Caridad Ponce Martinez, MD, an Addiction Psychiatry fellow at Yale, is one of five recipients of a 2016 fellowship for international medical graduates through the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training (AADPRT).
She received the award March 4 at the AADPRT annual meeting in Austin, Texas. She was nominated by Ismene Petrakis, MD, director of the Addiction Psychiatry fellowship program at Yale and chief of psychiatry at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven.
According to AADPRT, the fellowship is designed to promote the professional growth of exceptional international medical graduate (IMG) psychiatry residents and fellows who have shown leadership potential and an interest in resident education.
The award provides economic support to attend the annual meeting, and connects recipients with a faculty mentor who helps the recipient with professional development and any acculturation needs.
Robert Rohrbaugh, MD, professor of psychiatry; deputy chair for education and career development; and residency program director at Yale, is mentoring Ponce Martinez.
Ponce Martinez, who is originally from Honduras, has been primarily based at the APT Foundation in New Haven during her fellowship at Yale. She will join the faculty at the University of Massachusetts in Worcester as an assistant professor after her training ends in June.
She wants to develop a career as a clinician educator, and said Rohrbaugh has already mentored her in that area. Her additional clinical and research interests include resident education in addiction psychiatry, global mental health with development of projects to address the vast mental health needs in Honduras, and the interface between chronic pain and addiction.
She was chief resident at the University of Virginia, where she completed her psychiatry residency training. She earned her undergraduate degree at Tufts University, and did her medical school training at Escuela Autonomy de Ciencias Medicas de Centro America (UCIMED) in Costa Rica.