Department Chair, Ramin Parsey, MD, PhD appointed Professor Laura
Fochtmann MD interim Director of the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency
Program (CPEP), replacing Mark Sedler MD, who has taken on other duties
in the department and School of Medicine.
Dr. Fochtmann was the
first director of CPEP when it opened in 1990. She was instrumental in
bringing the innovative program to Stony Brook and making it
operational. Today the CPEP provides more than 6,000 evaluations each
year to people in psychiatric crises.
Dr. Fochtmann will continue
in her roles as an inpatient psychiatry attending and Director of the
Electroconvulsive Therapy Program. In addition to her work at Stony
Brook, Dr. Fochtmann is a Distinguished Fellow in the American
Psychiatric Association (APA) and serves as the Medical Editor for the
APA Practice Guidelines. She is a recipient of APA’s Warren Williams
Award for outstanding contributions to psychiatry and the recipient of
the Aesculapius award for top teachers within the Stony Brook University
School of Medicine.
“As Medical Editor of the APA Practice
Guidelines, Dr. Fochtmann brings the highest level of expertise to her
new role as interim director,” Dr. Parsey said. “Not only is she
extremely bright and detail oriented, but she sincerely cares about what
is best for our patients. I am grateful to her for taking on this role
while we search for a permanent director.”
