James H. Meador-Woodruff, MD
Heman E. Drummond Professor and Chair
Department of Psychiatry
Welcome to the UAB Department of Psychiatry Web Site.
This has been a busy and exciting year in the Department of Psychiatry at UAB, marked by a number of transitions. I joined the department in April of last year as the new chairman, moving from the University of Michigan where I had been for more than 20 years. I followed Dr. Cleveland Kinney who served as Interim Chair for the past 5 years. This transition of leadership has gone extremely smoothly, and I thank Dr. Kinney for his efforts to make this so.
My recruitment to Psychiatry came with a mandate and resources to build the research strength of the department. The last twelve months have been full of activity, but we have seen rapid growth in new faculty members that bring research expertise to UAB. This first wave has emphasized adding faculty with a focus on studying schizophrenia. At this time, we have recruited three research groups. I was able to move many people in my own laboratory from Ann Arbor with me to UAB, including three incredibly bright, talented, and delightful junior faculty members. We also recruited Dr. Adrienne Lahti from the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, who brings expertise in using imaging tools like PET and fMRI to study the brain in people that suffer from schizophrenia. Dr. Rosalinda Roberts, the new holder of the Kathy Ireland Endowed Chair for Psychiatric Research, and her entire laboratory have completed their move from Maryland. This group studies ultrastructural abnormalities in brains with this illness. For now, these additions give us research strength in our new Schizophrenia Program that nicely complements our already strong clinical care and education programs focused on this illness. With a critical mass of schizophrenia investigators assembled, we will next turn our attention to building a research program focused on the mood and anxiety disorders, including depression and suicide prevention.
In addition to the rapid growth of new scientists and clinician-investigators, we are also slated to renovate and occupy wonderful new space. The School of Medicine has already renovated a new administrative suite for my office and staff in the Sparks Center and space for my laboratory in the Civitan International Research Center. We have three other research space projects underway. In addition to this new research space, we are in the process of designing new outpatient clinic space on campus in the Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital. This space will be updated, remodeled, and provide a bright, fresh, and pleasant environment for our clinical faculty, staff and trainees to serve our patients. Our space plans and projects are discussed in this issue and is something we will be updating in this publication.
Education programs are being strengthened as well. During my transition period, I was able to meet with all of the residents, and we are undertaking curriculum modifications in response to their feedback. We are beginning to plan for expansion of our post-residency fellowship programs, with plans to expand our excellent child psychiatry program, to reactivate our geriatric and forensic fellowships, and to develop a new psychosomatics program. In the coming year, UAB Psychiatry will become an educational leader, not only in the southeast but nationwide.
These are exciting times for Psychiatry at UAB. Many good things are happening for the department in terms of new people, new space, and new resources. More importantly, all of these changes better position us to serve our patients, to provide some of the best clinical care anywhere, and to be research leaders of the future.