The Department of Psychiatry of the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System is proud to offer several post-residency fellowships.
Education is an important focus of our department and we offer a wide variety of experiences to further education of future practitioners.
We offer post-residency fellowship positions in:
Previously we offered fully accredited fellowships in Forensic Psychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry. These fellowships are currently being reorganized and will be available soon.
Child Psychiatry
Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
Addiction Medicine
VCU Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship
Hello, and welcome to the Virginia Commonwealth University Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Program webpage!
The Virginia Commonwealth University Child and Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship is a fully ACGME-accredited, two-year training program primarily located at the Virginia Treatment Center for Children (VTCC). Serving a highly diverse patient demographic spanning all of Virginia, our fellows receive extensive training in broad areas of mental health delivery for our patients and their families, including a significant focus on acute inpatient hospitalization, outpatient clinical treatment, consultation-liaison experiences within the VCU Health System, as well as interfaces in several of our outpatient community collaborative programs. Throughout the program, our fellows engage in service delivery with a patient population ranging from infancy to young adulthood that spans multiple cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, with an emphasis on the underserved. We have a growing and extremely diverse and experienced faculty dedicated to the education and supervision of our fellows, emphasizing a strong, multidisciplinary approach to education which includes additional on-site training programs in psychology, social work, nursing and pharmacy, among others. Supporting our rotational experiences, our didactic program includes 5-6 protected hours per week and emphasizes the interface of genetics and neuroscience, psychosocial factors, trauma, culture, current diagnostics, psychotherapeutic and somatic interventions, in addition to family and systems-based approaches. The VCU Child and Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship program offers fellows multiple opportunities for scholarship, including teaching opportunities for students and residents across disciplines, formal presentations at AACAP/APA/AADPRT, and various venues for research opportunities within the VCU Department of Psychiatry as well as across the entire VCU Health System. Overall, the VCU Child and Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship promotes a high degree of individualized attention to the education and supervision for each fellow as they develop in order to promote best outcomes for our patients and families as well as to build strong mental health clinicians to care for and support our future generations.
Our program continues to grow in our pursuit to train more and more future Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists, and we have just entered our third year as a program with three fellowship positions per year, with plans for future expansion to four positions per year very soon! In addition, we continue to grow our program faculty as well, including a total of seven outstanding additions to our already experienced group over the last three years, including faculty with extensive backgrounds in eating disorders, care of the transgender population, child and adolescent substance use disorders, as well as mental health systems and managed care expertise.
In addition, in April of 2018, our Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry moved into our brand new, state-of-the-art Virginia Treatment Center for Children. The product of a sixty-million dollar investment by the General Assembly as well as significant efforts by the VCU Department of Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital of Richmond Foundation, our new flagship facility offers 32 inpatient beds, a significantly expanded outpatient clinic including observation suites, integrated space for research and training in the Center for Child and Family Studies as well space to connect our patients and families to community treatment services through our Children’s Mental Health Resource Center. Additionally, the facility features fully integrated educational technology which enhances our online multidisciplinary curriculum, provides audio-visual recording capabilities for clinical supervision and education, as well as resources for community and state-wide educational endeavors!
Finally, our fellowship program, in collaboration with the VCU Medical School’s Instructional Technologists, has launched the first fully integrated online educational and didactic curriculum entitled the VCU Child and Adolescent Mental Health Curriculum. Initially developed in July, 2016, the curriculum serves as a permanent repository for all resources utilized in the didactic curriculum over the two-year program, and emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach including our psychiatry and psychology training programs working together in tandem. The curriculum utilizes an online platform including blogs, videos, articles, podcasts, and more with a focus on active-learning, flipped classroom principles as the primary modality for teaching and learning, including problem-based learning (PBL) modules, process-oriented, guided inquiry learning (POGIL) sessions, and Just-in Time Teaching (JiTT), among other innovative strategies!
So on behalf of our training faculty and administration, all of our trainees and our amazing staff, we hope that you’ll come visit us, check out our new facility and the amazing city of Richmond, and become one of the first fellows to experience the clinical and educational innovations that our fellowship program at the new Virginia Treatment Center for Children has to offer!
Sincerely,
Ross A. Yaple, M.D. Program Director
First-year fellows in our program experience a curriculum designed to promote core skills in the diagnostics, evaluation and treatment of children and families with a wide range of mental health needs, including the following rotations:
Second-year fellows will expand on the core skill sets developed during the first year curriculum with an emphasis on applying these skills in a variety of clinical and community settings, including the following rotations:
Please check out our Fact Sheet about the new Virginia Treatment Center for Children here:
Children’s Hospital of Richmond Information about the New VTCC: https://www.chrichmond.org/New-VTCC-Facility.htm
Infographic on VTCC and Children’s Mental Health: VTCC Infographic.pdf
Behavioral Healthcare’s 2016 Design Showcase Award of Merit: https://www.news.vcu.edu/health/New_Virginia_Treatment_Center_for_Children_receives_Behavioral
Information about the River City: https://www.visitrichmondva.com
Eligible candidates include those who will have completed their PGY-3 year of their Psychiatry Residency prior to the fellowship start date, have passed their USMLE Step 3, and must be able to secure a Virginia medical license.
We participate in the NRMP Psychiatry Fellowship Match (January Match) and require that all applications be submitted through the ERAS system: https://www.aamc.org/students/medstudents/eras/fellowship_applicants/
Applicants will only be considered for an interview once all elements of the ERAS application are completed, including the C.V., Personal Statement, Medical School Transcript, MSPE, USMLE Scores, ECFMG certificate (if applicable) and three Letters of Recommendation, one of which must be from your Psychiatry Residency Training Director.
Program Director: Ross A. Yaple, M.D. Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Phone: (804) 828-3130 Fax: (804) 628-1615 E-mail: ross.yaple@vcuhealth.org
Educational Program Coordinator: Sharon Scott, BA Phone: (804) 828-4371 Fax: (804) 628-1615 E-mail: sharon.scott@vcuhealth.org
Why Consider Fellowship Training in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry?
The Virginia Commonwealth University Health System training program in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry has been in existence since 1978, and is one of the first fellowship programs accredited by the ACGME and approved by the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. For over 35 years this program has been under the directorship of James L. Levenson, M.D., an internationally acclaimed leader in the field of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry.
Dr. Levenson is the editor of the American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychosomatic Medicine, (2005, 2011, 2018). Dr. Levenson has also been recognized with VCU's highest teaching award and its Distinguished Clinician Award. Other members of the Consultation-Liaison Division have also been recognized with awards for teaching and supervision and have made many contributions to the literature.
This exciting one-year fellowship offers advanced training in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry in a 750-bed university hospital to psychiatrists who have completed residency. Fellows choose from numerous clinical and research opportunities in transplantation, primary care, traumatic brain injury, pain management, oncology, infertility, HIV and more. Individual weekly supervision is provided for psychotherapy, liaison activity, teaching and research. Fellows have the opportunity to choose both liaison involvements and teaching medical students and psychiatry residents.
Our fellows also can rotate at our sister training facility, the Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center, a 500 bed flagship facility which offers diverse opportunities, including one of only six PolyTrauma Units nationwide, as well as Primary Care-Psychiatry collaborative care, a regional Spinal Cord Injury program, organ transplantation, pain clinic, and palliative care. The site director for the fellowship is Alex Trutia, M.D., who serves as the Chief of the Consultation/Liaison Service.
Our fellowship meets the requirements for board certification in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.
Fellowship eligibility requirements include completion of an accredited residency in Psychiatry, passing all steps of USMLE and the ability to obtain a Virginia medical license.
We use the common application form available online at https://www.clpsychiatry.org/residents-fellows/common-application/
It should be submitted along with a C.V. and three letters of recommendation, one of which should be from your residency training director, to Dr. Levenson at the address below.
We fully participate in and follow the policies of the National Residency Matching Program.
James L. Levenson, M.D. Professor of Psychiatry, Internal Medicine and Surgery Vice-Chair, Department of Psychiatry Chair, Division of Consultation/Liaison Psychiatry VCUHS P.O. Box 980268 Richmond, VA 23298-0268 Phone: (804) 828-0762 Fax: (804) 828-7675 E-mail: james.levenson@vcuhealth.org
The Addiction Medicine Fellowship is a one year, with optional second year fellowship. The second year a research-based fellowship.
Fellows will have four 3-month rotations for the first year, which will include:
Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center Outpatient Rotation: Fellows gain experience working in the Outpatient Opioid (Methadone and Suboxone) Treatment Clinics and Intensive Outpatient Substance Abuse Program, where patients receive 9 hours per week of treatment. Fellows follow patients with opioid addiction and patients with other substance abuse disorders long term. Fellows conduct new intake evaluations and provide treatment, including medication management, individual, group and family therapies, and various other modalities of treatment.
Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center Inpatient Rotation: Fellows gain experience working in the 60-day residential substance abuse treatment program, learning residential-based therapies.
Fellows also receive hands-on training in clinical addictions research. They may apply for funding for pilot studies in which they can serve as principal investigator for research projects. Clinical research in which fellows may participate include:
Application requirements include a CV, personal statement, list of publications, medical school transcripts and MSPE, USMLE scores, ECFMG certificate (if applicable), and three letters of recommendation, one of which should be from your residency training director. Albert J. Arias, M.D., M.S. Associate Professor, Psychiatry Program Director, Addiction Medicine Fellowship Albert.Arias@vcuhealth.org
Cynthia M. Greiner, M.A.M. Associate Administrator, Division of Addiction Program Coordinator, Addiction Medicine Fellowship Cynthia.Greiner@vcuhealth.org
Phone: 804-828-1467 Fax: 804-628-1247
Child Psychiatry - 2nd Year
Child Psychiatry - 1st Year
Residency: University of Virginia Medical School: University of Virginia Undergraduate School: University of Virginia Career Interests: Neuropsychiatry, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
Residency: University of Mississippi Medical Center Medical School: William Carey University, College of Osteopathic Medicine Undergraduate School: University of California at Los Angeles Career Interests: Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
Residency:VCU Medical School: The University of Minnesota Undergraduate School: The College of William and Mary Career Interest: child and adolescent psychiatry, community psychiatry Some things I like about Richmond: Richmond has a really impressive but also affordable food scene, lots of fun cultural events indoors and outdoors, and great parks and public green spaces. Some of my very favorites places to hang out are Heritage (restaurant), Belle Isle (island park in the James River), and the VMFA (art museum and event space).
Residency: Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine, BronxCare Health System, New York Medical School: KMC Mangalore, MAHE University, India Career Interest:Translational research in Psychiatric Disorders Things I like about Richmond: I enjoy the four seasons of weather with milder winters. I also enjoy exploring the historical sites of Richmond.
Residency: Wright State University Medical School: Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine – Virginia Campus Undergraduate School: East Carolina University Career Interest: Outpatient, tele-psychiatry, college mental health Some things I like about Richmond: The city has a great food scene that can accommodate everyone. Reasonable cost of living. Proximity to hiking, wineries, family and friends.
Residency: Prisma Health Midlands – University of South Carolina School of Medicine Medical School: Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine – Virginia Campus Undergraduate School: Christopher Newport University Career Interest: College/University Mental Health; Telepsychiatry Some things I like about Richmond: Great place to raise a family; amazing food; my co-fellows and clinical faculty
Residency: VCU Medical School: VCU Undergraduate School: College of the Holy Cross Career Interest: Child and adolescent psychiatry, trauma, anxiety disorders Some things I like about Richmond: I really enjoy Richmond's festivals, excellent restaurants, and active scene. There are some great places to run and bike along the river!
Residency: PRISMA Health- Greenville, South Carolina, Adult Psychiatry (Formerly Greenville Health System). Medical School: MCV/VCU School of Medicine- Richmond, VA Undergraduate School: Randolph-Macon College- Ashland, VA Career Interest: Working with children that have a history of trauma as well as those with developmental delays. Some things I like about Richmond: I love the history of Richmond and the surrounding area.
Residency: Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, New York Medical School: Medical University of Lublin Undergraduate School: University of California, Riverside Career Interest: C&L Psychiatry, Emergency Psychiatry Some things I like about Richmond: Rising food scene
Dr. Nishiaoki completed his family medicine residency at Eastern Virginia Medical School with an addiction medicine rotation at the Farley Center. He also did an addiction medicine elective with us last year and loved it. As a result of his elective experience with us, he decided to come back for our Addiction Medicine Fellowship as a PGY4 Fellow. He is particularly interested in the care of patients with prohibitive medical comorbidities who require inpatient management for their addictions and research to advance our understanding of addiction pharmacotherapy and improving treatment delivery models. He prefers to be called "Moose."
Dr. Malov is a Board Certified Anesthesiologist/Pain Management Physician. He completed medical school in Astrakhan, Russia and his residency in anesthesia at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He also completed a fellowship in pain management administered through Brigham and Women's Hospital, Children's Hospital, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Working in trauma, he sometimes experienced the heroic actions of the health care team in saving patient lives. However, it did not compare to the feeling of joy and elation he encountered when helping a patient with an addiction disorder. After 20 years of private practice, he wanted to find more ways to positively impact the health and well being of patients and decided to pursue the field in which he had felt such joy and elation - addiction medicine. He chose our Addiction Medicine Fellowship for its diversity of clinical sites and its exposure to different patient populations. Dr. Malov's goals are clinical care, research and education. He joins us a PGY6 Fellow. improving treatment delivery models. He prefers to be called "Stas."