Message from the Training Directors
Welcome to our program website!
The Northwestern psychiatry residency program is dedicated to educating the very best psychiatrists for the 21st century, and we are uniquely suited to providing the learning environment to meet this goal.
We are a medium-sized program – eight residents per class – situated within a world-class university and medical school, with a full-time faculty of over 400 psychiatrists and psychologists, and active research in the areas of mood disorders, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, dementia, mental health services, and early childhood trauma.
The range of our clinical services is broad and deep – on the Northwestern Memorial Hospital campus, our residents train in our 30-bed psychiatric inpatient unit, state-funded community Psychosocial Rehabilitation Program, federally-funded housing programs, and our Outpatient Treatment Center. We also provide psychiatric consultation services to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Prentice Women’s Hospital (the largest free-standing women’s hospital in the US), and the Lurie Cancer Center. In addition, we are affiliated with several top-ranked hospitals: the renowned Lurie Childrens Hospital in Chicago (newly opened state-of-the art childrens’ hospital on our campus!), the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (top rehabilitation hospital in the US) and the Jesse Brown VA. Our residents also pursue family therapy training at Chicago’s Family Institute and a variety of elective rotations such as Refugee Mental Health through Heartland Alliance, Neurospsychiatry at CNADC (Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center), Sleep Disorders at NMH, Student Mental Health at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, and intensive diagnostic evaluation at Chicago’s Institute for Psychoanalysis.
And…we have exciting updates in our clinical services, research opportunities, and faculty roster: in September 2011, we moved into our state-of-the-art Inpatient Psychiatry Unit, which occupies an entire floor of the Galter Pavilion of Northwestern Memorial Hospital. It is a true, 21st century healing environment, with a true “home space” for residents and students. We have a brand-new center for neuromodulation in our outpatient setting. In July 2012, Dr. Katherine Wisner, leading clinical researcher in women’s mental health, was appointed the director of our Asher Center for Mood Disorders.
Residents learn evidence-based treatments – both somatic interventions and the psychotherapies -from experts in each area. We believe that psychiatrists must understand and treat the whole person; therefore trainees must learn an essential range of treatment modalities. We believe that experience in a continuing care outpatient clinic, with excellent supervision, is a key element to training, and so our residents have 30 months half-time experience in outpatient treatment, with three to four hours of formal supervision per week, in addition to onsite “in the moment” feedback from faculty members.
More importantly, we place the highest value on the personal and professional development of residents. In addition to ensuring that residents gain competence in all essential areas of knowledge and skill, we believe that resident’s talents and interests should be fostered throughout training, so that his or her profession continues to be challenging and rewarding for many years to come. Individual mentoring is essential for this kind of growth, and our program has core faculty educators who are invested in providing this mentorship and support.
These are some more unique aspects of the Northwestern psychiatry training program:
- we offer a full day of didactics from mid-PGY1 year through graduation
- all PGY1s complete medicine and neurology requirements in the first six months, so that the entire class begins psychiatry together in January
- the ABPN Part II pass rate of our graduates is 100% – an affirmation of the quality of our residents’ education
- PGY3s present a group “Grand Rounds” on a topic of their choosing
- PGY4s pursue scholarly research with individual faculty mentors in the “Keystone Project”, which culminates in a graduation paper.
- the Department sponsors a yearly “Scholars’ Day” in which faculty and trainee posters are presented
- travel funding for resident presentations
We are glad you visited our website. Please free to contact us with any questions or feedback.
Joan M. Anzia, MD
Associate Professor
Residency Training Director
Vice Chair of Education
janzia@nmh.org
Bio Sketch
Joan Anzia, M.D. is Vice Chair for Education, Residency Training Director, and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Northwestern University/Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. .
She graduated from Stanford University and Loyola/Stritch Medical School, and completed her psychiatry residency training at Northwestern University and University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Anzia has had a longstanding interest in psychiatric education and has held roles in residency education for over 20 years. She has received numerous teaching and mentorship awards at the regional and national levels and has served on many local and national education committees, including the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Medical Education and Lifelong Learning from 2005 to 2008. She has served as the APA and the AADPRT (American Association of Directors of Psychiatry Residency Training) representative to the Council on Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS). She is a Past-President of the Association for Academic Psychiatry (AAP). Dr. Anzia has served in many roles for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, including as MOC (Maintenance of Certification) Ambassador. Dr. Anzia has also been active in organized psychiatry, serving as President of the Illinois Psychiatric Society in 2004-5; in that role she worked to improve public mental health and access to care in Illinois. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the APA and a member of the American College of Psychiatrists. Dr. Anzia has presented nationally and internationally on trauma-related disorders, psychiatric education, graduate medical education, physician wellness, and advocacy issues. She is a reviewer for several journals, including Academic Psychiatry, Psychiatric Services and Psychosomatics.
Dr. Anzia is married to physician David J. Lynn, M.D. and is the mother of three young adult daughters and grandmother of one. She has been a resident of River Forest, Illinois for 35 years.
Kara Driscoll, MD
Instructor
Associate Training Director
kdriscol@nmff.org
Bio Sketch
Kara Driscoll, M.D., is Associate Training Director as well as faculty member in the Asher Center of Northwestern University’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Driscoll is a graduate of St. Louis University School of Medicine. She completed her psychiatry residency training and was a Chief Resident at Northwestern/McGaw Medical Center. Following residency, Dr. Driscoll was an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at University of Pittsburgh/Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, where she remains adjunct faculty.
Dr. Driscoll’s clinical and research interests include the psychiatric treatment of women during their reproductive years, with a particular focus on mood and anxiety disorders during pregnancy and postpartum, perinatal loss, and pre-conceptual consultation. In addition, Dr. Driscoll is also interested in the education of psychiatric residents, particularly in the outpatient and consultation settings. Dr. Driscoll is originally from St. Louis, MO and is a long-time fan of St. Louis Cardinal Baseball. She enjoys cooking, baking, and spending time with her family.