Sibel A. Klimstra

Sibel A. Klimstra, M.D. ’88, HS ’93, has been appointed associate dean, academic affairs, of Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) in New York City, effective July 1. Klimstra is an associate professor of clinical psychiatry at Weill Cornell and associate attending psychiatrist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Klimstra graduated summa cum laude from Barnard College, majoring in biopsychology. After receiving her medical degree she stayed at Yale for her adult psychiatry residency and a geriatric psychiatry fellowship. She then joined the Department of Psychiatry at WCMC and NYPH/Westchester Division. She has remained there ever since, establishing clinical research interests in geriatric psychopharmacology, depression, and cognitive dysfunction while expanding her expertise in clinical geriatric psychiatry and her role and expertise in undergraduate and graduate medical education.

Klimstra has been serving as director of medical student education in psychiatry and has taught extensively in WCMC’s preclinical and clinical psychiatry courses. She has received multiple teaching awards, including the Excellence in Teaching Award from WCMC in 2002 and 2011; Teacher of the Year Award from the NYPH geriatric psychiatry fellows in 2005; Educator of the Year Award from the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry in 2008; the Mentorship Award from the NYPH geriatric psychiatry fellows in 2011 and 2013; selection to the WCMC Senior List in 2012; the American Psychiatric Association’s Nancy C.A. Roeske, M.D., Certificate of Recognition for Excellence in Medical Student Education in 2013; and WCMC’s Charles L. Bardes, MD Teaching Prize in 2013.