The creative juices that fuel innovative directions in schizophrenia research do not occur in a vacuum. Dr. Laura Martin, a Psychiatrist at the University of Colorado Denver (UCSOM), balances life in the lab by sharing precious time with her two children and escaping into fantasies of opening her own winery. Her ability to maintain focus amidst so many priorities is admirable; however, Dr. Martin attributes her success to the many opportunities she has been allowed to explore, as well as the amazing mentors found within her program.
The strength of research is just one aspect of the Psychiatry program that attracted Dr. Martin to UCD. Her ability to incorporate clinical work, teaching, and research both in residency and as faculty have provided Dr. Martin with the professional diversity she was searching for. In an attempt to avoid the ‘one track’ residency, Dr. Martin found a program with an associated psychoanalytic institute that would provide teaching and supervision for psychodynamic therapy to balance the increasing focus of many training programs on pharmacotherapy. She currently serves as Associate Program Director, overseeing the PGY-2 year, supervising residents and teaching Advanced Psychopharmacology.
In Dr. Martin’s senior year she completed a project geared toward identifying possible physiological deficits present in persons with psychotic mania when they were not acutely ill. As a result, she gathered and analyzed enough data for three manuscripts (two of which have been published in the American Journal of Psychiatry and the American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics). She was also awarded an American Psychiatric Association resident research award, a travel award to the annual Biological Psychiatry meeting, and a competitive research fellowship from the Department of Veterans Affairs, esteemed accomplishments in any career. Dr. Martin’s current research is focusing on the physiological deficits in persons with schizophrenia. Given her findings that nicotine has been shown to reverse some of these deficits, this biological system has become her major area of focus.
Providing assistance and inspiration to Dr. Martin are Dr. Ann Olincy and Dr. Robert Freedman. Both psychiatrists embody an impressive psychiatric and basic science knowledge base, excellent communication skills, genuine concern and respect for their students, outstanding clinical skills and service to the academic and general community, making each a model mentor. It is this distinguished mentorship, along with Dr. Laura Martin’s experience that exemplifies the strengths of the UCD program: clinical psychiatry, research, education, and professional guidance and development.
Dr. Laura Martin's Profile
Robert E. Feinstein, MD is currently Professor and Vice Chairman of Clinical Education and Evidence-Based Medicine Integration in the Department of Psychiatry, and Senior Associate Dean of Education for the University of Colorado Denver, School of Medicine. He is also the Practice Director at the University of Colorado Hospital Psychiatric Outpatient Department.
Dr. Feinstein has spent his entire career in academic medical education, clinical care of patients, clinically oriented research, while holding high-level administrative and educational positions in New York and Connecticut. Previously, he has been a faculty member at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and New York Medical College.
Dr. Feinstein is an adult & adolescent psychiatrist, pharmacologist, and psychoanalyst, who specializes in multiple forms of psychotherapies combined with biological treatments. He has worked many years in primary care sites, psychiatric emergency rooms, on a psychiatric research unit, as a Site Director of medical student education, Director of Behavioral Medicine, Director of New York Medical College Westchester Medical Center Psychiatric Residency Training Program. He has also been Site Director of psychiatric research at NYMC/WMC, and was previously Medical Director of an outpatient psychiatric mental health company. Currently, he has been heavily involved in medical informatics, implementation of system wide psychiatric electronic medical records, and evidence-based medicine teaching.
As an educator, he has recently been named a University of Denver President Teacher’s Scholar. He is a founding member and award winner for his mentorship in Colorado’s School of Medicine’s Academy of Medical Educators. He has developed 5 different full curriculums: one for family practice residents, a wellness curriculum for patients, 2 major curriculum revisions in 2 psychiatric residency-training programs, and an evidence-based medicine curriculum, which was selected as a national model curriculum for psychiatric residents. He has been teacher of the year 5 times, in 3 different academic medical educational settings. He has given over 1000 lectures to students and presents regularly at local, regional, and national meetings. He is widely published in peer-reviewed journals and major textbooks, focused on primary care psychiatry and psychiatric aspects of cardiovascular diseases, wellness and lifestyle change, suicide and violence, personality disorders, and most recently has been leading the development of the “Psychotherapy Scholar’s Track.”
Dr. Feinstein is a former section editor for Behavioral Medicine in Heart Disease, and is currently section editor of Complementary & Behavioral Medicine in Cardiology in Review. He is on the editorial board and is a peer reviewer for Academic Psychiatry. In addition, he published the book entitled, "Primary Care Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine: Brief Office Treatment and Management Pathways. Springer Publishing, New York, New York 1999. Over the years he has been a funded educational researcher with several grants totaling approximately $600,000. His research interest includes suicide and violence, prevention oriented primary care, primary care psychiatry and behavioral medicine, and psychiatric aspects of cardiovascular disease, evidence-based medicine, and psychotherapy.
Dr. Robert Feinstein's Profile
While Dr. Ann Olincy wears many hats at UCD, one of her favorite roles and main sources of inspiration and motivation is helping residents to become excellent psychiatrists.
Dr. Olincy came to UCD from Mayo Medical School for her residency because of the diversity of the three hospitals, the size of the program (allowing for interaction with many people), and the location in beautiful Colorado. She stayed as she fell in love with Colorado, and began a research fellowship that got her hooked on academics and schizophrenia.
Dr. Olincy’s research has paved quite a path for her in the psychiatry program at UCD. Her pursuit of answers in this field stem from her role as clinician, working with families of schizophrenia and seeing firsthand the devastation this disease causes. As a researcher, Dr. Olincy has realized her job is not simply an academic exercise; it is the most promising way to improve her patient’s lives. It is this realization that has inspired her dedication in the lab. She is currently researching the genetics of schizophrenia. Dr. Olincy’s special interest regards the role of deficits in nicotinic receptors, and her lab is pursuing the possibility of using α-7 nicotinic agonists to enhance cognition in schizophrenia. She hopes to expand this research into cognitive deficits in bipolar disorder.
As an Associate Residency Director, Dr. Olincy aims to improve the residency track to better meet the needs of each psychiatrist in the UCD program. She works with residents both in and out of the laboratory and says that working with them keeps her sharp. Through teaching at UCD, Dr. Olincy is able to continually stay on top of the latest developments in psychiatry as residents present her with questions and new findings that she hasn’t yet heard; they provide more information than she would acquire by reading several psychiatry journals a week. Plus, working with residents allows her to see patients from a fresh perspective.
Some of the residents she works most closely with describe Dr. Olincy as not only a teacher, but a model of the many characteristics that are key to being a good clinical scientist: caring for the patients whose illness you seek to study, displaying a passion for the research you undertake, serving as a high ethical standard for the research performed, and demonstrating a meticulousness for detail.
It is clear that one of the most defined hats that Dr. Olincy sports in her department is that of an approachable mentor and colleague willing to assist anyone in their quest for answers in psychiatric wellness.
Dr. Ann Olincy's Profile
Christopher Schneck, MD, is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He is currently the Director of Consultation Services at the University of Colorado Denver Depression Center, works in the outpatient division of the University of Colorado Hospital, and is an Associate Medical Director at Colorado Access (Colorado Medicaid).
Dr. Schneck received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his medical degree from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (UCHSC). He completed his Internal Medicine Internship, Psychiatric Residency training and Clinical Psychiatry Fellowship at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. Dr. Schneck joined the UCD faculty in 1995 where he supervises and teaches both medical students and residents. He has received both local and national awards for his teaching.
Dr. Schneck's primary area of interest and research is in bipolar disorder, with a particular emphasis on rapid cycling bipolar disorder and adolescent bipolar disorder. He has given numerous lectures on the topic and is currently involved in two National Institute of Mental Health research studies-one examining the efficacy of Family Focused Treatment of adolescents with bipolar disorder, and one examining family focused treatment as early intervention in adolescents at risk for bipolar disorder. He has published in numerous journals, including The American Journal of Psychiatry, Archives of General Psychiatry, The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, The Journal of Affective Disorders, , Current Psychiatry and the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology. In 2004 and 2005 he was recognized as one of Denver's "Top Doctors" in 5280, a local Denver magazine.
Dr. Chris Schneck's Profile