Addiction Medicine Fellowship

The UNC addiction medicine fellowship was created in 2018 and received ACGME accreditation in 2019. The training program, which is situated in the UNC Department of Psychiatry, provides full financial support for its addiction medicine fellows. The program also funds the fellows’ attendance at the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) Annual Conference and the NC Governor’s Institute Addiction Medicine Spring Conference, in addition to textbooks that fellows use throughout the training year.

The UNC addiction medicine supervising and core faculty come from diverse specialty backgrounds and areas of expertise, including addiction medicine, addiction psychiatry, general psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, pediatrics, adolescent medicine, family medicine, anesthesiology, pain medicine, obstetrics & gynecology, internal medicine, and gastroenterology & hepatology.

The training program’s fellows have come from the following backgrounds: family medicine, internal medicine, emergency medicine, psychiatry, preventive medicine, anesthesiology, and obstetrics & gynecology.

During the academic year, fellows teach UNC medical students and psychiatry residents. Fellows are provided with protected time to work on scholarship activities throughout the entire year. They are also provided with protected time for the seminars that are held each week. In addition, fellows participate in the NC STAR Network, helping to train providers to treat substance use disorders throughout the entire state.

During their training year, the UNC addiction medicine fellows work closely with teammates from the following professions: social work/case management, peer support, addiction counseling, pharmacy, and psychology.

Each fellow in the program is assigned a faculty mentor at the beginning of the academic year. Fellows meet monthly with their mentors to discuss their progress in the fellowship year and explore plans for post-fellowship employment.

The UNC addiction medicine fellowship promotes a healthy work-life balance. Fellows have no call responsibilities. They do not work on weekends and are off work on the following holidays: Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Day, Good Friday, and Memorial Day. The program director hosts a welcome dinner for the new fellows in July. There is an end-of-year celebration picnic as well as a formal departmental graduation dinner held in June. Also, fellows are permitted to moonlight during the fellowship year.

Joseph Williams, MD, FASAM Email Dr. Williams

Program Director, UNC Addiction Medicine Fellowship

Taryn Hardy, MS Email Taryn Hardy

Program Coordinator, UNC Addiction Medicine Fellowship