天美传媒

Eric M. Plakun, MD, FACPsych, DLFAPA, is the associate medical director and director of biopsychosocial advocacy at the Austen Riggs Center, a long-term psychiatric hospital and treatment center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, previously serving for 35 years as the director of admissions. A board-certified psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, researcher, and forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Plakun was a clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School for more than 20 years. In his role at Riggs, he advocates for 鈥淔our Freedoms鈥� we owe to those struggling with mental disorders: [1] Freedom from stigma; [2] Freedom from dehumanizing treatment; [3] Freedom to pursue meaning in life and in treatment; and [4] Freedom of choice in access to medically necessary and effective treatment. 

RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP
Dr. Plakun was co-principal investigator of a prospective follow-along study of treatment outcome that utilized objective measures of psychodynamic constructs. He is the editor of New Perspectives on Narcissism (American Psychiatric Press, 1990) and Treatment Resistance and Patient Authority: the Austen Riggs Reader (Norton Professional Books, 2011), and author of close to fifty published papers and book chapters on the diagnosis, treatment, longitudinal course, and outcome of patients with [1] borderline and other personality disorders, [2] suicidal and self-destructive behaviors, and [3] treatment-resistant disorders. Dr. Plakun has presented more than one hundred scientific papers on these and other topics at professional meetings around the nation and overseas. 

Dr. Plakun is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and founding leader of its Psychotherapy Caucus. He is a Psychoanalytic Fellow of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, and in 2004 was appointed this group鈥檚 representative to the APA Assembly. He is a Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists and past chair of its Ethics Committee, a Fellow of the American College of Psychoanalysts and member of its Board of Regents, a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Medicine, and a member of the editorial board of Psychodynamic Psychiatry. Dr. Plakun has appeared on CBS鈥� 60 Minutes as an expert in forensic psychiatry. He has served as an expert witness in federal class action lawsuits addressing the gap between restrictive insurance company access to care standards and generally accepted standards in psychiatry.
He has been quoted in the New York Times and the Toronto Globe and Mail. In 2003, Dr. Plakun was named by the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society as the 鈥淥utstanding Psychiatrist in Clinical Psychiatry.鈥� 

TRAINING
Dr. Plakun received his MD from the Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons. After an internship in medicine at Dartmouth, Dr. Plakun worked as a rural general practitioner in Vermont before completing a psychiatric residency at Dartmouth and a Fellowship at the Austen Riggs Center in psychoanalytic studies.

For a list (and downloadable copies) of Dr. Plakun's publications, see: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eric_Plakun

Dr. Larissa Mooney is a board certified addiction psychiatrist with expertise in the treatment of substance use disorders and psychiatric comorbidity.  After obtaining residency training at New York University, she completed a fellowship in addiction psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.  Dr. Mooney is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and Director of the UCLA Addiction Medicine Clinic, where she teaches psychiatrists in training in the clinical management of dual diagnoses.  Dr. Mooney serves on the Executive Board of Directors for the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP).  She has conducted research on treatment interventions for addictive disorders, including methamphetamine, cocaine and opioid use disorder and has received funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to study clinical outcomes in individuals with cannabis use disorder.   

Dr. Raviv provides clinical mental health services through Lurie Children鈥檚 Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health through the Trauma Treatment Service and General Outpatient Services Program, with a specific focus on youth exposed to stress and trauma. Dr. Raviv has published work in the areas of school mental health, child maltreatment, risk and resilience factors for youth exposed to stress and trauma, and the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based mental health programs. Most recently, she co-authored the resource book, Creating Healing School Communities: School-Based Interventions for Students Exposed to Trauma which is one in a series aimed at supporting clinicians who are working in schools and communities. 

Dr. Raviv is a member of the Steering Committee of the PATHH Collaborative, a group of community agencies convened by the Chicago Children鈥檚 Advocacy Center working to increase access to quality mental health services for children who have experienced sexual abuse. She is also a member of the Workforce Development Sub-Committee of the Illinois Childhood Trauma Coalition.

Dr. Raviv holds a Bachelor of Arts from Emory University, a Master of Science in Child Clinical Psychology from University of Denver, and a PhD in clinical psychology from University of Denver.

Tali Raviv has been with the Center for Childhood Resilience since 2009. She has more than 15 years of experience in community and school mental health. Dr. Raviv鈥檚 work focuses on increasing knowledge and awareness about the impact of childhood trauma on children鈥檚 development and wellbeing, and translating evidence-based interventions for traumatized youth to school and community settings. She has particular expertise in program development and evaluation for at-risk youth and families, including those exposed to poverty. 

Christopher M. Palmer, MD, received his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine and completed his internship and psychiatry residency at McLean Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. He is currently the director of the Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education at McLean Hospital and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

For over 20 years, Dr. Palmer鈥檚 clinical work has focused on treatment resistant cases, and recently he has been pioneering the use of the ketogenic diet in psychiatry, especially treatment resistant cases of mood and psychotic disorders.

Dr. Osborne graduated from Weill Cornell Medical College and received her training at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute. She completed both clinical and research fellowships in women's mental health, and is an expert on the diagnosis and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders during pregnancy, the postpartum, the premenstrual period, and perimenopause. She conducts research on the biological pathways that contribute to mental illness at times of reproductive life cycle transition, working particularly on the role of the immune system. She also provides advanced training in reproductive psychiatry and leads the Reproductive Psychiatry Fellowship training program.

As we age, we can expect our physical characteristics to change. Our mood also shifts throughout our lifetime. Lauren Osborne and Lindsay Standeven study these changes and will describe three key stages of a woman鈥檚 life span as they relate to mental health, and the molecular mechanisms that underpin these changes.

Tomoko Udo, Ph.D is an Associate Professor at Department of Health Policy, Management, and Behavior, School of Public Health, University at Albany. Prior to joining UAlbany SPH, Dr. Udo was an Associate Research Scientist and Junior Faculty Scholar for Yale Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women鈥檚 Health (BIRCWH) program at Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine. She also completed postdoctoral training at Center of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers University.

The overarching goal of Dr. Udo鈥檚 research program is to identify ways to improve health of individuals with various addictive behaviors, including drug abuse and behaviors partly overlap with drug addiction such as binge eating/obesity, as well as other mental health problems. She is also interested in understanding the impact of social stress on health, such as discrimination, incarceration, and childhood adversity. Dr. Udo uses a wide range of research approaches, from basic laboratory behavioral experiments, survey methods, quasi-experimental studies, mixed methods, to secondary data analysis of epidemiological data. She is currently involved in multiple funded projects aiming to evaluate innovative programs targeting substance users that are implemented by the New York State Department of Health, community health organizations, and law enforcement.

Dr. Bruce Greyson is the Chester Carlson Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. He was previously on the medical faculty at the University of Michigan and the University of Connecticut, where he was Clinical Chief of Psychiatry. Dr. Greyson has consulted with the National Institutes of Health and addressed symposia on consciousness at the United Nations and at the Dalai Lama’s compound in Dharamsala, India. He has earned awards for his medical research and was elected a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, the highest honor bestowed by that organization. Dr. Greyson’s interest in near-death experiences began just a few months after graduating from medical school, when he treated an unconscious patient in the emergency room who stunned him the next morning with an account of leaving her body. That event challenged his beliefs about the mind and the brain, and ultimately led him on a journey to study near-death experiences scientifically, leading to more than a hundred publications in medical journals. He co-founded the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), an organization to support and promote research into these experiences, and for 27 years edited the Journal of Near-Death Studies, the only scholarly journal dedicated to near-death research. Through his research, he has discovered common and universal themes in near-death experiences that go beyond neurophysiological or cultural interpretations, as well as patterns of consistent aftereffects on individuals’ attitudes, beliefs, values, and personalities. Dr. Greyson is the author of After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond. The book challenges our everyday ideas about our minds and our brains and offers key insights on how we can begin to live a more meaningful and fulfilling life.

Emily Williams Kelly is a researcher at the University of Virginia鈥檚 Division of Perceptual Studies, with interests in near-death experiences, reincarnation and other phenomena suggestive of survival of consciousness after death. 

Marina Weiler, Ph.D., serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. She holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil, with her doctoral research focused on fMRI biomarkers in Alzheimer's disease. Her Ph.D. thesis was distinguished with the Best Brazilian PhD Thesis award in the field of Medicine I in 2016, and her contributions were recognized by the Brazilian Academy of Neurology on three separate occasions. In 2016, Marina joined the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health (NIA/NIH), where she conducted research on the potential of brain stimulation as a therapeutic approach for addressing age-related cognitive decline. During her time at NIA, she was honored with the 2020 NIA Women in Science Excellence in Research Award. Subsequently, at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), she conducted research focused on biomarkers associated with disorders of consciousness following traumatic brain injuries, utilizing fMRI as a key tool. At the University of Virginia, Marina's research interests have evolved to encompass topics such as out-of-body experiences, altered states of consciousness, mediumship, and remote viewing. Her project on out-of-body experiences received recognition and support from the Templeton World Charity Foundation. Additionally, she was a runner-up award recipient in the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Research (BICS) essay contest in 2021.

, is a psychiatrist and internationally recognized expert in treating severe psychiatric disorders with magnetic brain stimulation, also known as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
He uses TMS to help patients with treatment-resistant depression and is the director of UC San Diego Health's Interventional Psychiatry Clinic, the region's largest clinic dedicated to treating severe depression with brain stimulation approaches.
As chair of the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine, Daskalakis is leading research on the use of TMS in people with treatment-resistant schizophrenia, suicidal thoughts and obsessive compulsive disorders. Treatment-resistant diseases are those that may not be resolved adequately through traditional medications and talk therapy alone.
Daskalakis says the most rewarding aspect of his clinical practice is being able to help people who have not found relief through conventional approaches. This is why his research focuses on novel approaches such as brain stimulation for treating mental health conditions.

With a fervent passion for evidence-based medicine, I am deeply committed to medical research. My dedication is reflected in the numerous research projects I have undertaken, demonstrating my exceptional research and analytical abilities. Proficient in conventional analysis using SPSS and highly skilled in meta-analysis, I have primarily focused on observational studies, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. Currently, I am engaged in a cohort study involving medical records, alongside several systematic reviews and meta-analyses. My work is driven by my ambition to contribute to the medical field through rigorous research and analysis.

Robert-Paul Juster is a neuroscience researcher. His research mainly focuses on the study of chronic stress by considering the effects of gender, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity.
Dr. Juster's research interests include the study of allostatic load, a measure of the long-term consequences of the effects of chronic stress in people. In his studies, he takes into account variables linked to gender and sex to identify possible differences and explanations. Doctor Juster is interested in both the biological and social determinants of chronic stress. In addition to being a researcher, he is director and founder of the Center for Studies on Sex*Gender, Allostasis, and Resilience (CESAR).



 

Deborah Padgett is a Professor at NYU Silver. She is internationally known for her mentorship and advocacy of qualitative and mixed methods in research. She is the editor of The Handbook of Ethnicity, Aging, and Mental Health (1995) and The Qualitative Research Experience (2004), author of Qualitative Methods in Social Work Research (3rd ed., 2016) and Qualitative and Mixed Methods in Public Health (2012), and co-author of Program Evaluation (6th ed., 2015). This expertise led to her appointment to an Institute of Medicine panel examining veterans’ mental health (2012-2017).
Dr. Padgett’s book Housing First: Ending Homelessness, Changing Systems and Transforming Lives (2016, Oxford University Press) (with co-authors Benjamin Henwood and Sam Tsemberis) documents the rise of a ‘paradigm’ shifting approach to addressing homelessness in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Padgett has lectured widely on the topic in Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Canada, and India.
Dr. Padgett has been co-principal investigator on several National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) funded grants and a National Cancer Institute funded mixed methods study of African-American women and breast cancer screening; she was also national co-director of the Screening Adherence Follow-up (SAFe) project funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She became principal investigator of two R01 qualitative methods studies funded by NIMH. The first, The New York Services Study (2004-2008), was a $1.4 million study of service engagement among dual diagnosed homeless adults in New York City. The second, the New York Recovery Study (2010-2015; $1.9 million) used ethnographic methods to examine the role of housing in mental health recovery among formerly homeless adults. Her ethnographic research on homeless ‘pavement dwellers’ in Delhi, India, is an extension of this interest in homelessness to cross-cultural contexts. Since 2015, she has worked closely with The Banyan, an organization in Chennai, India that assists homeless mentally ill women.
Dr. Padgett received the NYU Distinguished Teaching Award (2012) and was Director of the PhD program in Global Public Health (2014-2016). She was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW) in 2011 and a Fellow of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) in 2013. She has been active in SSWR since its inception and served as a board member (2002-2007) and President (2004-2006). In 2006, SSWR announced the Deborah K. Padgett Early Career Award in recognition of her contributions.
She holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and received post-doctoral training in public health and psychiatric epidemiology at Columbia University and Duke University, respectively. She earned her MA in anthropology at Florida State University and her BA at the University of Kentucky.