Faculty

UPMC is dedicated to providing access to care for individuals across western Pennsylvania. Below, meet the leaders who oversee UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH)’s more than 85 ambulatory programs and consultation services. Jessica Gannon, MD Dr. Gannon is Medical Director, Ambulatory Comprehensive Recovery Services (CRS), which provides comprehensive specialized services to adults with schizophrenia...

The Department of Psychiatry is delighted to congratulate Kenneth Perkins, PhD, who has been honored by the American Psychological Association (APA). Dr. Perkins received the APA’s Division 28 MED Associates Brady-Schuster Award, which honors a senior scientist who conducts outstanding research underscoring the fundamental importance of behavioral science to psychopharmacology or substance use disorder . An expert...

The Department of Psychiatry is delighted to announce that Dana Tudorascu, PhD, has joined the faculty at the rank of associate professor. Dr. Tudorascu earned her PhD in biostatistics from the University of Pittsburgh. During graduate school, she gained invaluable experience in statistical methods, fMRI and other imaging techniques, as well as in neuroimaging data analysis from Positron Emission Tomography (PET)...

We are delighted to announce that Yanhua Huang, PhD, has been appointed Tenured Associate Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Huang’s research focuses on the role of changes in sleep on neural plasticity in reward circuits, with a focus on the association between sleep loss and addiction. She is currently the PI of five federally funded grants, including a National Institute on Drug Abuse...

The Department of Psychiatry congratulates Boris Birmaher, MD (Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Endowed Chair in Early Onset Bipolar Disease), on his election to the prestigious Association of American Physicians (AAP). Dr. Birmaher, an internationally recognized expert in child and adolescent psychiatry, has made exceptional, field-changing contributions to the study of bipolar disorder in children and...

We are delighted to announce that Sarah Pedersen, PhD, has been promoted to Associate Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Pedersen graduated from the University of Missouri with a PhD in clinical psychology. During graduate school, she completed a clinical psychology internship at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH) and stayed in Pittsburgh as a postdoctoral fellow in...