New deans at the medical school

This spring Richard Belitsky, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry, was named deputy dean for education, effective July 1. Belitsky, the deputy chair for education in his department, has had a major impact on the teaching of both medical students and residents. He succeeds Herbert S. Chase Jr., M.D., who stepped down at the end of the academic year.

Belitsky has received three top teaching awards from Yale since 1998, as well as several from his colleagues in psychiatry at the national level. He was inducted into the School of Medicine’s Society of Distinguished Teachers in 2002. He has a reputation for a high level of skill in resolving complex clinical problems and is one of the persons most frequently consulted by colleagues when making a referral. He is also a highly effective administrator, adept at framing and working through issues with colleagues in many departments, conceiving and launching new programs and sorting and extracting the data required for good decision making.

Also this spring, Laura R. Ment, M.D., professor of pediatrics and neurology, was appointed associate dean for admissions and chair of the admissions committee, effective July 1. Ment succeeds Thomas L. Lentz, M.D. ’64, who retired on June 30 after 38 years in admissions at the School of Medicine. She has received numerous awards for excellence in teaching since 1979.

Ment is a leading authority on injury and recovery in the developing brain of preterm infants and on stroke in children. She is the author of more than 150 scholarly articles and a member of the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council, the major advisory panel of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.