expert consultant to the CDC through an IPA agreement focusing on reducing addiction-related stigma and enhancing medical education. Justine is also Associate Director of a one-year intensive training program for primary care providers in addiction medicine at University of California, Irvine. Through this forum, she oversees twice yearly conferences, biweekly lectures and small group mentoring sessions. Outside of Emory, Justine is a co-chair of the Public Policy Committee for the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP), a member of the Advocacy Committee for the American Brain Coalition and was previously a Governor-appointed board member of Georgia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.
One of her most satisfying work-related achievements was when her co-edited book, Treating Adolescent Substance Use: A Clinician’s Guide, was released in 2019. Her most memorable work-related experience was submitting the JIT documents for her first funded R award, while driving to the hospital to deliver her first son. His middle name is now Grant, which RAS found very humorous. Justine most enjoys working as part of a team and participating in program expansion. Nothing in her day would be possible without the amazing team of people around her.
In the future, Justine is looking forward to continuing to expand services at Emory and partnering with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to identify ways to increase substance-related care for children with some of the highest needs.
Outside of work, Justine enjoys spending time with her husband Travis and two sons Knox (4) and Pierce (2). She also gardens and does home renovation projects. Justine enjoys traveling and has dual citizenship with Australia. Her youngest son’s middle name is Silverton, which is the name of the sheep and cattle ranch her mother’s family still owns and operates in Australia.
ADJUNCT FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: Nancy Chase
Nancy Chase, PhD, LCSW, is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice. She completed her training at the Emory University Psychoanalytic Institute and is now a psychotherapy faculty member at the EUPI. She has served as Chair and Co-chair of the EUPI Curriculum Committee, and as a member of the Executive Committee and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program Committee. She teaches courses on psychoanalytic psychotherapy and on gender and sexuality at the EUPI. She most enjoys the opportunities these roles have offered her to connect with professional colleagues and contribute to the development of future generations of psychodynamic, psychoanalytic clinicians and academics.
Nancy’s clinical practice follows a thirty-year career in academia. She completed a PhD at Emory University’s Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts (1984), where her study focused on reader response literary criticism, cognitive psychology’s text processing models and literacy education. She then took a faculty position at Georgia State University and eventually retired from GSU’s Department of English in 2013. During her academic career her clinically focused publications appeared in journals including The American Journal of Family Therapy, Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, Reading Research and Instruction and among other work, she published two edited volumes on adult legacies of parentification phenomena.
Nancy’s study of family systems, the cultural, educational and gender diversities and psychodynamic family therapy inform her current psychoanalytic work with individual adults at various life stages. She has a keen interest in the psychology of the arts and creativity, and in the importance of examining our relationship with ourselves and others as essential to cultivating a meaningful, emotionally fulfilling creative life.
When not working, Nancy enjoys taking long walks and hiking, reading, writing and attending a wide variety of arts performances as they capture her interest and inspiration!
TRAINEE SPOTLIGHT: Alban Foulser, PhD
Alban Foulser is a postdoctoral resident, working with the Nia Project and Grady’s Obstetrics and Gynecology department to provide clinical services and conduct clinical research with a focus on women’s mental health and trauma. Within the Nia Project, she sees individual patients and runs groups on ACT for Chronic Pain, Cognitively Based Compassion Training and Grief. She also supervises students seeing individual and group therapy cases. Within Ob/Gyn, she sees individual therapy cases and run therapy groups for people experiencing perinatal mood and anxiety disorders through the Ob/Gyn outpatient clinic. Alban is also conducting clinical research focused on reducing the intergenerational transmission of trauma among Black mothers receiving outpatient Ob/Gyn services at Grady. She is also coordinating a research project focusing on using Motivational Interviewing to improve rates of outpatient mental health follow-up among patients hospitalized for psychiatric crises on Grady’s inpatient units. In addition to her clinical work and research, she is also a member of the Atlanta Behavioral Health Advocates (ABHA), as part of which she co-coordinates the submission process for ABHA’s Psychology Today blog, Outside the Box.
Outside of Emory, Alban also holds a part-time clinical position with the Anxiety and Trauma Clinic of Atlanta, where she is seeing patients with anxiety disorders, PTSD and OCD.
Alban loves the intersection of face-to-face connection with clients, the intellectual challenge of clinical research and opportunities to focus on social justice that clinical psychology provides. Forming close connections with her patients and witnessing their growth through therapy is especially rewarding for her.
Some of Alban’s most rewarding clinical experiences have been witnessing the impact on her patients of evidence-based treatments for PTSD. Within research, her most rewarding experiences have come from learning about shame, which was the focus of my dissertation, including deep dives into the literature and theoretical conversations with other clinical researchers.
Looking ahead to the future, Alban wants to continue providing individual therapy and conducting clinical research, with a focus on women’s mental health and trauma. One of her top career goals for this year is to learn more about her preferred balance of clinical work and research.
Outside of the workplace, Alban enjoys being active and outside. She especially loves running – she is part of Atlanta Run Club, and planning to run her sixth marathon at the Boston Marathon this spring. She also enjoys reading (mostly fiction), cooking and baking (most recently a German chocolate cake), traveling (she traveled to Ecuador this summer) and spending time with her partner, family, friends and dog Loki.
NEW FACULTY
Cristina Pritchett, MD – Cristina Pritchett is a board-certified psychiatrist who just transitioned from her geriatric psychiatry fellowship at Emory to a faculty position as an assistant professor of psychiatry. She is currently providing care in the geriatric outpatient clinic at the Brain Health Center, and collaborating with the neurology team in the movement disorders programs.
She is originally from Ecuador and attended medical school at the University of Azuay. She then completed her psychiatric residency in a New York state-operated psychiatric facility with training in multiple hospitals throughout New York City, including Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, Columbia University Medical Center and Zucker Hillside Hospital.
Throughout her training, she has been involved in multiple ECT projects including a NIA-funded multisite study for patients with severe agitation in moderate to severe dementia. She has also received research awards including the 2021 ISEN Trainee Travel Award and the 2023 AAGP Member-in-Training Research Award. Her primary interest is working to improve the quality of care provided to patients with mental illness along with the support provided to their loved ones, in particular, the underserved populations that cannot seek out and procure traditional care for themselves. She also has a burgeoning interest in neuropsychiatric disorders, psychopharmacology and neuromodulation and enjoys teaching medical students, residents and other trainees.
In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, daughter and toy Maltese, as well as listening to podcasts, cooking, ice-skating and swimming.
WELLNESS COMMITTEE
Wellness Resources:
Healthy Emory is bringing back the Eat Smart, Move More, Weigh Less program in September.
Challenges with Healthy Emory are ongoing - the Sharecare app is the platform and incentive dollars are available!
Operation Eat Right encourages you to improve your nutrition and boost your well-being using Healthy Emory Connect!
Resources from Healthy Emory and a link below to the ACPH:
- Benefits
- Rewards
- Career
- Learning
- Wellness
- Work Life
- Employee Assistance
- Employee Assistance – Physician Wellbeing Conference
Healthy Emory resources including the Sharecare platform for Move More, Refresh from Stress and more! Open to University and Healthcare Employees Healthy Emory Connect | Emory University | Atlanta GA
Wellbeing and mental health support for Emory University Employees Faculty Staff Assistance Program and for Emory Healthcare Employees username EHC (800 327 2251)
Graduate Medical Education Well-being Resident Well Being | Emory School of Medicine
International Conference on Physician Health (alternates years with American Conference) International Conference on Physician Health™ | American Medical Association (ama-assn.org)
Office of Well- Being established for Woodruff Health Sciences Emory’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center establishes Office of Well-Being | Emory University | Atlanta GA
WOMEN’S FACULTY DEVELOPMENT SUBCOMMITTEE
Wisdom from Women
The Women Faculty Subcommittee’s tips for ensuring equity at Emory.
TIP #5: Use inclusive language.
Language is powerful. Our language can communicate respect and make people feel included. If we are not careful, it can marginalize. Take care to use language that reflects people’s lived experiences and humanity and demonstrates a desire to ensure everyone feels valued and that they belong.
Inclusive Language is person-centered, gender neutral, non-ableist, open to change:
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SAY THIS |
NOT THIS |
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Hello everyone, Hi colleagues |
Hey guys |
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They |
she, he |
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Typical |
normal |
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Underrepresented |
minority |
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Enslaved person |
slave |
“The words we choose and the language we use have the power to affect the people and the world around us.” -Amy Agarwal
“Language does not just describe reality. Language creates the reality it describes.” – Archbishop Desmond Tutu
FACULTY KUDOS
Major Leadership Appointments, Activities and Achievements
Andrew Furman has been promoted to Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs.
Nadine Kaslow has been appointed the Director of Wellness, Resilience, and Flourishing in the Emory@Grady Dean’s Office.
Research
Abdul-Ghani S, Lathan E, Miao A, Gibbons R, Eghbalzad L, Powers A, Fani N. Contributions of trauma and economic insecurity to psychological distress in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (accepted, Mental Health Science)
Anglin DM, Espinosa A, Addington J, Cadenhead KS, Cannon TD, Cornblatt BA, Keshavan M, Mathalon DH, Perkins DO, Stone W, Tsuang M, Woods SW, Walker E, Bearden CE, Ku BS. Association of Childhood Area-Level Ethnic Density and Psychosis Risk Among Ethnoracial Minoritized Individuals in the US. JAMA Psychiatry. 2023 Aug 16:e232841. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2023.2841. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37585191; PMCID: PMC10433142.
Chandra A, Miller BJ, Goldsmith DR. Predictors of Successful Anti-Inflammatory Drug Trials in Patients with Schizophrenia: A Meta-Regression and Critical Commentary. Accepted for Publication in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.
Ku BS, Collins M, Anglin DM, Diomino AM, Addington J, Bearden CE, Cadenhead KS, Cannon TD, Cornblatt BA, Druss BG, Keshavan M, Mathalon DH, Perkins DO, Stone WS, Tsuang MT, Woods SW, Walker EF. Associations between childhood ethnoracial minority density, cortical thickness, and social engagement among minority youth at clinical high-risk for psychosis. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2023 Jul 12. doi: 10.1038/s41386-023-01649-6. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37438421.
Robbins MM, Arkin S, Dvorscek MJ, Foulser A, & Platner A. (2023, August 4). Abortion as a social justice issue: Empowerment through application of science and ethics [presentation]. American Psychological Association (APA) Annual Conference. Washington, DC, United States.
Sun HL, Chen P, Feng Y, Si TL, Lam ML, Lok KI, Chow IHI, Su Z, Chenug T, Tang YL, Jackson T, Sha S, Xiang YT. Depressive and anxiety symptoms among Macau residents during the COVID-19 outbreak: a network perspective. Frontier in Psychiatry, 2023, 14: 1159542. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1159542
Tao R, Hsu M, Min K, Mo D, Geng F, Xia L, Liu T, Liu Y, Liu H, Tang YL. Alcohol Misuse, Health-Related Behaviors, and Burnout among Clinical Therapists in China during the early Covid-19 pandemic: A Nationwide Survey. Frontier in Public Health, 2023, 11:1084259. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1084259
Wu H, Wang X, Wang D, Wang W, Wang WQ, Luo J, Jiang W, Tang YL, Ren YP, Yang CL, Ma X, Li R. Abnormal fiber integrity in the cerebellum with recent suicide behavior in depressed patients: A diffusion tensor imaging study, Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 2023, 103658
Xie F, Jiang L, Liu Y, Wang M, Jiang F, Wu Y, Tang YL. Gender differences in the associations between body mass index, depression, anxiety, and stress among endocrinologists in China. BMC Psychology, 2023, 11:116
Honors, Awards, Rankings
Erica Duncan and co-PIs Ryan Purcell and Gary Bassell from cell biology were awarded an Emory SOM I3 Grant for “Testing Convergent Biology Across Schizophrenia Risk Variants in Forebrain Cortical Organoids.”
Negar Fani was invited to serve on the editorial board of Neuropsychopharmacology.
Abby Lott was recently awarded an R01 from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to study PTSD and AUD comorbidity using genetic and ecological momentary assessment technologies in collaboration with MPI Ananda Amstadter from Virginia Commonwealth University. Vas Michopoulos is a Co-investigator on this project.
Mike Martin ended his term as President of the Association of VA Psychologist Leaders and transitioned to Past-President on 8/2/2023.
Samantha Patton was accepted into the Woodruff Health Educators Academy Kern Fellowship in Interprofessional Leadership.
Presentations
Celano M. (August, 2023). Advancing Social Change through Media: Children’s Literature. Keynote address at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.
Celano M, Hazzard A, & Lara C. (August, 2023). Using Stories to Help Families Cope with Traumatic Current Events. Skill-building session presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.
Sheila Rauch presented an lecture for the PTSD Consultation Program for Providers Who Treat Veterans titled “What’s Buzz?: New Developments in Prolonged Exposure.”
Community
None reported.
Media
Rebecca Schneider (1) ADAA Blog – Everything You Wanted to Know about IOPs for Pedatric OCD.
Personal
Sheila Rauch participated in the 2023 Decatur Dekalb 4 Miler and finished first in her age category.
ADJUNCT FACULTY KUDOS
Flores, A (August 2023) Telling Your Client’s HiSTORY: Adverse Childhood Experiences in Mitigation. Presented at the 2023 Capital Defense Attorney’s Seminar of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), Las Vegas, NV (Seminar: “Making a Case for Life”)
Betsy Gard presented at the APA Conference on “Utilizing a psychological foundation for engaging psychologists in research, producing social media for the public and promoting pro bono service.”
Kisha Holden was granted fellow status in the American Psychological Association through Division 35, the Society for the Psychology of Women.
Paddock JR. (2023). Dead men walking. Psychoanalytic Inquiry. 43(4), 290-299.
Paddock JR. (in press). Defragmentation and consolidation through music: A review of The self-restorative power of music: A psychological perspective by Frank Lachmann. Psychoanalytic Inquiry.
Paddock JR. (in press). One cannot not communicate: A review of Talking bodies: A new vision of psychoanalytic theory, practice and supervision by Doris Brothers and Jon Sletvold. Psychoanalytic Inquiry.
Paddock JR. (2023). Rothko, the Rolling Stones, and Matisse: Grounding in a time of uncertainty. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 18(1), 119-128.
Paddock JR, & Carr EM. (2023). Prologue: New psychoanalysts speak – personal and professional transformations. Psychoanalytic Inquiry 43(4), 251-253.
Paddock JR, & Carr EM. (2023). Epilogue: New psychoanalysts speak – personal and professional transformations. Psychoanalytic Inquiry. 43(4), 308-309.
TRAINEE KUDOS
Jennifer Cortes received a scholarship to attend the Catholic Medical Association Annual Conference.
Malhotra A, Drexler K, Hsu M, Tang YL. Medication treatment for alcohol use disorder in special populations. Am J Addictions, 2023, DOI: 10.1111/ajad.13455
Vanderhoof T, Reitz JJ, Tang YL. Off-label prescribing for Addictive Disorders. Current Psychiatry, 2023, 22(8): 37-41, 46-47. doi: 10.12788/cp.0384