News

We are pleased to announce that Marie Anne Gebara, MD, has been promoted to Associate Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Dr. Gebara earned her MD from the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), then came to the United States for psychiatry residency training at Washington University in St. Louis Barnes Jewish Hospital. Upon completing her residency, she undertook a clinical fellowship in geriatric psychiatry at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH), followed by a research fellowship at the Veteran’s Association (VA) Pittsburgh Healthcare System. Dr. Gebara then completed research training as a postdoctoral fellow in Pitt Psychiatry’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded T32 training program in geriatric psychiatry. Dr. Gebara was appointed to Pitt Psychiatry faculty as assistant professor in 2019.

An outstanding clinician, Dr. Gebara has provided clinical service in four areas: ambulatory geriatric psychiatry; long-term care psychiatry in nursing facilities; the Clinical Core of the University’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center; and at WPH’s Center for Interventional Psychiatry (CIP), which provides clinical interventions for individuals with treatment-resistant depression. At the CIP, Dr. Gebara serves as medical director of ketamine services. In her geriatric psychiatry clinical work, Dr. Gebara is an attending psychiatrist at the UPMC Long-term Care Program, and has served as an attending at the UPMC Senior Care Institute.

Complementing her clinical expertise, Dr. Gebara is highly involved in research related to treatment-resistant depression in older adults, as well as the intersection of sleep and mood disorders in older adults, and seamlessly integrates her research with her clinical work. She serves as the site principal investigator on a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute grant comparing the effectiveness of electroconvulsive therapy vs ketamine for the rapid reversal of suicidal depression. In addition, she is co-investigator on multiple grants supported by the NIMH or the National Institute on Aging. She has published original, peer-reviewed papers, presented her work at national meetings, and is on the editorial board of two geriatric psychiatry journals.

Dr. Gebara is an award-winning teacher and mentor, serving as associate director of the Concentration in Interventional Psychiatry for psychiatry residents, having developed the Concentration’s curriculum. She additionally developed the curriculum for the esketamine and transcranial magnetic stimulation elective at the CIP and received a teaching award from psychiatry residents recognizing her outstanding instruction in the CIP.

Dr. Gebara contributes generously to service activities at the University, UPMC, and beyond, serving on multiple committees including as a member of the International Psychogeriatric Association International Congress Depression Workgroup Initiative.

“Dr. Gebara’s clinical work addresses critical issues in geriatric and interventional psychiatry, providing superb clinical care to highly vulnerable and complex populations. She also makes tremendous contributions to related research and administrative leadership, and she excels in training the next generation of physicians,” said David Lewis, MD (Chair, Department of Psychiatry). 

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Gebara!