--From Nancy C. Andrews, MD, PhD, Dean, Duke University School of Medicine
I am very pleased to announce that Moira Rynn, MD, has been named the new chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, effective July 1, 2017. Dr. Rynn is professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. She serves as director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division in the Department of Psychiatry and as medical director of the Columbia University Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders and director of the Children’s Research Day Unit in the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
This decision was made after a national search, and I want to thank the search committee, led by Dr. Erik Paulson, chair of the Department of Radiology, for all of their efforts.
An internationally renowned expert in the treatment of pediatric mood and anxiety disorders, Dr. Rynn has spent her career focused on improving treatments for children, adolescents, and young adults with treatment refractory mood and anxiety disorders. She is an educator, practicing psychiatrist and researcher, whose most recent studies have examined novel augmentation treatment strategies for pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) as well as treatment models for adolescent depression in the primary care setting. Her research has received continuous funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) since 2000.
Dr. Rynn received her medical degree from Rutgers University. She completed her internship and residency in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and served as Chief Resident. After completing her adult psychiatry training, she completed a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia followed by a Neuropsychopharmacology Research Fellowship sponsored by the NIMH at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Prior to joining Columbia University, Dr. Rynn was medical director of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Section of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.
I want to thank Richard Weiner, MD, PhD, who has served as interim chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, for his exceptional leadership and unwavering commitment to the department’s faculty, trainees, and staff during this transitional period.
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Rynn to Duke.
