Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine Announce New Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

NEW YORK (December 13, 2016)—Preeminent psychiatric researcher and clinician, Jonathan E. Alpert, M.D., Ph.D, has been named professor and university chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Alpert, who will also hold the Dorothy and Marty Silverman Chair in Psychiatry at Einstein, will assume his position on March 1, 2017.

Jonathan E. Alpert, M.D., Ph.D.“We are thrilled to have Dr. Alpert join our Montefiore-Einstein family, leading our renowned psychiatry and behavioral sciences department,” said Philip O. Ozuah, M.D., Ph.D, chief operating officer, Montefiore Health System. “Dr. Alpert’s exceptional knowledge, experience and expertise in clinical innovation, medical education and psychiatric research will advance our goal of providing the highest quality care and the safest, most effective solutions for patients coping with mental health disorders.”

Dr. Alpert comes to Montefiore and Einstein from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where he currently serves as vice chair for clinical services in psychiatry and leads the behavioral health executive committee. He is also director of the depression clinical and research programs at MGH, one of the nation’s foremost research programs in the area of mood disorders, as well as the first incumbent of the Joyce R. Tedlow Chair in the field of depression studies at Harvard Medical School.

An internationally recognized expert in psychiatry research, Dr. Alpert has authored over 200 publications on topics including pharmacological and other innovative approaches to treatment-resistant major depressive disorder, depressive subtypes and biomarkers, drug metabolism and drug interaction, ethical issues in the design and conduct of human studies, behavioral health integration, and medical education. Recognized with numerous awards for teaching, mentorship and clinical excellence, Dr. Alpert serves on the board of the National Network of Depression Centers, is a member of the Harvard Medical School Academy, and is a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

“Dr. Alpert, with his expertise knitting clinical excellence with high-caliber, NIH-funded research, will play a critical role launching Einstein’s Brain Science Initiative in the coming months.”

– Dean Allen M. Spiegel, M.D.

“Dr. Alpert, with his expertise knitting clinical excellence with high-caliber, NIH-funded research, will play a critical role launching Einstein’s Brain Science Initiative in the coming months,” said Allen M. Spiegel, M.D., the Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean at Einstein. “His distinction in teaching and mentoring will help raise the bar for our medical and graduate students and junior faculty as they develop and assume leadership positions in the scientific and medical fields.”

Dr. Alpert received his BA summa cum laude in Philosophy and Psychology from Yale University, his M.D. from Yale University School of Medicine, and his Ph.D. in behavioral pharmacology from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, where he was also a Marshall Scholar. He completed residencies at Harvard-Boston Children’s Hospital (pediatrics) and at Harvard-McLean Hospital (psychiatry) before joining the Harvard-MGH Psychiatry faculty in 1992.