Faculty

General Psychiatry Residency | About Us

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Faculty

Olusola Ajilore MD, PhD

  • Associate Head for Faculty Development
  • University of Illinois Center for Depression and Resilience (UI CDR) Professor of Psychiatry
  • Director, Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program
  • Director, Clinical Research Core/Center for Clinical and Translational Science
  • Director, Adult Neuroscience Residency Research Track
  • Co-Director, UICOM Medical Scientist Training Program
  • Department of Psychiatry
  • University of Illinois-Chicago
Dr. Ajilore's research goal is to understand the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder in the context of medical co-morbidities and late life using novel magnetic resonance imaging techniques. His group focuses on using structural and functional brain connectivity to study the brain as a network.

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Eitan Kimchi MD

  • Director, Psychiatry Residency Training Program
  • Director, Clinician Educator Track
  • Director of Academic Initiatives
  • Visiting Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
  • University of Illinois at Chicago
Dr. Kimchi is Director of the Psychiatry Residency Training Program, Director of Academic Initiatives, and Director of the Clinician Educator Track at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He completed his residency at the University of Maryland/Sheppard Pratt Psychiatry Residency Program and his geriatric psychiatry fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He subsequently joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins before relocating to the Chicagoland area. He was on faculty at Rush University Medical Center from 2016 to 2022 where he served as Associate Residency Training Director of Psychiatry, Medical Director of Emergency Psychiatry, and Associate Medical Director of the Section of Geriatric Psychiatry. There he chaired the Emergency Department’s Mental Health Committee and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences’ Faculty Development Committee. His clinical and research interests lie in medical education, decision-making capacity, dementia, and emergency psychiatric care. He has authored several textbook chapters on emergency geriatric psychiatry, cognitive disorders, behavioral disturbances in dementia, and decision-making capacity. Dr. Kimchi has been invited to give Grand Rounds at academic medical centers and to chair panels at national conferences on decision-making capacity.

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Ashley Mulvihill MD

  • Assistant Professor of Clincial Psychiatry
  • Director of Integrated Women’s Mental Health-Child Psychiatry Track
  • Illinois Doc Assist Consultant
  • Associate Residency Training Director of Psychiatry
  • University of Illinois at Chicago
Dr. Mulvihill is board certified in both General Psychiatry and Child/Adolescent Psychiatry. She completed her adult training and child fellowship at UIC. She stayed on at UI Health to join the faculty in 2018. Dr. Mulvihill works both in the Women’s Mental Health Program and Child Adolescent Division to expand integrative services around maternal-child mental health. She is interested in treating children, women, and families with various psychiatric issues including those related to pregnancy, postpartum, infertility, and motherhood. Dr. Mulvihill has a particular interest in working with expectant and new mothers with their children to improve family wellness and prevent adverse child experiences.

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Aneet Y. Ahluwalia MD

  • Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Internal Medicine
  • Director of Psychiatry Consult Liaison Service
  • Board Certified in Psychiatry and Internal Medicine

Dr. Ahluwalia serves as director of the inpatient psychiatry consult-liaison service. His other role is as an internist providing primary care and some inpatient internal medicine coverage. His hope is to integrate medical and psychiatric care in order to improve patient outcomes

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Katherine Backes MD

  • Professor, Clinical Psychiatry
  • Chief, Consultation/Liaison Service
  • Jesse Brown VA Medical Center

Sean Blitzstein MD

  • Clinical Professor of Psychiatry,
  • Director, Psychiatry Clerkship
  • Coordinator, Psychiatry Course
  • Staff Psychiatrist, Jesse Brown VA Medical Center

Dr. Sean Blitzstein is a psychiatrist in Chicago, Illinois and is affiliated with Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He received his medical degree from Sidney Kimmel Medical College and has been in practice for more than 20 years. He is one of 37 doctors at Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Medical Center who specialize in Psychiatry.

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Elizabeth A. Charney MD

  • Assistant Professor, Clinical Psychiatry
  • Attending, Comprehensive Assessment Treatment Unit (CATU)
  • Director, Child Psychiatry Consult-Liaison
  • Consultant, DCFS Psychopharmacology Consent Line
  • Consultant, IL DocAssist
  • Child Psychiatry Attending
Dr. Elizabeth Charney currently directs the Child Psychiatry Consult-Liaison service which provides psychiatric evaluations for children and adolescents hospitalized at UIH. Dr. Charney is involved in the DCFS supported inpatient adolescent psychiatric unit at UIH and serves as a consultant to the DCFS Psychopharmacology Consent Line. She consults to primary care providers with the Il Doc Assist program. She is actively involved in teaching resident trainees and medical students. She coordinates the medical student elective in child psychiatry. Dr. Charney does not accept outpatient referrals.

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Edwin H. Cook Jr. MD

  • Earl M Bane Professor of Psychiatry
  • Associate Head, Clinical Services
  • Director, Program for Neurodevelopmental Disorders
  • Medical Director, UI Health Behavioral Health Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)
Dr. Cook is the Director of Program for Neurodevelopmental Disorders and the Associate Head of Clinical Services in the department. Dr. Cook is board certified in both Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He specializes in treating comorbid psychiatric disorders for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Dr. Cook is also the Earl M. Bane Professor of Psychiatry.

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Zvezdana Djuric-Bijedic MD

  • Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Jenna Duffecy PhD

  • Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
  • Department of Psychiatry, UIC
Dr. Duffecy is a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry in the Mood and Anxiety Disorders program at UIC. She serves as the director of UIC Resiliency Center for Student Wellbeing as well as the Director of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Research and Services. She specializes in providing evidence-based intervention to improve mental health and stress management with a focus on issues relevant for students, including anxiety, lifestyle changes and professional development. Much of her research focuses on how digital tools can be used to improve health and mental health.

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Rodney Eiger MD

  • Chief, Addiction Programs Section, Jesse Brown VAMC
  • Clinical Lead, Substance Use Disorders, Veterans Integrated Services Network 12
  • Director, Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship Program, UIC/COM Department of Psychiatry
  • Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry , UIC/COM Department of Psychiatry
Dr. Eiger received his Medical Degree from the University of Illinois and did his residency in Psychiatry at the University of Michigan. Dr. Eiger has worked in the field of addiction since 1974 in a variety of public and private settings. He’s currently the Chief, Addiction Programs, at Jesse Brown VAMC and the clinical lead for Substance Use Disorders for a network of 8 VA medical centers in the Midwest.

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Peter Fore MD, MPH

  • Associate Head for Administration
  • Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
  • University of Illinois at Chicago
Dr. Fore is Associate Head for Administration and is sharing the duties of Director of Ambulatory Services. He is part-time. He recently retired from the Jesse Brown VA where he served for many years, most recently as Director of the Mental Health Services Line.

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Matthew Gambino MD, PhD

  • Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
Matthew Gambino is a psychiatrist and a historian with an interest in recovery oriented care for seriously mentally ill men and women in the community. He is Chief of the Section for Recovery Services at Jesse Brown VAMC, where he oversees the Psychosocial Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (PRRTP), the Mental Health Intensive Case Management (MHICM) program, the Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center (PRRC), and the VHA Vocational Rehabilitation (VHA-VR) program.

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Angeles Gonzalez MD

  • Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Maria Gunaratnam MD

  • Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
  • Staff Psychiatrist at Jesse Brown VA Medical Center
Dr. Maria Gunaratnam is a psychiatrist in Chicago, Illinois and is affiliated with Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She received her medical degree from UIC College of Medicine and then completed her Psychiatry Residency at UIC as well. She has been in practice for 12 years. She is one of 37 doctors at Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Medical Center who specialize in Psychiatry.

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Christopher Holden MD

  • Program Director, Addiction Medicine Fellowship
  • Director of Addiction Psychiatry
  • Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
  • Department of Psychiatry – University of Illinois College of Medicine
  • UI Health
Dr. Holden is the Director of Addiction Psychiatry. He treats a variety of psychiatric conditions, and he specializes in the treatment of patients with co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders. He works with patients in the outpatient mental health clinic as well as the hospital’s inpatient medical, surgical, and psychiatric units.

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Yetunde Johnson MD, MPH

  • Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
  • Medical Director, Drug Dependence Treatment Center
  • Jesse Brown VA Medical Center

Kathleen M. Kelley MD, FAACAP

  • Associate Professor, Clinical Psychiatry
  • Associate Program Director, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Training Program (CAP)
  • Director, Pediatric Embedded Clinic
Dr. Kelley is Associate Program Director of the CAP Residency Training Program at UIC/IJR. This Program is well-respected both locally and nationally and graduates three residents yearly. Dr. Kelley is an active teacher within the program and supervises a number of residents’ clinics in the UIC/IJR Colbeth Outpatient Clinic.

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Laura C. Kordon MD

  • Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry

Alex Leow MD, PhD

  • Professor in Psychiatry and Bioengineering
  • University of Illinois Chicago
Joining the University in 2009, Dr. Leow received clinical training in Psychiatry and research training in biomedical imaging, both at UCLA. Having co-authored more than 70 articles, Dr. Leow's current research interests focus on developing novel probabilistic reconstruction, tractography, and network analyses techniques for high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) and their clinical applications.

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John Korpics MD

  • Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, UIC COM
  • Chief, Inpatient Psychiatry
  • Director of Inpatient Addiction Psychiatry Rotation

Donald Koziol MD

  • Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry

Ronald Moline MD

  • Lecturer in Psychiatry

Fedra Najjar MD

  • Associate Professor, Clinical Psychiatry
  • Director, Neurodevelopmental Disorder Psychopharmacology Clinic
Fedra Najjar, MD, Associate Professor of clinical psychiatry is the director of the neurodevelopmental disorder psychopharmacology clinic at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). She is also the associate medical director of the comprehensive assessment and treatment unit, an inpatient unit at UIC treating severely mentally ill adolescents who are in state custody.

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Joshua Nathan FAPA, MD

  • Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
  • Medical Director, Community Reintegration Program
Dr. Nathan’s interests are in the clinical, educational and research arenas. Clinically, he has focused on treatment of depression, bipolar disorder, and various anxiety disorders. He has an interest and experience in providing psychodynamic and supportive psychotherapy, when possible and indicated.

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Michael W. Naylor MD

  • Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
  • Director, Behavioral Health and Welfare Program
  • Director, Comprehensive Assessment and Response Training System
  • Director, Clinical Services in Psychopharmacology
Dr. Naylor is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Medicine. He is the Director of the Behavioral Health and Welfare Program, a program formed by contract between the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and UIC to address the mental health needs of the most severely disturbed state wards.

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Stephen Noronha MD

  • Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry

Vesna Pirec MD, PhD

Vesna Pirec

Neil H. Pliskin PhD

  • Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Neurology
  • Director, Neurobehavior Program
  • Director, Neuropsychology Service
Dr. Pliskin is a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Neurology with years of experience working as a neuropsychologist and directing Neuropsychology training programs. He has a special interest in the neuropsychological sequelae of medical illness. Dr. Pliskin has published in the areas of renal disease, multiple sclerosis, and dementia and is a nationally recognized expert in the area of electrical shock injuries.

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Kalyan Rao MD

  • Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Kalyan Rao

Rajiv P. Sharma MD

  • Research Professor of Psychiatry, Anatomy and Cell Biology, and Neuroscience
  • Director of the Psychosis Program
Dr. Rajiv P. Sharma is a Research Professor of Psychiatry. Over the past 30 years, he has examined multiple aspects of the schizophrenia illness, including clinical presentations, biochemical studies (hormones, immune molecules, monoamine metabolites, neuropeptides), as well as molecular studies in living subjects, postmortem brain samples, and cell studies. His research is funded by NIH. He is currently focusing on the dissection of epigenetic gene regulation in schizophrenia, pertaining to immune function, cognition, treatment response.

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Danijela Stojanac MD

  • Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
  • Director in Women's Mental Health Division
  • Director of Women’s Mental Health Fellowship
Dr. Stojanac joined UIC in July 2016 as a psychiatrist in the Outpatient Clinic of the Women’s Mental Health Program (WMH). Since then Dr. Stojanac has been dedicated to expanding Women’s Mental Health Outpatient Clinic and rotating in coverage of the Inpatient Women’s Mental Health Unit. Dr. Stojanac has been working with the team of WMH psychiatrists on developing Two Generation Clinic (lead by Dr. Melissa Wagner PhD) where mothers and their children can receive mental health care together. Dr. Stojanac is the director in Women's Mental Health Division. Dr. Stojanac has been teaching and supervising Adult Psychiatry Residents. She received Merton Max Gill, M.D. Award (2019) presented by graduating psychiatry residents for mentorship and excellence in teaching. She serves as Director of Women’s Mental Health Fellowship since June 2017, supervising two Women’s Mental Health Fellows.

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