Oct. 1, 2026

NEW! Kuruvila, Maharaj receive APP Excellence Awards

Two Psychiatry Department Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) have been selected for APP Celebration Week Excellence Awards. The pair were honored at an event on Sept. 24.

Dr. Snoben Kuruvila, D.M.S., M.P.A.S., PA-C, CAQ-Psy, won Outstanding APP in Scholarly Endeavors. Shalini Maharaj, M.P.A.S., PA-C, was awarded Outstanding APP in Inpatient Clinical Practice. The winners were named by UT Southwestern’s APP Recognition Committee, which reviews nominations and selects individuals whose work exemplifies excellence in clinical care, community service, leadership, scholarship, and teaching. Watch for an upcoming story on Center Times Plus to learn more about their accomplishments and impact.

NEW! Faculty, staff are encouraged to submit questions for Psychiatry Retreat panel discussion

The Psychiatry Department Retreat Planning Committee encourages faculty and staff to submit questions for an Executive Leadership Team panel discussion at the retreat. This is an opportunity for department members to help shape the conversation by sharing questions that they would like department leaders to address. Questions may be submitted anonymously using the form below.

The Department of Psychiatry Retreat: Hidden Talents, Shared Strengths! is scheduled from 12:30-5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 23, in the T. Boone Pickens Biomedical Building & Conference Center, ND.14 (14th Floor), 6001 Forest Park Road. In addition to the panel discussion, the retreat will include a talent show and talent/craft demonstrations.

D’Mello Lab awarded NIH grant to study the organization of language in autism

Dr. Anila D’Mello, Ph.D., has received an NIH-National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders grant to investigate the neural basis of semantic language difficulties in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects social communication and language. Language difficulties impact autistic individuals’ ability to communicate, learn, and engage socially. A particularly consequential language challenge in ASD is understanding and accessing word meaning, known as semantics. Because understanding the meaning of words is fundamental to communication, differences in this ability can be particularly consequential to how people understand, express, and use language in social situations. A team including Dr. D’Mello as principal investigator, and UC Berkeley Co-Investigators Dr. Jack Gallant, Ph.D. and Dr. Rich Ivry, Ph.D., will conduct precision functional MRI in autistic and non-autistic adults while they attend to naturalistic stories. The study will investigate how the autistic brain responds to the meaning of thousands of different concepts, from dozens of categories, and how individual differences in the brain’s response relates to social behaviors. 

Supporting the State Employee Charitable Campaign has never been sweeter

As of Sept. 21, the members of the Psychiatry Department have donated $840 through State Employee Charitable Campaign (SECC). To compare, the department raised more than $5,000 through last year's total SECC efforts. To get the ball rolling this year, department organizers are going to sweeten the deal. Watch for opportunities to buy sweets boxes with cookies and mini bars in the coming weeks. Sales will benefit the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Pricing and availability info will follow soon.

Individual giving to the charity of your choice is also encouraged. The SECC works with hundreds of local, state, national, and international charities. You can make a one-time donation or choose a monthly payroll deduction. Click the link below for more information.

Want another reason to donate? Donors can win a prize. If you donate through PeopleSoft you will be registered to potentially win one of 50 donated prizes, including signed Dallas Mavericks apparel, tickets to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, the Dallas Arboretum, Children’s Aquarium Dallas, top DFW art museums, the State Fair of Texas, sporting events, and more. Email Kirk Dickey in the Chair's Office with any questions about the SECC.

Present at the CRI Scientific Meeting

Clinical Research Infrastructure (CRI) has created a Presenter Interest Form for its weekly Scientific Meeting. Scheduled every Tuesday at Noon, the meeting provides an opportunity for invited faculty, staff, and students to present on clinical research-based studies, projects, and topics. Individuals who would like to share their ongoing research with the group and/or are looking for feedback on a project are encouraged to fill out the form below. The form also has a section to suggest other presenters and topics. All are welcome to attend the meeting. Contact Chris Loehrlein for more information or to request a meeting invitation.

Children's Medical Center Dallas ranked among nation's top children's hospitals

Children’s Medical Center Dallas has once again been recognized among the nation’s top children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report in its 2026-2027 Best Children's Hospital rankings. It is the only hospital in Dallas-Fort Worth and the surrounding region to be ranked in all 11 pediatric specialties evaluated by U.S. News, and is No. 2 in Texas. This marks the ninth consecutive year – and the 15th time since 2008 – that the hospital has earned recognition across every specialty area. The Behavioral Health program has again been ranked in the Top 50 programs nationally (no specific numerical ranking is provided for behavioral health programs).

Presenting? Let the world know with this card

Presenting at a conference or other major event? Let others know about it by filling out a social media card. Social media cards are promoted through the UTSW Science X Account and picked up by other UTSW social media accounts. Share your information at least a week in advance to be sure that the card can be created in time for conference attendees to see it.

NEW! Test accessibility with this list of tools

One of the first steps to improving accessibility is understanding what improvements are needed. While core concepts help guide remediation, accessibility testing tools remain an important part of this work. From Microsoft and Adobe software checkers to helpful manual checking tips for desktop and mobile accessibility, the link below provides a list of tools to test documents, files, and webpages. Using these tools will help ensure you are creating accessible documents that more people can use.

Dr. Aisha Julakanti, M.D., has joined as faculty on the Behavioral Health Initiative Group (BHIG) working as both a pediatrician and child psychiatrist. She was UT Southwestern's first Triple Board residency graduate – pediatrics, adult psychiatry, and child psychiatry. She graduated from medical school at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock.

Dr. Emily Nguyen, M.D., M.B.A., recently joined the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry division as a clinical assistant professor. She will be providing outpatient psychiatric care at Children's Health Outpatient Clinic, Parkland CV Roman, and Child and Family Guidance as part of the Community Psychiatry Workforce Expansion (CPWE) program. Dr. Nguyen earned her medical degree from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, and completed her General Psychiatry residency and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at UT Southwestern.

Dr. Emily Armstrong, Ph.D., recently joined the Center of Autism and Developmental Disabilities as a Clinical Assistant Professor. Dr. Armstrong earned her doctorate in School Psychology at Texas Woman's University. She completed her fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt Kennedy Center's TRIAD: The Autism Institute.

China Santamaria, M.S.N., APRN, FNP-C, PMHNP-BC, a dual-certified Family and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, recently joined UTSW Multispecialty Psychiatry Clinic. She has more than a decade of nursing experience, including experience in inpatient psychiatric care and the treatment of complex mental health conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. She earned her post-master's certificate in psychiatry from The University of Texas at Arlington and completed an Advanced Practice Provider Psychiatry fellowship at JPS Health Network in 2023.  

Madison Schafer recently joined the Department of Psychiatry as a Clinical Research Assistant II in the Brown Lab. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Carthage College. Prior to joining UT Southwestern, Madison worked in preclinical toxicology research at AbbVie and served as a Behavioral Technician in a residential substance use disorder (SUD) unit at Aurora Psychiatric Hospital.

NEW! Dr. Shawn McClintock, Ph.D., was interviewed by Your Brain Health Today for an article titled "Severe Depression May Benefit from Neuromodulation Therapies." The article is linked here. Those who have difficulty accessing it online can read a PDF here.

Dr. Kipp Pietrantonio, Ph.D., was published in the latest edition of On Board with Professional Psychology, the official publication for the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). The article is titled “Telehealth: The 'Happy Accident' that Quietly Revolutionized Exposure Response Prevention for OCD.” Read it here.

Dr. Manish Jha, M.D., was featured in a BroadcastMed article titled "GLP-1s: Potentially A New Direction in Addiction Care." The article chronicles Dr. Jha's study of tirzepatide in methamphetamine addiction. Read the article here.

Dr. Abby Ortiz, M.D., was recently featured in a BroadcastMed article titled "Computational psychiatry is changing how physicians predict and treat bipolar disorder." Dr. Ortiz's studies include wearable monitors to measure sleep and activity as a way to understand an approaching episode. Read more here.

NEW! Dr. Janko Gospocic, Ph.D., has been awarded a grant from the Hypothesis Fund to build on his studies with the Harpegnathos saltator ant species. The new project could one day unlock new ways to reverse brain aging.

Dr. Elif Ozan, M.D., PGY 2 in General Psychiatry, has been awarded an Educational Outreach Program (EOP) Award from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP).

Dr. Seungwon "Sebastian" Choi, Ph.D., recently received a Suh Kyungbae Foundation (SUHF) Young Investigator Award, the most prestigious junior faculty award for Korean biomedical scientists. The award – $160,000-$170,000 annually for three years, with possible renewal – will support the study of the functional circuit assembly of the developing spinal cord using systems neuroscience approaches. 

Yosanly Cornelio, Ph.D. candidate, was selected for a trainee travel award to support her presentation at the Neuroscience of the Everyday World (N.E.W.) Conference, hosted by Boston University. Cornelio plans to present "Interpretable Digital Phenotyping of Subclinical Insomnia From Wearable and Sleep Diary Data" at the conference. She is currently receiving clinical research training within the Children's Psychiatry Research Group under the supervision of Dr. Emine Rabia Ayvaci, M.D. Her project was mentored by Dr. Ismael Villanueva-Miranda, Ph.D., faculty in UT Southwestern's Department of Public Health.

NEW! Pictured from left to right, Clinical Psychology Doctoral Students Nick Rhodes, Maya Hubbard, and Briana Johnson, and Dr. Tyler Evans, Ph.D., and Dr. Andy McGarrahan, Ph.D., participated in the Fourth Annual Bridging the Gap Foundation Walk to promote equal access to quality mental health treatment for all.

Several members of the UTSW faculty presented at the Association for Academic Psychiatry (AAP) conference in Salt Lake City earlier this month. The picture above is from a workshop on "Facilitating Formative Growth: Innovations in Simulation Education" with (from left) Dr. Ashley Woolbert, M.D., Dr. Darlene King, M.D., Dr. Sarah Baker, M.D., and Dr. Latoya Frolov, M.D. In another session, Dr. Bernice Yau, M.D., and Dr. Baker presented "When Concerns Arise: Navigating Fitness for Duty in Trainees." Dr. Adriane dela Cruz, M.D., Ph.D., presented "Leadership in Academic Medicine" and "The Power of Peers: Building Mentoring Networks, Group Peer Mentoring, and Mentoring Programs." Dr. Woolbert also received the Association for Academic Psychiatry Early Career Development Award at the conference.

KE’Marvin Pitts, LCSW, from the MSOPC Richardson Clinic, presented at the Injury Prevention Symposium hosted by UT Southwestern in collaboration with Scottish Rite. His presentation was part of the session, Mental Health, Identity, and the Injured Athlete.

REMINDER: Apply for the Alkermes Pathways Research Awards

The ninth annual application period for the Alkermes Pathways Research Awards program is now open. Pathways Research Awards are open to early-career investigators and will support research projects focused on sleep disorders, schizophrenia, and bipolar I disorder. The annual Pathways program provides individual grants of up to $100,000 per project.  

This year, the program has introduced a streamlined application process based on feedback from previous applicants. The first step is a brief Letter of Intent (LOI), designed to make it easier for investigators to share their proposed research and interest in the program without completing a full application upfront. Following a review of the LOIs, selected applicants will be invited to complete the full application. Letters of Intent will be accepted through Oct. 16. Invited applicants will then have from Nov. 13, 2026-Jan. 5, 2027 to submit a full application. 

Click the link above for more information on the submission process and full eligibility criteria. Additional information is available through the Pathway's Research Award Inquiry Form. 

Jack El-Hai presents at Ethics Grand Rounds

Jack El-Hai, M.F.A., a journalist and author of nonfiction books, articles, and essays about medicine, science, history, and crime, will present "The Ethical Challenges of Telling Dr. Douglas M. Kelley's Story at Nuremberg" on Tuesday, Oct. 13, from Noon-1 p.m.

The presentation will be part of the Daniel W. Foster, M.D., Visiting Lectureship in Medical Ethics, in conjunction with Ethics Grand Rounds. More information about this lecture can be found on the university events calendar or by contacting Ruth Vinciguerra.

Psychiatry Department Leadership Series final event is Oct. 12

The final session of the current Psychiatry Department Leadership Series will be held from Noon-1 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 12. This month's topic is "Leading Through Change," and will be presented by Dr. Tarek K. Rajji, M.D. Watch for an Outlook calendar invitation for the session.

Recordings of past sessions are available on the Psychiatry Department SharePoint site.

More in-person Psychiatry Grand Rounds are planned

The next in-person Psychiatry Grand Rounds speaker is Dr. James Willig, M.D., of UT Southwestern. Dr. Willig's presentation will be from Noon-1 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 14. The presentation will be held in NG3.112 with a reception and food in NG3.108.

Dr. Bhavya R. Shah, M.D., will address Psychiatry Grand Rounds in person on Oct. 28 from Noon-1 p.m., also in NG3.112.

In-person Psychiatry Grand Rounds provide opportunities to learn from visiting physicians and educators, and attendance reflects well on the Psychiatry Department. Attendance also offers you the opportunity to interact directly with the visiting speaker.