Steven A. Epstein, MD, Fellowship Director
Dr. Epstein is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry of the Georgetown University School of Medicine and Chief of Service of the Department of Psychiatry of the Georgetown University Hospital. He has conducted NIH-funded research and published extensively in the area of Psychosomatic Medicine. In 2001, he was awarded a 1.1 million dollar grant from NIMH to study primary care physicians’ decision-making in the evaluation and treatment of depression. Since arriving at Georgetown in 1990, he has been the recipient of numerous teaching awards from residents and medical students and has continued an active clinical practice in psychiatry for the medically ill. Dr. Epstein received his BA from Yale College and graduated from the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine. After completing a residency in Psychiatry at Tufts-New England Medical Center, Dr. Epstein was a fellow in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at Georgetown. For the ten years prior to becoming Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Epstein directed the hospital’s Consultation-Liaison psychiatry service. In addition to his current NIMH grant, he was Principal Investigator on two other NIMH grants in this area. In 2002, he was elected to the American College of Psychiatrists and received an exemplary psychiatrist award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. As a national leader in Psychosomatic Medicine, he was recently appointed to membership of the Psychosomatic Medicine Committee of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and the Council on Psychosomatic Medicine of the American Psychiatric Association.
Carol L. Alter, MD
Dr. Alter received her Medical Degree from George Washington University in 1985. She completed her Residency at New York Hospital-Cornell University School of Medicine in 1989. After completing training, she held positions at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Cornell University and Temple University participating in clinical, teaching and research activities related to AIDS, oncology and general CL services. She has had a longstanding interest in mental health policy and served as the Medical Director for Policy and Advocacy at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and most recently founded and currently directs a policy-action organization, Treatment Effectiveness Now, which is focusing on issues of access to care for patients with co-occurring mental and physical disorders. Dr. Alter has been an active participant and leader in several professional organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association where she participates in several committees related to Psychosomatic Medicine, Managed Care and Reimbursement, the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, where she is Treasurer and the American Psychosocial Oncology Society, where she sits on the Board of Directors. Among numerous honors, she received a Special Recognition Award from the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine in 1997 for her advocacy work. Dr. Alter is recognized as one of the nation’s leading mental health policy and Psychosomatic Medicine psychiatrists.
Martin Chin, MD
Dr. Chin has been with the Washington Hospital Center since May 2005. He completed a combined residency in Internal Medicine and Psychiatry at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and is board certified in both internal medicine and psychiatry. Prior to joining the Georgetown Consult-Liaison faculty, he worked as a hospitalist at Washington Hospital Center, and served in the US Air Force in psychiatry, internal medicine, and flight medicine.
Daniel Hicks, MD
Dr. Hicks is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and has been Director of Psychosomatic Medicine at Georgetown for 5 years. He is Board Certified in Psychosomatic Medicine and is a Fellow of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, where he serves on the Ethics and HIV/AIDS Committees. He has a BS with Distinction from Purdue University, and his MD and Psychiatry Training from Indiana University in Indianapolis. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He has worked in community mental health, private practice, inpatient, outpatient, partial hospitalization, and HIV psychiatry, and in C/L Psychiatry at Indiana University. He has been active in the American Psychiatric Association and local district branches. Besides Psychosomatic Medicine, he has written and taught on HIV Psychiatry, Ethics, and GLBT issues.
Karen M. Johnson, MD
Most recently an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science; Medical Director and Director for Academic Affairs at Augustus F. Hawkins Comprehensive Community Mental Health Center in Los Angeles; Interim Vice-Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science and Past President of the Association of Black Women Physicians. Dr. Karen Johnson is a graduate of the University of Panama School of Medicine, who trained in Psychiatry at King-Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles, completed a Fellowship in Consultation Liaison Psychiatry at Emory University School of Medicine where she held the appointment of Director of the Consultation Liaison Service and the Women’s HIV Mental Health Program at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, before transferring to Harbor UCLA Medical Center where she served as Director of the Consultation Liaison Service, Director of the Inpatient Programs and Medical Student Clerkship Site Director. Over the years she has been awarded various teaching awards from the above institutions, and brings a wealth of clinical, academic and administrative experience.
Maryland Pao, MD
Dr. Pao is Deputy Director in the Office of the Clinical Director in the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Pao serves as Chair of the NIMH Institutional Review Board. She is an Attending Physician on the Psychiatry Consultation Liaison Service and Director of Pediatric Psychiatry Consultations in the Clinical Center. A native of Bethesda, she attended Wellesley College before completing a BA/MD program at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She completed Pediatric and Psychiatric Residency training as well as a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Pao was the Director of the Pediatric Consultation Liaison Service in the Children’s Center of Johns Hopkins Hospital as well as the Director of Pediatric Consultation Liaison and Emergency Psychiatric Services at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. She is board certified in Pediatrics, General Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Dr. Pao’s clinical and research interests are in the complex interactions between somatic and psychiatric symptoms in chronic diseases of childhood such as HIV and chronic granulomatous disease and in pediatric pain management. Dr. Pao is a past recipient of the NIMH Outstanding Resident Award (1991) and has received teaching awards both during her time at Johns Hopkins and at Children’s National Medical Center. She also received the NIMH Hannah Cashman Memorial Award for Excellence in Psychiatric Consultation Liaison Service (2003).
