2021-2022 NNCI Scholars

Richard is a PGY3 at the Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School Adult Psychiatry Residency Program, where he is part of the Physician-Scientist Training Program. Richard’s research interests are centered in interventional neuropsychiatry and utilizing neuroimaging tools to understand how neuromodulatory treatments work. Richard is also passionate about global psychiatry and delivering care and education to Hispanic populations. He has been involved in multiple education projects with a broad range of interests, from Model United Nations and Debate club to teaching neuroscience to both undergraduate and graduate students. His NNCI project is a proposal of a series of workshops with brief “MRI Capsules” that will consist of short videos, hands-on exercises and Q&As assessments delivering synthesized information about Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) methods often used in cognitive neuroscience translational research with the purpose of enhancing trainees ability to understand, interpret and critique research and interventions from a methods perspective.

Austin Blum is a PGY4 resident at the University of Chicago, a graduate of Cornell Law School, and a member of the 2020 American Psychiatric Association (APA)/APA Foundation (APAF) Leadership Fellowship Program. His interests include the treatment of sexual disorders, legal and ethical issues in C-L psychiatry, and the role of impulsivity in putative behavioral addictions (e.g., gambling disorder). His NNCI submission consisted of a Biological Psychiatry Clinical Commentary titled “Losing Control: Impulsivity in Psychiatry.” He is currently working on another commentary focusing on the brain science of blame and punishment.

Faith is a PGY2 psychiatry resident at Harvard South Shore. Her interests include consult-liaison psychiatry, integrated and collaborative care, and medical education. Faith participated in educational activities as an undergraduate at Providence College (RI) and as a medical student at the University of Connecticut, and looks forward to strengthening her teaching acumen as an NNCI Scholar. Her NNCI submission was a clinical commentary proposal examining the mechanisms, effects, and neurobiology of loneliness.

Jennifer Hsu is the PGY-4 Chief Resident of Operations at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, TX. She is passionate about the neuroscience of learning and the breakdown of complex topics into digestible pieces for both professionals and community learners. In residency, she started an outreach program with the local medical library to provide mental health education in public libraries. She has also been involved with medical student and junior resident teaching in both clinical and didactic settings. Her interests include psychosomatic medicine, relational trauma, and workplace violence prevention. Her NNCI submission described how symptoms of traumatic brain injury and PTSD can overlap and impact patients’ health, behavior, and their families.

Evan is a PGY2 resident in the research track and a Leon Levy Research Fellow at Columbia University / New York State Psychiatric Institute. During his PhD studies, he explored the epigenetic mechanisms that underlie risk for addiction and comorbid psychiatric disorders after adolescent alcohol exposure. His passion extends beyond the laboratory, as he taught multiple neuroscience course modules to undergraduate art students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He strives to integrate phenomenological, cultural, and neuroscientific accounts of mental illness and make basic neuroscientific discoveries more salient for clinicians and the lay public. His NNCI submission explored the clinical relevance of neuroepigenetics through the lens of addiction, attempting to educate physicians about basic science concepts while hoping a more biologically-focused understanding of disease processes might alleviate stigma surrounding psychiatric disorders.

Erik is a PGY-4 resident at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Erik’s wayward journey to psychiatry included a year of teaching high-school math, and although he no longer gets quite so excited about conic sections and integrals, his passion for education remains. Throughout medical school and residency, he has developed educational materials, taught courses for his peers, and published educational reviews. He is extremely excited to be a 2021-2022 NNCI Clinical Scholar in hopes of improving his skills as a medical educator. He is currently applying for fellowships in consult-liaison psychiatry, and also has varied interests including psychodynamic psychotherapy and psycho-oncology.

Keith is a PGY-2 resident at the AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center Psychiatry Residency Program in Atlantic City, NJ. He has had a keen interest in teaching and learning throughout his journey to residency and would love to pursue a career in medical education. In medical school, he developed a unique anatomy curriculum to be incorporated into a 6-week pre-matriculation course intended for incoming students and participated in the development of the problem-based-learning curriculum. He is particularly passionate about public speaking and incorporating graphic design into lecture development. His professional interests include the study of anxiety disorders, bipolar spectrum disorders, and neuromodulation. His NNCI submission examined the key hypotheses explaining the anxiolytic “runner’s high” phenomenon and used these findings to explore the endocannabinoid system as a target for novel anxiolytic drugs.

Rick Wolthusen, MD, MPP, studied medicine in Germany. As part of his medical school education and neuroscience research, he spent time in Boston (USA), Sydney (Australia), Aflao (Ghana), and Kisumu (Kenya). He founded the German NGO On The Move e.V. which empowers local communities to take care of their wellbeing and mental health. The NGO activities, which are based on neuroscience education, are award-winning. Rick is working with local and national governments on community mental health and global mental health challenges as well as mental health legislation. Before coming to Duke University for his psychiatry residency in 2020, he studied a Master of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Rick is a member of the Clinician Scientist Track as well as the Clinician Educator Track at Duke. He recently graduated from the Medical Education and Leadership Track.

Matthew is a PGY-3 psychiatry resident at University of Texas Southwestern. His clinical and research interests include psychotic spectrum disorders, psychotherapy, mental health in transitional age youth, multimodal neuroimaging, and medical humanities. He is part of his residency’s educator track and is actively involved in medical student education, curriculum development, and mentorship. He also serves as deputy editor for the American Journal of Psychiatry Residents’ Journal. His NNCI project uses art to teach about theory-of-mind and its neurobiological substrates, as well as the consequences of persistent social difficulties in clinical populations.

Yelu is a PGY2 resident at Beth Israel Medical Center. Her current interests include neuropsychiatry, genetics/epigenetics, and medical education. She has enjoyed various past experiences in teaching, as well as in epigenetic and neuro-development research, and hope to combine her passion of both areas together. Her NNCI submission included a learning module on the neuroanatomy and biological mechanisms implicated in memory processes in relation to major depressive disorder. Outside of work, she likes to dance and explore coffee shops in Boston.