About Us
Message from the Chair
Welcome to the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine! Existing within the nation’s first public university, the Department of Psychiatry was founded in 1952 and has grown exponentially in the subsequent decades. It is my highest honor to serve as the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, leading a group of amazing, internationally recognized clinicians, educators, and scientists.
The Department has extraordinary strength across all of the academic missions. Our core guiding principles are to advance discovery into the causes of and treatments for mental health disorders; train the next generation of psychiatrists, psychologists, and scientists focused on mental health; and provide expert, high-quality care for our patients while working to improve the health of our communities and all people in North Carolina. Our faculty are dedicated and strongly committed to these goals.
The UNC Department of Psychiatry hosts incredible training programs, both in our nationally recognized psychiatry residency and psychology internship programs, and in a wide range of postdoctoral opportunities and fellowships in child and adolescent psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, consultation-liaison psychiatry, addiction medicine, forensic psychiatry, and reproductive psychiatry. We also play a core role in the education of new physicians in partnership with the UNC School of Medicine.
We offer a wide range of inpatient, outpatient, and consultative clinical services across the age range. These integrate psychiatric and psychological services, offering the right treatment according to the patient’s needs and preferences. We have great strength in interventional psychiatry, with robust neuromodulation and esketamine programs. Our faculty are also highly innovative, leading a pioneering inpatient perinatal psychiatry unit and caring for our state’s population broadly through virtual inpatient, emergency, and outpatient services. We also break through the traditional walls of academic medical centers to work with the community. These programs include the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health, which promotes the recovery of individuals with serious mental illnesses; and the UNC TEACCH Autism Program, a system of community centers offering clinical and educational services to address the needs of autistic individuals.
Our research faculty are internationally renowned for their work. We have incredible strength in perinatal and reproductive psychiatry, child and adolescent mood disorders, recovery after trauma exposure, neuromodulation, and neuroimaging. Our shared faculty in the Carolina Institute for Neurodevelopmental Disabilities are international experts who conduct translational research in a wide range of neurodevelopmental disorders. Our faculty conducting cutting-edge preclinical and clinical research can be also found in a wide range of additional UNC research-focused programs, such as the UNC Department of Genetics, the UNC Neuroscience Center, the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, the UNC Institute for Global Health, and the Duke-UNC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
Founded in 1952, after almost 75 years our Department continues to welcome new faculty and trainees, expanding even as adhere to our core mission of improving the health and wellbeing of North Carolinians. We are committed to the providing the care and making the discoveries that will improve the lives of our patients. I am deeply inspired by our institution and our faculty and am excited for the future! Thank you for your interest in our department.
Warren D Taylor, MD
Assad Meymanid Distinguished Professor
Chair, Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill