GMHF logo
About the Foundation Programs Board of Directors Foundation Sponsors Contact Us
Board of Directors
News Consumer/Patient Information Find a Geriatric Psychiatrist Resources How to Contribute

 >>

Board of Directors

Board Nominations
One Board Member's Story of Depression
Board Members Discuss Challenges and Solutions in Late-Life Mental Health Care

  Sanjay Gupta, MD (Chair)
Dr. Gupta is a Clinical Professor with the University of Buffalo, Department of Psychiatry in New York, and Associate Director of Geriatric Psychiatry at BryLin Hospital in Buffalo, NY. His interests include mood and memory disorders in older adults.
 
  Frederic C. Blow, PhD (Vice-Chair)
Dr. Blow is the Director of the National VA Serious Mental Illness Treatment Research and Evaluation Center (SMITREC) at the Department of Veterans Affairs and an Associate Professor and Senior Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan. His research interests include serious mental illness, alcohol abuse, older adults, and mental health services research.
 
  Maria D. Llorente, MD (Secretary/Treasurer)
Dr. Llorente is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami School of Medicine, in the division of geriatric psychiatry. She is also the chief of psychiatry for the Miami VA Healthcare System. Her primary research interests are in the area of improving mental health services delivery to the geriatric population, particulary ethnic and racial minority older adults, in both long-term and primary care settings.
 
  Martha L. Bruce Interview
Dr. Bruce is a Professor of Sociology in Psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, whose current research focuses on psychosocial risks factors and outcomes of depression in later life, and the relationship between depression and functional disability. Her work on suicidal ideation and depressive symptoms on older primary care patients was published in the March 3, 2004, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
 
  Christopher C. Colenda, MD, MPH
Dr. Colenda, a past president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, is the dean of the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. Prior to that, he served as professor and chairman of the department of psychiatry at Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine. Dr. Colenda has published over 130 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters, primarily in geriatric mental health services research.
 
  Gary J. Kennedy, MD
Dr. Kennedy, a past president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, is a geriatric psychiatrist with the Montefiore Medical Center in New York, and specializes in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, depression, psychopharmacology, and psychosomatic medicine.
 
    Melinda Lantz, MD
Dr. Lantz, MD, is the chief of geriatric psychiatry at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, NY, an associate professor of psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and director of the Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship Program at Beth Israel Medical Center. She has published many articles related to dementia, depression, psychiatry in the nursing home, and the treatment of agitation. Dr. Lantz is active in teaching medical students, residents and fellows and has a special interest in behavioral interventions for dementia care.
 
Jeffrey M. Lyness,  MD   Jeffrey M. Lyness, MD
Dr. Lyness, president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, is the associate chair for education and professor of psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center, as well as the director of the Geriatric Psychiatry Program. He also serves as director of curriculum and medical director for continuing medical education for the University of Rochester medical school. His research activities focus on the relationships between depression and medical illnesses in later life.
 
  Burton V. Reifler, MD, MPH
Dr. Reifler is a geriatric psychiatrist and a Professor of Psychiatry at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His areas of expertise include the diagnosis and management of Alzheimer's disease, the relationship between Alzheimer's disease and depression, caregiving, and the development of adult day centers.