The Department of Psychiatry Welcomes New Faculty Members Douglas D’Agati, MD; Andrew Gerlach, PhD; and Joseph Stujenske, MD, PhD

Pitt Psychiatry extends a warm welcome to three new faculty members:

Douglas D’Agati, MD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry)
Dr. D’Agati received his MD from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and completed his psychiatry residency training at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he served as chief resident. Dr. D’Agati then completed a clinical research fellowship (the Alexander Wilson Schweizer Fellowship) in mood disorders at Johns Hopkins Hospital. After fellowship, Dr. D’Agati worked as an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in a general outpatient clinic.

Dr. D’Agati’s interests include mood disorders, medical education, and seasonal rhythms in nature as they pertain to affective disorders. He also has interest in psychiatry and the arts. Dr. D’Agati will provide clinical care on the inpatient Comprehensive Recovery Services unit and the General Adult unit at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital.

Andrew Gerlach, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry)
Dr. Gerlach received his PhD in nuclear engineering and radiological sciences from the University of Michigan College of Engineering, then came to Pittsburgh for postdoctoral research training on the Department of Psychiatry’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded Clinical and Translational Research Training in Late-Life Mood Disorders program. 

With a background in mathematics and computational modeling, Dr. Gerlach’s current research focuses on developing multi-modal neuroimaging tools to investigate the pathophysiology and treatment response in anxiety and mood disorders. He currently leads an NIMH-funded K01 career development award that aims to integrate complementary network measures from structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging with clinical measures to generate biologically relevant features that can improve prediction of treatment outcome in late-life depression.

Joseph Stujenske, MD, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry)
Dr. Stujenske earned his MD and his PhD in Neurobiology and Behavior from Columbia University. He completed psychiatry residency training at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical Center—having received a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Outstanding Resident Award—and postdoctoral research training at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Dr. Stujenske’s research focuses on the circuit mechanisms of fear and anxiety disorders. He is principal investigator of a NIMH-funded K08 career development award investigating the encoding of fear and safety discrimination in interconnected medial prefrontal cortex and basolateral amygdala neurons, with the long-term goal of advancing the development of new treatments for anxiety and trauma-related disorders.

Please join us in welcoming Dr. D’Agati, Dr. Gerlach, and Dr. Stujenske!