Sophia Vinogradov, MD appointed as Interim Associate Chief of Staff at VAMC
Friday, October 16, 2009
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Sophia Vinogradov, MD as Interim Associate Chief of Staff for Mental Health at the San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Interim Vice Chair of Psychiatry, effective December 1, 2009.
The Mental Health Service at the SF-VA has risen to national prominence and is a vital component of our department, with a very strong and supportive faculty group in place. Dr. Vinogradov will work with the leadership at the VA and in our department to support the faculty, continue to foster the excellent clinical, academic, and research activities that characterize the Mental Health Service, and promote stability and strength throughout. John McQuaid, PhD and Frank Schoenfeld, MD will remain Associate Chiefs of Clinical Administration for Mental Health Services during this time. Tom Neylan, MD will assume leadership of the internationally-recognized PTSD research team on the service and will serve as co-chair of the “Stress, Trauma, and Violence” research collaboration Group.
Dr. Vinogradov joined our department in 1992. She completed medical school at Wayne State University, a psychiatry residency at Stanford, and a Department of Veterans Affairs Research Fellowship in Biological Psychiatry at the Schizophrenia Biologic Research Center, Palo Alto VA Medical Center and Stanford University.
A highly prized educator—and one of 24 UCSF faculty members selected for the inaugural class of the Academy of Medical Educators in 2001—she has an active role in the Brain, Mind and Behavior block for first-year medical students and the Neuroscience Seminar Series for PGY1 psychiatry residents. She has directed and co-directed the course introducing second-year UCSF medical students to clinical psychiatry and has been praised for increasing the number of students choosing psychiatry as their career. She has supervised a large number of medical student research projects as well as research fellows. The theme that comes up over and over again is her commitment and genuine interest in the students and her passion as a lecturer. She has garnered numerous teaching awards from medical student classes and from residents. In addition, she has contributed signficantly to curricular and faculty development, serving on the Neurosciences Curriculum Committee and co-chairing the Academy of Medical Educators Faculty Development Committee, and currently serves as Associate Chief of Mental Health Service for Research and Education.
Over the years Dr. Vinogradov has been a highly effective clinician, and founded and co-directs the Prodrome Assessment, Research and Treatment Program at LPPI, which offers comprehensive assessment and monitoring of young people who have been suffering from persistent changes in thoughts, perception and behavior that indicate a very high risk for a first psychotic episode. She also directs the Outpatient Psychopharmacology Teaching Clinic and actively participates in the Psychiatry Outpatient Services at the SFVA Medical Center.
Dr. Vinogradov has done a remarkable job of initiating and orchestrating collaborations with researchers from diverse areas (including basic neuroscience, neuroimaging, electrophysiology, cognition, and neuropsychology). An outstanding researcher and scholar and extremely successful in attracting intramural and extramural funding, she is the principal investigator on three NIMH grants—including three RO1s—as well as a grant funded by the Stanley Medical Research Institute. Her service to the NIMH through study sections and frequent participation in special topics workgroups is highly valued. Dr. Vinogradov's clinical neurosciences research laboratory is actively involved in both T1 and T2 translational research focusing on learning-induced neuroplasticity in schizophrenia and in the schizophrenia prodrome.
I also would like to extend my utmost gratitude to Charlie Marmar, MD for his dedicated service as Associate Chief of Staff for the past 20 years. Under his strong and inspiring leadership, the clinical enterprise has thrived and highly successful programs in research and education prospered. Over his distinguished 31-year career at UCSF, he has contributed to raising post-traumatic stress disorder to the forefront of international recognition, understanding, and support, and has contributed remarkable findings around prevalence, vulnerability, psychophysiological and neuroendocrine reactivity to stress, novel treatment approaches, accelerated recovery, and prevention, as well as national public policy and advocacy. Dr. Marmar has accepted the position of Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at New York University, effective December 1st.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Marmar and celebrating his contributions to our department at a Farewell Reception in his honor on Monday, November 30 from 5-6:30 PM in LPPI-169, following his Grand Rounds presentation from 4-5 PM in the Langley Porter Auditorium.
I and Diana Nicoll (Associate Dean and Chief of Staff at VAMC) will be appointing a search committee for a national search in the near future, and I welcome your feedback and participation in this important process.
Sincerely,
Renée Binder, MD
Interim Chair, UCSF Department of Psychiatry
Director, Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute