University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Promotes Melanie Grubisha, MD, PhD, to Associate Professor of Psychiatry
We are pleased to announce that Melanie Grubisha, MD, PhD, has been promoted to Associate Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Dr. Grubisha earned her MD and her PhD in molecular pharmacology and chemical biology from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). She completed her psychiatry residency training at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH), then undertook postdoctoral research training in the Department of Psychiatry’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded translational neuroscience T32 program. She joined the Pitt faculty in 2019 as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry.
Dr. Grubisha investigates the molecular underpinnings of psychiatric and neurological disease by working to identify the molecular pathways responsible for both normal and aberrant development across adolescence. Her research focuses on understanding dendritic development, with a particular interest in the critical developmental period spanning adolescence. Dr. Grubisha has innovated new techniques in the lab to produce multiple novel, high-impact findings, which she has published in top journals. She has been invited to present her research at meetings including the Society of Biological Psychiatry and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Southwest PA. Since joining the faculty, she has been recognized with a School of Medicine Dean’s Faculty Advancement Award, as well as a Department of Psychiatry Community Enrichment Accolade. Dr. Grubisha has served as an ad hoc reviewer for multiple scientific journals, and as a guest associate editor for Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience (Brain Disease Mechanisms).
As a clinician, Dr. Grubisha is an attending psychiatrist at resolve Crisis Center, a high-volume service that provides crisis intervention, stabilization, and hospital diversion for Allegheny County residents. She is known as a skilled and compassionate physician, providing outstanding care for a psychiatrically and socially complex patient population in an environment with a consistently high degree of urgency.
Dr. Grubisha is an outstanding teacher and educational leader, and has provided didactic and clinical instruction for learners including medical and graduate students, as well as residents. In terms of medical student teaching, she co-leads the School of Medicine’s Introduction to Psychiatry course. In terms of graduate student teaching, she has taught “Bedside to Bench” in the Integrated Systems Biology program, introducing graduate students to biomedical research. Dr. Grubisha has provided didactic lectures to residents on evidence-based medicine and schizophrenia, and teaches neuroscience to PGY1 psychiatry residents. She is additionally a superb mentor and clinical supervisor, and has worked extensively with psychiatry residents and medical students clinically, as well as with graduate students as a research mentor, and serves as a career advisor in the Pitt MSTP program.
“Dr. Grubisha is an accomplished physician-scientist with an outstanding record of conducting translational research to improve our understanding of dendritic development associated with the onset of schizophrenia. Complementing this research, she has provided high-quality clinical care in a community-based crisis setting. Dr. Grubisha is an outstanding teacher, clinical supervisor, and mentor and makes major contributions to the educational mission of the School of Medicine.”
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Grubisha!