University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Promotes Sarah Stahl, PhD, to Associate Professor of Psychiatry
We are delighted to announce that Sarah Stahl, PhD, has been promoted to Associate Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Dr. Stahl earned her PhD in developmental psychology from West Virginia University. Upon completion of her postdoctoral training in geriatric psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, she joined the Pitt Psychiatry faculty in 2014 as assistant professor.
An expert in geriatric psychiatry, Dr. Stahl investigates risk factors for poor health outcomes in older adults, as well as their underlying mechanisms and the development of interventions to alter those outcomes. Her research focuses on understanding changes in the daily rhythms of health behaviors in the wake of stressful life events such as spousal bereavement and dementia caregiving, which frequently occur later in life. Dr. Stahl has identified novel risk factors for late-life depression that deal with psychological or interpersonal mechanisms, as well as with brain function.
She currently leads a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) R01 grant investigating the efficacy of a healthy lifestyle intervention to prevent depression in older bereaved adults, including Covid-19-related bereavement. She is additionally a principal investigator of a grant focused on optimizing older dementia caregivers’ biological clocks through lifestyle change, part of a National Institute on Aging P50 grant. Her research collaborations include looking at sleep-wake behaviors and circadian rhythm disruption, as well as at activity pattern disruption to target prevention of post-stroke depression. Recognition for Dr. Stahl’s research includes early-career investigator awards from the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.
Dr. Stahl teaches in multiple spheres across the University and holds faculty positions in several collaborative and multidisciplinary centers including the Center for Sleep and Circadian Science; the University Center for Social and Urban Research; and the Center for Caregiving Research, Education, and Policy, among others. She is additionally a faculty mentor for the Department’s NIMH-funded Late-Life Mood Disorders/Geriatric Mental Health T32 training program.
“Dr. Stahl conducts innovative and important multidisciplinary research in geriatric psychiatry, and her contributions have greatly improved our understanding of depression in older people, particularly following stressful life events. She is increasingly recognized as an expert in this field. She is also highly collaborative, as well as an award-winning educator, and an excellent citizen of the scientific community,” said David Lewis, MD (Chair, Department of Psychiatry).
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Stahl!