Leadership

Program Director

Welcome to our General Psychiatry Residency Program. Our program strives to develop psychiatrists who are competent in both the art and science of medicine and psychiatry. We strive to do this in an environment in which the well being of the patient and the resident are both important.

Our program has entered an exciting phase. Our leadership includes Dr. Kathryn Kotrla (chair of our department), Dr. Nancy Dickey (Dean of the Texas A&M Health Science Center), Dr. Christopher Colenda (Dean of the College of Medicine) and Dr. Al Knight  (CEO of Scott & White Hospital and Clinic). Together they have formed an even tighter alliance benefiting patient care, medical student and resident education and research. The fields of child and adolescent and geriatric psychiatry are well represented at Texas A&M. Dr. Christopher Colenda was honored with the highest award in the field of geriatric psychiatry, the American Psychiatric Association's Jack Weinberg Memorial Award. Dr. Colenda was recently selected as Psychiatry Director for the ABPN and appointed to a four year term on the NBME representing AAMC.

Our program has multiple training sites, including Scott & White Hospital and Clinic, the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center (a part of Ft. Hood) and the Texas MHMR system. This enables our residents to be a part of many different healthcare delivery systems and see many different types of patients in many systems of care.

In addition to our already established residency programs in adult, child and adolescent psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry is an actively growing component of our department. Both Scott & White and the CTVHCS have psychiatrists with additional board certification in geriatric psychiatry. Research ideas abound—especially since we are affiliated with one of the VA facilities that cares for the chronically mentally ill. We also anticipate additional research opportunities in the area of PTSD, given our VA and military affiliations. In addition to focusing on Schizophrenia and Mood Disorders, Alzheimer's disease is one focus of the Neuropsychiatry research program.

Our main Temple campus is bursting with new building projects. Our faculty is a very diverse group of people, which provides our residents with a wide variety of perspectives on mental illness and mental health. Our residents are a tight-knit group who work well together. We have the safety and economic benefit of living in a smaller town but have the "big city" life less than an hour away. After graduation, our residents have left for many exciting and diverse careers. Our graduating residents have much success on the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology exams. We are proud of them.

Department Chairman

Welcome to our department! This is an extraordinary, exciting time for psychiatry. Clinical neurosciences are expanding our understanding of brain, mind and treatment options. At the same time, psychosocial interventions are offering rehabilitation and improved functioning for individuals with chronic mental illness. Psychiatric practice provides the opportunity for treating patients in an integrated and holistic way, utilizing effective medications, psychotherapy and evidence-based best practices.

With psychiatry encompassing such a variety of experiences, training programs must thoughtfully structure their courses and clinical rotations to ensure a sufficient breadth and depth of clinical, educational and research exposure, while nurturing an individual physician's talents and interests. As you will see as you visit with us, our Psychiatry Department offers a selective and individualized training environment filled with mentors who integrate education, clinical service and research missions.

Our primary clinical training sites are the Scott & White Memorial Hospital and Clinic and the Central Texas Veterans Healthcare System, along with exposure to the local Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority, Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center and a private Child Psychiatry facility. With these affiliates, medical students and residents learn innovative, rehabilitation focused treatment strategies for people from diverse socioeconomic strata with a wide array of mental illnesses. Residents with research interests can pursue their questions by joining a variety of ongoing research projects, ranging from mind-body interactions to the molecular biology and neuropathology of schizophrenia, Alzheimer's Disease, mood disorders and suicide.

The best way to learn about a training program is to visit with the key ingredient of education—our clinical and scientific faculty—along with our students and residents. Our program creates a caring, individualized and challenging educational environment. We hope to meet you as you learn about us first hand.

Back to Top