Training And Experience
My undergraduate education was at the University of Michigan, majoring in psychology, where
I received a B.A. degree With High Distinction. I then attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, earning my
M.D. degree in 1973. Further post-graduate training included a combined internship-residency training program; the medical
portions of this were at Presbyterian University Hospital and Montefiore Hospital at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Psychiatric training was at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC) of the University of Pittsburgh. I am fully Board
Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.
From 1976 to 1998 I divided my time between private
practice in my Oakland office, and consulting with several organizations. This included serving as the Medical Director at a
large community mental health center for about 10 years, helping to build a widely respected program there. I also provided
psychiatric consultative services to the Butler VA Medical Center mental health clinic and alcohol/substance abuse program for several
years. More recently I was the consulting psychiatrist for a forensic psychiatric unit of very seriously mentally ill inmates
at the State Correctional Institute Pittsburgh (“Western Penitentiary”) for 5 years, helping to considerably raise the standards of
care for this very difficult population. As of 1999 I have opted to devote my full time to working with the general public in
my Oakland office.
I am a member of the faculty at WPIC as a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry. I have served on the physician advisory board of the Intestinal Disease Foundation, was a cofounder of the local chapter of the National Depression and Manic Depression Association, and am affiliated with both the national organizations and local chapters of the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation and Trichotillomania Learning Center. I have participated in numerous programs in the community given by a variety of mental health support and educational organizations, wrote a column for the public on various psychiatric topics for many years, and have published articles in professional journals. I am a past-president of the Pittsburgh Psychiatric Society. I served for many years as the chairman of that group's Public Psychiatry Committee, and also participate on the Governmental Relations Committee of the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society.
More recently I have coordinated educational programming for the Pittsburgh Psychiatric Society.
Honors received include election to Phi Beta Kappa, and the E. W. Early Award in Psychiatry from
the University of Pittsburgh. I have been named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, an honor awarded
for significant professional accomplishment. Organizations I belong to include the American Psychiatric Association, Pennsylvania
Psychiatric Society, Pittsburgh Psychiatric Society, Pennsylvania Medical Society, and Allegheny County Medical Association.