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Faculty, Residents and Staff Represent Department of Psychiatry at the Annual AADPRT Meeting

Faculty, residents and staff representing the Department of Psychiatry were featured in several sessions at the recent Annual Meeting of the American Association for Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training in Orlando, FL.

Michael Travis, MD, Director of the Office of Residency Training at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC (WPIC) and Co-Director of the National Neuroscience Curriculum Initiative (NNCI) is active in numerous AADPRT activities. He served as the co-chaired the 2015 BRAIN Conference, an annual event attended by NNCI Learning Collaborative clinician educators from across the United States. This year?s BRAIN Conference focused on strategies to teach neuroscience and incorporate a modern neuroscience perspective into clinical care. It featured a session on Neural Circuitry of Emotion Regulation by Dr. Mary L. Phillips, Pittsburgh Foundation-Emmerling Endowed Chair in Psychotic Disorders and the Director of the Mood and Brain Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Travis also participated in the AADPRT's Skills Fair where he presented a session on How to Edit Videos to enhance teaching.

The poster session included presentations by Dr. Jessica Gannon, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, a graduate of the WPIC Residency Training Program, and Dr. Anne Penner, a PGY5 resident. Dr. Gannon presented a poster on Evidence Based Treatment of Schizophrenia and Introducing Psychiatry Residents to Psychotherapy for the Seriously Mentally Ill Patient. The topic of Dr. Penner?s presentation was Assessing Career Outcomes of a Resident Academic Administrator, Clinician Educator Track.

Dr. Penner also was presented with the AADPRT/George Ginsberg, MD Fellowship Award. The Fellowship Award program was created to recognize psychiatry residents who demonstrate particular promise as educators and scholars in the field of academic psychiatry. Dr. Penner serves as the Chief Resident for Education and is active in the Academic Administrative Clinician Educators (AACE) track at WPIC.

The AADPRT meeting also hosted professional development workshops for residency training program staff. Two workshops featured presentations by Kim Kirchner, the WPIC Residency Training academic manager and chair-elect of the AADPRT Coordinator Caucus. Ms. Kirchner facilitated a workshop on the changing role of program staff and an educational session on accreditation and certification for new coordinators.