Dear Friends of the Psychiatric Research Institute,
For the last eight months, I have served as the interim chair of the UAMS Department of Psychiatry and director of the Psychiatric Research Institute. Rick Smith left some extremely large shoes to fill when he retired last year, and I’ve done my best to fill them.
When I joined the UAMS faculty in 1999, I never expected to be called upon to fill in for the man who made this department what is today, with nationally known clinical, educational and research programs and one of the most amazing locations in the country for a psychiatry department: the Psychiatric Research Institute. I was originally recruited from the Medical University of South Carolina, where I did my residency in psychiatry, by our previous chair, Fred Guggenheim. A few years later I turned down a job at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, because Rick Smith was taking over as chair and he convinced me this would be an excellent place to build a career. With Rick’s help, that has certainly been true.
Over the years, I have learned a great deal about our department and all that it involves. My years of experience, including serving as vice chair for education since 2004, taught me that we are more than just an academic facility. The UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute is an example of what can be accomplished when highly trained researchers, educators and clinicians come together to make a difference not just at UAMS but in our community and across the entire state.
I’d like to thank a few people who made my job as interim chair much easier than I anticipated. First of all, Marti Morrison and Kelly Brewer made this doable for me while I was juggling other roles and always provided the support that I needed. Chris Cargile kept the entire enterprise running smoothly and provided background and context for some of the complicated issues that came up for me over the last eight months. The entire Psychiatric Research Institute leadership group, including Drs. Jennifer Kleiner, Alison Oliveto, Teresa Hudson, Veronica Raney, Cargile and Clint Kilts, performed admirably and helped make the recruitment of our new chair successful.
Thank you for you continued support of the Psychiatric Research Institute. I am very excited about what the future holds for our institute with the arrival of Laura Dunn, M.D., as the new chair and director. Her experience as a physician, educator and research scientist will make her, in my eyes, a perfect fit for the Psychiatric Research Institute. She is also a warm and empathetic person who has a passion for mentoring faculty, which will be an important aspect of her skill set that will make our Institute even stronger than it is today in the years to come.
John Spollen, M.D.