Robert Rohrbaugh, MD, professor of psychiatry and deputy dean for professionalism and leadership at Yale School of Medicine, will step down from his longtime role as deputy chair for education in the Yale Department of Psychiatry.
The following letter about Rohrbaugh's transition was written January 6 by John H. Krystal, MD, Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor of Translational Research and Professor of Psychiatry, of Neuroscience, and of Psychology, and Chair of the Yale Department of Psychiatry.
I write to share the news that as I develop the next administrative structure for the education mission of our department, Dr. Robert Rohrbaugh has agreed to step down from his role as Deputy Chair for Education effective January 2023, a role he occupied since 2009. Bob previously transitioned from the leadership of the Psychiatry Residency Program to become Deputy Dean for Professionalism and Leadership in 2021.
This transition gives me the opportunity to recognize his transformative impact on psychiatric education at Yale. Bob recruited a team of extraordinarily committed and talented Associate Program Directors including Esperanza Diaz, Ayana Jordan, Katie Klingensmith, David Ross, Vinod Srihari, and Tobias Wasser who worked with our residents and faculty to develop national models for educating residents in core skills like interviewing and formulation and in evidence-based medicine, global mental health, health equity, neuroscience, and quality improvement. Bob created structures like the CASE rotation to provide opportunities for residents to continue their intellectual and scholarly development alongside their development as clinicians. In medical student education, Drs. Kirsten Wilkins and Matt Goldenberg developed an innovative structure for the psychiatry clerkship at the interface with primary care as well as interventions like Power Hour to address the therapeutic use of power. At the same time, Bob was an advocate for advancing the careers of faculty as clinician educators and has been an impactful mentor, with many of his junior colleagues developing distinguished careers at Yale and at other institutions.
During his tenure, psychiatric education at Yale achieved milestones achieved by few Departments. For most years since 2009, the Yale Psychiatry Residency was ranked among the very top programs in the country by reputation and by scholarly output of our graduates. Under his leadership, Yale was ranked as the #1 medical school educational program in psychiatry in the US and applications to our residency program and Yale medical student interest in psychiatry grew accordingly.
These accomplishments belie the essence of Bob’s leadership style, his deep commitment to psychiatry residents. He was remarkably engaged in the life of our trainees, hosting welcome dinners, and inviting residents to his home for holiday dinners. He understood the resident perspective through collaboration with the Chief Residents, the leaders of the Psychiatric Residents Association and the Graduate Education Committee and ensured this perspective was represented as we handled challenging administrative issues within the Department.
I am deeply grateful to Bob for his contributions to our Department. He has been an esteemed member of the Department Executive Committee and a wonderful colleague for the past 13 years. I will miss his sage advice and ethical vision. I wish him all the best in his role in the Dean’s Office.
We will soon begin planning for a festschrift to celebrate Bob’s contributions to psychiatric education. I will update the Department as these plans move forward.