Maria A. Oquendo

Maria A. Oquendo
Academic background
EducationBSc, 1980, Tufts University
MD, 1984, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
PhD, 2010, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid
Academic work
InstitutionsPerelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Columbia University

Maria A. Oquendo is an American psychiatrist. Oquendo is the chair of the Department of Psychiatry in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2016, she became the first Latina to be elected president of the American Psychiatric Association.

Early life and education

Oquendo graduated from Tufts University in 1980 and received her medical degree from the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1984. She then completed her residency in Psychiatry at the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic in the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.[1]

Career

Columbia University

Upon completing her formal education, Oquendo joined the faculty at Columbia University and co-established the Oquendo-Gould-Stanley-Posner classification system to identify sub-categories of suicidal behavior.[2] In 2003, Oquendo and her colleagues were commissioned by the Food and Drug Administration to develop a classification system to examine suicide-related events in the data. Oquendo first proposed suicidal behavior should be its own diagnostic category in 2008 and successfully argued its addition to the DSM-5's appendix in 2013.[3]

By 2007, Oquendo was appointed the director of research clinics at Columbia and vice chair for education and training.[4] As a result of her research, Oquendo was awarded the Gerald Klerman Award from the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, Simon Bolivar Award, and the National Hispanic Medical Association Hispanic Health Leadership Award.[5] In September 2014, Milton Wainberg and Oquendo launched a fellowship program to promote international training in mental health implementation research in Mozambique.[6] During the same year, she was announced as president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association (APA),[7] and subsequently became their first Latina president in 2016.[8]

University of Pennsylvania

Oquendo left Columbia in 2017 to become the new chair of the Department of Psychiatry in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.[9] While serving in this role, she was elected a Member of the National Academy of Medicine.[10] Oquendo was also awarded the 2018 Delores Shockley Minority Mentoring Award by the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology for "successfully mentoring young scientists from underrepresented groups in the field of neuropsychopharmacology and related disciplines."[11]

References

  1. ^ "MARIA A. OQUENDO". upenn.edu. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  2. ^ Bernstein, Carole (January 9, 2019). "Tangling with the Science of Suicide". Newswire. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  3. ^ Oquendo, Maria A.; Baca-Garcia, Enrique (June 2, 2014). "Suicidal behavior disorder as a diagnostic entity in the DSM-5 classification system: advantages outweigh limitations". World Psychiatry. 13 (2): 128–130. doi:10.1002/wps.20116. PMC 4102277. PMID 24890057.
  4. ^ "Penn Medicine Announces Appointment of Maria A. Oquendo, MD, as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry". Penn Medicine. March 8, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  5. ^ "Psychiatry Residency Program Visiting Professor Maria A. Oquendo, MD". Bergen New Bridge Medical Center. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  6. ^ "Mozambique's First Fellows in Psychiatric Research Training Come to Columbia University Medical Center". Columbia University. October 10, 2014. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  7. ^ "HONORS AND AWARDS 2014-2015". Columbia University. October 14, 2015. p. 14. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  8. ^ Yarmolinsky, Rachel (May 18, 2016). "Dr. Maria A. Oquendo Inducted First Latina President of the American Psychiatric Association". Columbia University. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  9. ^ "Penn Medicine Announces Appointment of Maria A. Oquendo, MD, as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry". University of Pennsylvania. March 8, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  10. ^ "National Academy of Medicine Elects 80 New Members". National Academy of Medicine. October 16, 2017. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  11. ^ "Maria A. Oquendo: Delores Shockley Minority Mentoring Award". University of Pennsylvania. January 15, 2019. Retrieved June 15, 2021.

Maria A. Oquendo publications indexed by Google Scholar