Forensic Psychiatry

Qualified applicants must have satisfactorily completed an ACGME-accredited general psychiatry residency program in the United States or a general psychiatry program in Canada, which is accredited by the RCPSC.

The ACGME Review Committee for Psychiatry does not allow exceptions to the eligibility requirements for fellowship programs.

Applications for the Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship are made by residents who have completed or are in the process of completing the third year of general psychiatry residency training. We use the Common Application from the Association of Directors of Forensic Psychiatry Fellowships available here. We adhere to the timeline for the Common Application.

Email all application materials as a PDF to Elijah Horton, Program Coordinator, at elijah.horton@nm.org, and copy Dr. Scott Gershan at Scott.Gershan@nm.org. The subject line of your email should be: Forensic Fellowship Application APPLICANT LAST NAME, APPLICANT FIRST NAME.

Please do not send documents by mail (other than the official copy of medical school transcript and dean's [MSPE] letter that must be sent directly to Northwestern from the medical school).

To apply, complete and return the following required documentation:

• Common Application form
• Photo
• Curriculum vitae
• Personal statement of one single-spaced page, maximum, that explains your interest and/or experience in forensic psychiatry
• At least one additional writing sample (e.g., de-identified forensic report or psychiatric evaluation, published manuscript of which you are the first author)
• Copy of medical school diploma
• Copy of ECFMG certificate (if applicable)
• Copy of current medical license(s)
• Copy of USMLE/COMLEX scores
• Three letters of reference, one of which must be from your current program director or, if you have completed training within the past five years, the director of the program from which you graduated most recently (letters should be sent from the letter-writer directly to Northwestern)
• Official copy of medical school transcript and dean's (MSPE) letter sent directly to Northwestern from the medical school

One half-day per week is devoted to the didactic seminar series, which includes presentations by guest speakers and fellowship faculty on clinical and legal issues relating to criminal and civil forensic psychiatry at national and local levels. The didactic seminars provide training in civil, criminal, clinical, consultative and correctional forensic psychiatry. Lectures target landmark cases, forensic evaluations, report writing, court testimony and treatment in correctional settings. The forensic teaching staff consists of forensic psychiatrists and psychologists, attorneys, and law enforcement personnel. Teaching activities involve case consultation, peer review and didactic seminars. The program is designed to facilitate the forensic fellow's successful completion of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology board examination for the Added Qualifications in Forensic Psychiatry. Barbara Kahn, JD, a lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and adjunct faculty at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, developed and oversees the didactic seminar curriculum for the fellowship.

In addition, fellows participate in a monthly forensic division journal club and research talks, and attend weekly Department of Psychiatry grand rounds. Fellows have weekly rotation-specific supervision and regular meetings with the program director, Scott Gershan, MD, and the division director, Stephen Dinwiddie, MD. Fellows also have ongoing supervision with James Cavanaugh, MD, the senior associate of Cavanaugh & Associates and former chairman of the board of directors at Isaac Ray Center, Inc., a private forensic behavioral science group.

We designed our clinical rotations with the goal that our graduating fellows will be prepared to function independently as forensic psychiatrists in diverse settings. Fellows have opportunities to provide correctional psychiatric care, testify in court, participate in forensic evaluations in civil and criminal matters across a wide range of settings, and work with numerous faculty members to develop a broad perspective of the field of forensic psychiatry.

Division of Forensic Psychiatry, Northwestern Medical Group

The Northwestern Medical Group faculty members provide forensic-psychiatric evaluations and consultation services to lawyers and administrative agencies (e.g., insurance companies, employers, licensing boards) regarding civil and criminal psychiatric-legal questions. During this yearlong rotation, fellows are trained in conducting forensic evaluations (including review of clinical, legal and other collateral records as well as forensic psychiatric interviews), writing forensic psychiatric reports, communicating with attorneys and other referral sources, and providing testimony in depositions and trials. The types of civil and criminal cases include: criminal responsibility, competency to stand trial, sentences of criminal offenders, sexual and other types of misconduct, personal injury and emotional harms, employment disability, guardianship, asylum, malpractice, workers' compensation, and termination of parental rights, among other psychiatric-legal issues. If a fellow has a particular area of expertise that they would like to develop, every effort is made to accommodate this.

Cook County Juvenile Court Clinic (CCJCC)

CCJCC is a forensic clinic that is a non-judicial office under the authority of Timothy C. Evans, chief judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County. CCJCC is operated by Northwestern University through a contract with Cook County. CCJCC provides a variety of services responding to requests from juvenile court judges for mental health information in the context of court proceedings, including court-ordered forensic evaluations, identification of community-based mental health resources, and referrals to court-related entities and agencies. Fellows are trained in and conduct evaluations for the Juvenile Justice Division. 

Jesse Brown VA Medical Center

The Jesse Brown VA has served almost one million veterans. During this rotation, fellows are trained in the assessment of psychiatric disability, of decision-making capacity and of malingering by conducting assessments in the pensions and disabilities program under the supervision of forensic psychiatrists.

Stateville Correctional Center

During this six-month rotation, fellows are trained to conduct psychiatric evaluations relevant to correctional issues and to provide treatment to prisoners in this state prison setting. Fellows learn principles of correctional psychiatric care, including ethical issues, prescribing processes in a correctional setting and diagnostic assessment.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Mental Health Court Clinic

The Mental Health Court at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) adjudicates civil commitment, involuntary treatment and assisted outpatient treatment cases, among other matters. Forensic psychiatric fellows, under the supervision of an attending physician, consult with physicians treating hospitalized patients on medical and surgical teams as well as civilly committed patients on NMH inpatient psychiatric service. These cases involve civil commitment and dangerousness, confidentiality, refusal of treatment, decision-making competence and guardianship. Fellows provide forensic psychiatric evaluations on the need for court-ordered medications, civil commitment and/or assisted outpatient treatment and, when appropriate, write reports for the court and provide testimony. Fellows also provide consultations to general psychiatric services regarding issues of dangerousness, confidentiality, refusal of treatment, decision-making competence and guardianship for patients from diverse backgrounds with a wide range of psychiatric diagnoses.

Fellows have protected time to engage a scholarly or research project with mentorship tailored to their particular interests. Fellows present their project to the division at the end of the fellowship year.

Once accepted to Northwestern, fellows with an interest in research may apply to the Cavanaugh Fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry. This initiative provides financial support for incoming Northwestern forensic psychiatry fellows who demonstrate promise in the area of forensic mental health research, as well as potential for an academic career. The awards are merit-based and require incoming fellows to submit a research proposal. The inaugural recipient (2020) was Alex Rose, MD, whose research project involved a legal review of the use of factitious disorder diagnosis in the courts.

Cavanaugh fellows are mentored by Michael Brook, PhD, the director of the Isaac Ray Research Program in Behavioral Sciences and the Law at Northwestern Medicine. The mission of the Isaac Ray Research Program is to champion multidisciplinary research at the intersection of human behavior and legal systems, in order to develop evidence-based interventions, improve public policy and advance justice. The Isaac Ray Research Program was established in 2018 with a charitable endowment from James L. Cavanaugh, MD. Cavanaugh founded the Isaac Ray Center in 1979. Over 40 years, the Isaac Ray Center research division published hundreds of articles and book chapters contributing to the field of forensic psychiatry. Upon Cavanaugh's retirement, the assets of the Isaac Ray Center were transferred to the Northwestern Memorial Foundation to establish the Isaac Ray Research Program in Behavioral Sciences and the Law at Northwestern Medicine, within the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, to continue advancing research in the field.

Scott Gershan, MD is the program director for Northwestern’s ACGME accredited fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry. He completed his psychiatry residency at Georgetown University Hospital, including chief resident in his final year of training. He completed his fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry at New York University. He also serves institutional wellness roles as Northwestern Medicine’s Physician Health Liaison and Lurie Children’s Hospital’s Mental Health Liaison with a focus on professional wellness, recovery and fitness. He trained at the psychiatric correctional unit in Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital and at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center, one of New York’s maximum-security forensic hospitals. There, he provided treatment for insanity acquittees and performed dangerousness assessments to determine the risk of transfer to a less restrictive settings. He is active in both inpatient and outpatient clinical settings, and has extensive experience performing forensic evaluations in both civil and criminal cases including competency to stand trial, independent psychiatric evaluations, involuntary hospitalization, involuntary treatment, fitness for duty, worker’s compensation, malpractice, criminal responsibility and criminal mitigation. He is board certified in general psychiatry and forensic psychiatry and actively involved in numerous professional organizations and national committees in areas of interest in psychiatry and the law. He has presented numerous times at the national conference of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. His interests include professional wellness/the impaired professional and fitness for duty, malpractice, criminal responsibility, violence risk/threat assessment and psychosocial determinants to criminality. His passion is training psychiatrists into highly skilled, talented forensic psychiatrists and future leaders in the field.

Jan Brakel, JD received his JD from the University of Chicago in 1968. He was a senior research fellow with the American Bar Foundation for 20 years and has held executive positions at the Isaac Ray Center and the Isaac Ray Forensic Group, institutes for the forensic practice of psychiatry and psychology, respectively. He has taught at DePaul University College of Law where he was assistant director of its Mental Health Law Institute and adjunct professor of law. He has also taught mental health law courses to a generation of psychiatry and psychology fellows at the Isaac Ray groups and at Cook County Jail, and is currently among the faculty teaching legal didactics to fellows of Northwestern Medical School’s forensic psychiatry program. Mr. Brakel is the author/editor of two volumes (1971 and 1985) of the American Bar Foundation’s The Mentally Disabled and the Law, a compendium and analysis of the mental health laws of each of the 50 states. He is co-author, with the late Professor Alexander Brooks, of the textbook, Law and Psychiatry in the Criminal Justice System, and has published multiple articles in law reviews and interdisciplinary journals on subjects ranging from mental patients’ right to refuse treatment to sex offender commitment laws. He has also published extensively on correctional law and practices, tort reform, and methods of delivering legal aid to low-income people. His aspiration continues to be to teach a new generation of forensically inclined mental health professionals and to publish, whether with new or established practitioners of the craft, writings on such topics or issues that may confront them

James L Cavanaugh, MD, is adjunct professor of psychiatry at Northwestern Feinberg school of medicine and professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical College. He is the former chairman of the board of the Isaac Ray Center Inc. and senior associate of Cavanaugh Associates in Chicago. He has specialized for many years in the application of behavioral sciences to a broad spectrum of both criminal and civil legal cases. Noteworthy cases have included Illinois vs. John Wayne Gacy, US vs. John Warnock Hinckley, and Illinois vs. Marlyn Lemak. He received his undergraduate degree at Williams College, his medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania, and was trained in general psychiatry at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Maudsley Hospital, University of London. After a general internship at Cook County Hospital and two years as a Lieut. Cmdr. in the US Navy Medical Corps, he joined Rush University Medical Center in 1973. In 2017, he endowed through the former Isaac Ray Center Corporation, Northwestern Medicine to create the Isaac Ray Research Program in behavioral sciences and the law and the Cavanaugh Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship. He is a past president of the Illinois Psychiatric Society, a past secretary of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law and editor emeritus, Behavioral Sciences and the Law (John Wiley and Sons). For over 30 years he was a psychiatric consultant to the US Secret Service both in the Chicago field office and in Washington DC headquarters. He has served as a psychiatric consultant to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US postal inspection service, the Illinois State Police, and the Chicago Police Department. He specializes in threat assessment. His teaching in the Northwestern forensic fellowship program focuses on medical legal analysis of civil cases involving behavioral science issues. Report writing, deposition and trial testimony dynamics are emphasized.

Helen Morrison MD, MJ (Health Law) DFAACAP is Board Certified in General Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and in Forensic Psychiatry. Dr. Morrison is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Feinberg School of Medicine and is the fellowship liaison between Jesse Brown Veteran’s Administration Medical Center. As such, she is the supervising psychiatrist for the Legal Compensation and Pension Clinic, where the fellows rotate, and examine veterans for their claims. Dr. Morrison is also a reviewer for the Federal Practitioner, a newsletter circulated to all physicians who are employed in the Veterans Administration. Dr. Morrison’s research interests include ethics, forensic issues in serial and mass murders, character pathology, child and adolescent development, and malingering.

Chandrika Shankar, MD, is a double board-certified psychiatrist, practicing general psychiatry and forensic psychiatry for the past 15 years.

She completed her psychiatry residency training from Mount Sinai (Cabrini) Medical Center in 2007 and Forensic Psychiatry Fellowships from Yale University in 2008. Since then, she has had varied experience in civil and criminal forensic matters that include testamentary capacity, guardianship, involuntary treatment, capacity to stand trial, extreme emotional disturbance, and evaluations pertaining to mitigation and insanity assessments.

For eight years, Dr. Shankar worked as a Consulting Forensic Psychiatrist for the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) in Connecticut. During that time, her primary role was overseeing patients who had been deemed not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI). In that capacity, she worked with primary treatment teams in the state facility conducting risk management assessments, providing guidance for safe transition of patients to the community, while balancing the legal requirement, patient rights and public safety. She testified in front of Psychiatry Security Review Board (PSRB) and Superior Court on a regular basis, updating the courts of patients’ progress. As a consultant, she also performed numerus risk management consultations for challenging patients in various hospitals across the state. She was also a faculty member of the forensic fellowship where she trained and supervised forensic fellows.

Dr. Shankar later held the position of Residency Training Director for Creighton Psychiatry Department in Phoenix. During that time, she was a consultant forensic psychiatrist for the Tribal Court in Maricopa County and performed capacity to stand trial evaluations. She also had a forensic private practice performing civil evaluations such as testamentary capacity assessments, capacity to consent for marriage and need for guardianship.

Since moving to Chicago, Dr. Shankar has held numerous leadership positions in clinical and academic settings. She is closely involved with the teaching and training of medical students and residents. She currently serves as the medical director of the inpatient psychiatric unit and is a faculty member of the forensic fellowship at Northwestern.

Lauren K. Robinson, MD, MPH attended medical school at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana and received her master's degree at Tulane's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine with a focus on community health. She thereafter completed her residency in psychiatry at the University of Chicago where she was the chief resident of emergency psychiatry. She became interested in traumatic stress in health care workers and developed a program for at-risk employees to prevent secondary traumatic stress which received a University of Chicago Innovation Grant Award. She completed fellowships in clinical medical ethics at the MacLean Center at the University of Chicago and in forensic

psychiatry at Northwestern School of Medicine. She is boarded in both general and forensic psychiatry and is a member of the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. She is currently Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, where she teaches residents and fellows medical ethics and forensic psychiatric principles. Her areas of clinical and forensic focus include mood and anxiety disorders, depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, PTSD, substance use, personality disorders, and medical ethics. She is an expert witness for a wide variety of civil and criminal issues at the interface of psychiatry and the law, including psychic damages, malpractice, undue influence and testamentary capacity, NGRI, amnesty, criminal competencies, sentence mitigation, risk assessment, and fitness for duty.

Barbara A. Kahn, JD, is a lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University. Ms. Kahn was a member of the research team that developed the Cook County Juvenile Court Clinic, which is an inter-disciplinary court-based forensic clinic serving the juvenile justice and child protection divisions of Cook County’s Juvenile Court. Ms. Kahn served as Associate Director of the Court Clinic from 2003 until 2008 and Director from 2008 to 2016. Ms. Kahn developed and now oversees the didactic curriculum for the Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship. Weekly didactics include presentations by guest speakers and fellowship faculty on clinical and legal issues relating to criminal and civil forensic psychiatry at national and local levels. Ms. Kahn has presented locally and nationally, as well as published articles, on multiple aspects of the intersection between the legal and mental health professions.

Michael Brook, PhD, ABPP is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist and an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. He received his doctorate degree in clinical psychology from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science and completed an internship in clinical psychology and neuropsychology at Rush University Medical Center, and a fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He is the director of the Isaac Ray Research Program in Behavioral Sciences and the Law, co-director of the Forensic Neuropsychology Laboratory, and associate director of the clinical neuropsychology fellowship training program. His research investigates the interaction between neurocognition, emotion processing, personality traits, and socioecological factors in the genesis of violent behavior. He has published on topics including risk assessment, forensic mental health, laboratory measures of emotion processing, and neuropsychological outcomes in psychiatric and medical disease. As an educator, Dr. Brook teaches graduate-level courses in neuropsychology and behavioral neuroscience and conducts clinical supervision of students, residents, and fellows. As a clinician, Dr. Brook is an attending neuropsychologist at Northwestern Medicine and serves as a consultant for

the intercollegiate sports medicine concussion program, the comprehensive epilepsy center, and the brain tumor institute. Dr. Brook’s clinical practice in the area of forensic psychology and neuropsychology involves expert work in cases involving postconviction mitigation, fitness, legal competence, risk assessment, medical malpractice and negligence, disability and workers’ compensation, fitness for duty, and traumatic brain injury.

Stephen H. Dinwiddie, MD, graduated from Eastern Virginia Medical School and completed residency training in psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis. During his 10 years as a faculty member in that department, he conducted research in behavioral genetics (particularly the genetics of addictive disorders and antisocial behavior) and in electroconvulsive therapy as well as doing clinical work including consulting on medicolegal issues. He was recruited to serve as medical director at Elgin Mental Health Center in 1996, and then moved to the University of Chicago as Professor of Psychiatry. He moved to Northwestern University in 2011, where he is currently Professor of Psychiatry and vice chair for clinical affairs for the department, and also serves as director of the Division of Psychiatry and Law. Dr. Dinwiddie has published well over 100 scholarly articles and chapters. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and is board-certified in general, addiction, and forensic psychiatry. He has appeared as an expert in numerous medicolegal cases (both civil and criminal). Although Dr. Dinwiddie has extensive experience in many areas of forensic psychiatry, areas of particular interest include neurolaw, malpractice and other personal injury, violence risk assessment, and insanity evaluations.

Cara Angelotta, MD, is vice chair for education for psychiatry and residency program director. She is board-certified in general and forensic psychiatry. She graduated from Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. She completed residency at Cornell University and fellowship at Columbia University. She has served as the director of medical student education in psychiatry, psychiatry clerkship director, and forensic psychiatry fellowship program director for Northwestern. Dr. Angelotta's academic focus is medical education research, mentorship, curriculum design, and teaching clinical education skills to psychiatry trainees. She also has a research interest in the intersection of reproductive psychiatry and the law, in particular, unrecognized pregnancy and the criminalization of pregnancy.

Krissie Fernandez Smith, PhD, ABPP received her doctoral degree in clinical psychology with a forensic emphasis from Sam Houston State University in 2007. She completed a predoctoral internship at Heartland Behavioral Healthcare in Massillon, Ohio, a minimum-security hospital that provides inpatient care of acutely mentally ill individuals as well as forensic patients that have been found incompetent to stand trial or acquitted as not guilty

by reason of insanity. Once she received her doctoral degree, she worked in the Michigan Department of Corrections at the Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson, Michigan from 2007 to 2008. She was employed as a Consulting Forensic Examiner at the Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Saline, Michigan from 2008 to 2010. While there, she completed court ordered evaluations of competency to stand trial, criminal responsibility, and competency to waive Miranda rights. From 2010 to 2016, she was employed as a staff psychologist at the Cook County Juvenile Court Clinic. In this position, she completed court-ordered evaluations of individuals involved in juvenile justice and child protection proceedings. As a bilingual psychologist, she has worked with individuals who speak either English or Spanish. Since 2016, she has been employed as the Associate Director of the Cook County Juvenile Court Clinic. In addition, she is an Assistant Professor in the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and provides training for their Psychiatry and Law fellowship program. She became board certified in forensic psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology in 2017. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Psychology and currently services as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Forensic Psychology and its examination faculty.

Philip C. O’Donnell, MJ, PhD, received his doctoral degree in clinical psychology (child track) and master’s degree in child and family law from Loyola University Chicago in 2007. He completed his predoctoral internship at the University of California-Davis’ Child and Adolescent Abuse Resource and Evaluation (CAARE) Center, where he received specialized training in forensic child protection evaluations, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT). After completing his doctoral training, he was a staff psychologist in the forensic admissions unit at Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, California. In 2008, he began advanced postdoctoral training in forensic psychology as part of the ACMGE accredited fellowship at the University of Southern California’s Institute of Psychiatry, Law and Behavioral Sciences. He was a fellow, senior fellow, and adjunct training faculty in this program through 2012. During this time, Dr. O’Donnell also worked on the Jail Mental Health Services team at Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, and was training faculty in USC’s child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship. In his forensic practice, he was paneled with the Superior Court of Los Angeles County specializing in child welfare and juvenile justice evaluations. He also participated in the development of a specialty panel for juvenile competency to stand trial evaluations in Los Angeles County. From 2013 to 2016, he was faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Children’s Hospital Colorado and served as the Clinical Director for their child and adolescent intensive psychiatric services (i.e., inpatient, partial hospitalization) program from 2014 to 2016. In July 2016, Dr. O’Donnell became the Director and Principal Investigator for Northwestern University’s contract to operate the Cook County Juvenile Court Clinic (CCJCC). The CCJCC is the primary provider of forensic mental health evaluations for Cook County’s Juvenile Justice

and Child Protection Departments. In this role, Dr. O’Donnell oversees the operations of the CCJCC, supervises staff psychologists completing forensic psychological evaluations, and participates in the training of psychology and psychiatry students with an interest in the intersection of mental health and the law. He is also a co-principal investigator for active research projects within the CCJCC examining forensic evaluation practices and outcomes in child protection and juvenile fitness to stand trial evaluations.