A nationally recognized expert in psychiatry and population health has joined the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine as chair of the Department of Psychiatry.

Robert Trestman comes to the school from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, where he was a professor of medicine and psychiatry with a joint appointment as professor of nursing. He will also serve as chair of psychiatry for Carilion Clinic.

While at the University of Connecticut, Trestman served as executive director of Correctional Managed Health Care, a division of the University of Connecticut Health Center, where he led a program that provided health care to all inmates within the state’s Department of Corrections. Under Trestman’s leadership, the program went from having budget and regulatory concerns to being a national leader in correctional health care.

His interests include mental health services research and the neurobiology and treatment of people with severe mood and personality disorders.

He serves on the American Psychiatric Association Council of Psychiatry and the Law, on the Data Safety Monitoring Board of the National Institutes of Mental Health, as board secretary for the Academic Consortium for Criminal Justice Health, and as chair of the Research Committee for the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Institute for Education and Research.  He also serves on the editorial boards for two academic journals and is referee for numerous peer-reviewed journals.

Trestman received his bachelor’s degree from Carnegie-Mellon University and his Ph.D. and medical degrees from the University of Tennessee. He completed his internship and residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, followed by training as a research psychiatrist at the Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Mount Sinai Medical Center.

Read about the school's other recent appointment.

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