University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Promotes Abigail Schlesinger, MD, to Professor of Psychiatry
We are pleased to announce that Abigail Schlesinger, MD, has been promoted to Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Dr. Schlesinger earned her MD from the University of Pittsburgh and completed general psychiatry residency and a research fellowship in perinatal mental health at the University of Michigan. Dr. Schlesinger came to Pittsburgh for a clinical fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH), followed by a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded Child and Adolescent Mental Health Research T32 training program.
Dr. Schlesinger is a pioneer and champion in the area of integrated psychiatric care and has held clinical leadership positions in child/adolescent psychiatry at both UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh (CHP) and WPH. She currently serves as the CHP and WPH clinical chief of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Integrated Care; clinical director of the CHP Behavioral Science Division & Community Based Services; and medical director of the Children’s Telephonic Psychiatric Services (TiPS), a service that Dr. Schlesinger created for primary care physicians to access expert psychiatric consultations by phone.
As clinical chief of the Child and Adolescent Integrated Care program, she developed and now oversees the Children’s Community Pediatrics Behavioral Health System (CCPBHS), an integrated model of care across numerous pediatric primary care offices in Pennsylvania, one of the largest integrated systems of care in the United States.
Dr. Schlesinger has improved access to and delivery of evidence-based behavioral health care in pediatric primary care and rural settings, and was recognized with the American Psychiatric Association’s Psychiatric Achievement Award for this work. In addition, Dr. Schlesinger has secured funding to integrate a substance use screening initiative (SMART Choices) into CCPBHS and Children’s TiPS.
Dr. Schlesinger is an outstanding educator, having taught medical students and residents, as well as fellow clinicians and multidisciplinary teams, and she has mentored numerous trainees including more than a dozen Psychiatry faculty members. Dr. Schlesinger has developed and published multiple teaching projects, both for the UPMC system and on a national level. With the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), she created and published a modular toolkit designed to support the training of child and adolescent psychiatrists in the systems of care.
Dr. Schlesinger is exceptionally generous with her time in service activities on numerous committees at WPH, Children’s Hospital, and the Department of Psychiatry, as well as with national organizations. She has served in multiple roles with AACAP, and is currently an AACAP representative to the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of the Child and Family.
“Dr. Schlesinger is a nationally recognized leader in the development of systems of care and provision of integrated behavioral health in primary care. She has developed and established multiple programs and initiatives that improve pediatric patients’ ability to access psychiatric care, thereby directly impacting the lives of thousands of young people,” said David Lewis, MD (Chair, Department of Psychiatry). “In addition, she is an outstanding teacher and highly valued mentor, who has made major contributions to the training of the next generation of child and adolescent psychiatrists.”
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Schlesinger!