Six
residents and two fellows were honored by the Department of Psychiatry
and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University at a graduation
ceremony on June 14, 2012. The event was hosted by Residency Director,
Michael Schwartz MD and last year’s Teacher of the Year, Andrew Francis,
MD.
Five graduating residents completed four years of training in general psychiatry: Raghuram Bhat, MD, who will go on to a geriatric fellowship at Stony Brook; Ruby Boyd, MD, who will be an attending physician at Tewksbury Hospital in Tewksbury MA; Michael Rosen, MD, who will open a private practice in Huntington and work part-time as an attending physician in the CPEP at Stony Brook; Letty Smith, MD, who will join the faculty as an attending physician at Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport, NY; and Jenna Taglienti, MD, who will work as an attending physician in the CPEP at Stony Brook. Mandana Torabi, MD,
who completed three years of training in adult psychiatry, will
continue her studies as a fellow in child and adolescent psychiatry at
St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in New York, NY.
Chenel Michel, MD and Taiye Ogundipe, MD
completed two-year fellowships in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr.
Michel has accepted a position as an attending physician at Presbyterian
Hospital in Charlotte, NC and Dr. Ogundipe will begin a fellowship in
forensic psychiatry at Yale University in New Haven, CT.
Mark J.
Sedler, MD, MPH, who stepped down from the chairmanship in May, gave
the keynote address in which he shared his vision of psychiatry as a
profession which operates within a broad humanistic framework. He
challenged the graduating psychiatrists to develop the wisdom and
judgment needed for a sympathetic understanding of the human condition. 
Several departmental awards were presented at the ceremony. Harold Pass, PhD presented the Steven Samek Award to Dr. Reena Jaiswal for her outstanding care of people with chronic mental illness. Dr. Pass presented the Psychotherapy award to Dr. Letty Smith in recognition of her commitment to the practice of psychotherapy. Drs. Raghuram Bhat, Josiah Hagen, Jesse Contovasilis and Jeffry Hall
received the Department’s Academic Merit Award for their high scores on
the American College of Psychiatrists’ PRITE examination. Chief
Resident Dr. Jenna Taglienti was the recipient of the Resident Educator of the Year Award. 
The residents selected Dr. Mark Sedler to receive the Teacher of the Year Award in Adult Psychiatry and Dr. E. Victoria Rundberg-Rivera to receive the Teacher of the Year in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Alan Steinberg was honored as the Outstanding Outside Supervisor.
Dr. Gabrielle Carlson presented two third year residents, Dr. Ami Baxi and Dr. Mandana Torabi,
with the Max Fink Award for the outstanding research they did on weight
gain among children taking atypical antipsychotics. Dr. Carlson noted
that their poster presentation has been accepted for presentation at the
meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Drs. Michael Schwartz and Andrew Francis presented the Resident of the
Year Award, named for former Professor of Psychiatry Dr. William Turner,
to Dr. Michael Rosen.
As they received their
diplomas, the graduating residents expressed their gratitude to the
faculty for creating a challenging and supportive learning environment
for them. The residents concluded the ceremonies by presenting a bouquet
of flowers to Residency Training Coordinator Jane Pometti in appreciation of her kindness and personal concern.
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.
T.S. Eliot
East Coker from The Four Quartets
Quoted in Dr. Sedler's Keynote Address
