Donna LaPaglia, PsyD, an assistant professor of psychiatry affiliated with the department's Psychology Section, has been selected as an Association of American Medical Colleges Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Fellow. She will be one of only 16 fellows from the Northeastern Group on Education Affairs region to participate in the prestigious program.
LaPaglia is director of the Substance Abuse Treatment Unit of Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC) and CMHC's associate director of addiction services.
The LEAD certificate program is an intensive, two-year, leadership development program that provides the knowledge, skills, values, and practical experience educational professionals in academic medicine need to be successful leaders.
LaPaglia's research and clinical interests focus on the assessment and treatment of substance use disorders, the clinical supervision of addiction psychotherapies, and best practices in psychology and psychiatry training programs.
She is the curriculum coordinator within the department's Doctoral Internship in Clinical and Community Psychology, regularly lectures on the assessment and treatment of substance use disorders in both the psychology and psychiatry training programs, and has created a Leadership in Addictions Medicine series within Yale’s Addiction Fellowship program.
In addition, LaPaglia is the first psychologist selected for the Medical Education Fellowship offered by Yale's Teaching and Learning Center.
Her teaching and clinical expertise has been recognized by the department and the department's Psychology Section. In 2012, she received the Department of Psychiatry Chairman's Award for clinical, educational, and research excellence, as well as the Psychology Section's Distinguished Faculty Award for Outstanding Contributions as a Teacher.