PHILADELPHIA - Maria A. Oquendo, MD, an internationally renowned expert in mood disorders, has been appointed the new chair of the department of Psychiatry in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Oquendo, who will begin her new role at Penn Medicine on January 1, 2017, is currently a faculty member at Columbia University, where she is vice chair for education and director of residency training at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. She will also assume the presidency of the American Psychiatric Association this May.
In her new role at Penn, she will lead a department 130 full-time faculty members who practice and conduct research efforts in many psychiatric and behavioral health areas, including depression, schizophrenia, alcohol and drug addictions, tobacco use, and obesity and eating disorders.
Oquendo is an international leader in the treatment and neurobiology of mood disorders, with a special focus on suicide, as well as global mental health. She has extensive experience in clinical work, research, and administration.
Early in her career, Oquendo was associate director of an inpatient unit focused on training residents in the treatment of acutely psychotic patients. In 2006, she became director of research clinics at Columbia, overseeing nearly 30 entities. In 2007, she was named vice chair for education and training, and later director of residency training.
As an investigator, Oquendo has been continuously funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) since 1999 and has over 300 peer-reviewed publications. In addition to being elected President of the American Psychiatric Association, Oquendo serves as president of the International Academy for Suicide Research and vice president of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. She has been actively involved in a number of other professional societies as well as the National Advisory Mental Health Council, reviewing all grants to be funded by the NIMH and advising the director on strategic planning.
Over the past three decades, Oquendo has received many awards and honors. These include: Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (1993 and 2002); Gerald Klerman Award from the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (2005); Simon Bolivar Award, American Psychiatric Association (2010); Stengel Research Award, International Association for Suicide Prevention (2013); and the Virginia Kneeland Frantz Award for Distinguished Women in Medicine, Columbia University (2016).
Oquendo graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Tufts University in 1980 and received her MD from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in 1984. She completed her residency in psychiatry at the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.