Dr. Fleisch has been a member of the faculty since 2013. In her current role, she serves as Director of the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship Program and Medical Director of Vanderbilt Street Psychiatry and Homeless Health Services at Vanderbilt. Her team provides psychiatric consultation services to homeless persons both in the hospital and on the streets of Nashville. She is committed to improving healthcare in the homeless population along with teaching community outreach to residents and medical students through this unique consultative model. The street psychiatry program has been recognized by the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) Tennessee and NAMI Davidson County with the 2015 Model Project Award and the 2015 Challenge Award.
Prior to joining the Vanderbilt faculty, Dr. Fleisch completed her psychosomatic medicine fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her general psychiatry residency training at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, PA where she served as Chief Resident for Education. Dr. Fleisch has been recognized locally and nationally for her innovative teaching. In 2015, Dr. Fleisch was awarded the Clinical Teacher of Year Award by the Vanderbilt Psychiatry Department. In 2016, she was awarded the Early Career Development Award by the Association of Academic Psychiatry. She is a William Webb Fellow (Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine) and a George Ginsberg Fellow (American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training).
Emma Finan is a proud West of Ireland native. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and an RN–BC. (Board Certified in Mental Health) She has worked at VPH in several key roles since 1998, Emma joined the Department of Psychiatry faculty in 2011 where she is the primary psychotherapist in the Psychosis Clinic. She holds additional training in CBT specific to Psychosis in addition to providing Family Therapy. Her entire career has been in Mental Health bringing rich experience to the clinic from Community Mental Health/Crisis Intervention Teams at Guys Hospital, London, UK. Emma also fulfills a liaison role between the Inpatient Psychosis Teams and Outpatient Teams to ensure smooth transition for all parties involved.
Neuromodulation
Granja-Ingram NM, James J, Clark N, Stovall J, Heckers S. Successful re-exposure to clozapine after eosinophilia and clinically suspected myocarditis. Rev Bras Psiquiatr. 2013;35(1):95-96.
Labadie, RF, Clark NK, Cobb CM, Benningfield MM, Fuchs DC. Electroconvulsive Therapy in a cochlear implant patient. Otol Neurotol. 2010 Jan;31(1): 64-66.
McRackan TR, Rivas A, Hedley-Williams A, Raj V, Dietrich MS, Clark NK, Labadie RF. Impedance testing on cochlear implants after electroconvulsive therapy. J ECT 2014.
Administrative Psychiatry
Electroconvulsive Therapy
Inpatient Psychiatry
Dr. Nathaniel Clark joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2007. He serves as the Executive Medical Director of Adult Ambulatory Services and Director of the Division of General Psychiatry. His primary clinical role is to serve as an inpatient psychiatrist treating adults experiencing psychotic and mood disorders. He was the lead clinician in the establishment and development of the Electroconvulsive Therapy Service at Vanderbilt, and, with the addition of repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, served as the Medical Director of the renamed Neuromodulation Service until 2016.
He has received several major teaching awards and distinctions from the Department of Psychiatry and the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Prior to joining the faculty, he was an inpatient psychiatrist at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts, and completed his general psychiatry residency at Boston University.
Dr. Caucci joined faculty in 2009. He is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry on the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Psychiatric Consultation-Liaison Service. He also runs the Vanderbilt University Women's Mental Health Clinic
Kristan Armstrong is a licensed clinical social worker finalizing her PhD at University of Tennessee, College of Social Work, where she also completed her MSSW. She has worked in the Vanderbilt Psychotic Disorders Program with Stephan Heckers, MD, MSc, for 12 years.
Kristan's research interests are primarily predicting outcome in the early stages of psychosis using pre-illness factors, clinical diagnoses and symptoms, and with a particular focus in psychosocial functioning.
Representative Publications
Armstrong K, Williams L, Kose S, Woolard A, Heckers S. (2010) Impaired associative inference in patients with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 38 (3), 622-629. PMID: 21134974.
Armstrong K, Williams L, & Heckers S. (2012) Revised associative inference paradigm confirms relational memory impairment in schizophrenia. Neuropsychology, 26 (4), 451-458. PMID: 22612578.
Seldin, K Armstrong K, Schiff M, & Heckers S. (2017) Reducing the diagnostic heterogeneity of schizoaffective disorder. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 8 (18), 1-6. PMID: 28239362.
Armstrong K, Avery S, Blackford JU, Woodward ND, & Heckers S. (2018) Impaired associative inference in the early stage of psychosis. Schizophrenia Research, 202, 86-90. PMID: 29954698.
Avery, SN, Armstrong, K, Blackford, JU, Woodward, ND, Cohen, N, Heckers, S (2019). Impaired relational memory in the early stage of psychosis. Schizophrenia Research, 212, 113-120. PMID: 31402078.
McHugo, M, Talati, P, Armstrong, K, Vandekar, SN, Blackford, JU, Woodward, ND, Heckers, S. (2019). Hyperactivity and Reduced Activation of Anterior Hippocampus in Early Psychosis. American Journal of Psychiatry, 176, 1030-1038. PMID: 31623459.
Avery, SN, Armstrong, K, McHugo, M, Vandekar, S, Blackford, JU, Woodward, ND, Heckers, S (2020). Relational memory in the early stages of psychosis: A 2-year follow-up study. Schizophrenia Bulletin. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbaa081PMID: 32657351.
McHugo, M, Armstrong, K, Roeske, MJ, Woodward, ND, Blackford, JU, Heckers, S (2020). Hippocampal volume in early psychosis: A 2-year longitudinal study. Translational Psychiatry, 10, 306-316. PMID: 32873788.
Psychosocial Recovery and Family Psychoeducation in Psychotic Disorders
Dr. Amison joined the faculty in 2010.
She is the clerkship director for Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
Dr. Amison's interests are community psychiatry and psychotic disorders.
Dr. Williamson is a practicing child and adolescent psychiatrist and the Program Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship program at Vanderbilt. His interests include disruptive behavior disorders and the training path for future child psychiatrists. Dr. Williamson graduated from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed a residency in Pediatrics at Duke, general psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center.
Dr. Williamson specializes in disruptive behavior disorders and conflict around developmental transitions.
Dr. Williamson studies training and education in Psychiatry, as well as effective treatments for mental health disorders in children and adolescents.
Dr. Tanguturi has been a member of the faculty since 2017. He is the Assistant Medical Director for the Inpatient Child and Adolescent psychiatric unit at the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital (VPH) and also works as an attending on the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry consult service at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. In addition he also serves as an investigator at the MEND (Medical Exploration of Neuro-developmental Disorders) clinic, focused on clinical trials. He is interested in child and adolescent mental health, hospital based psychiatry, epidemiology and systems of care issues related to child mental health.
Tanguturi Y, Bodic M, Taub A, Homel P, Jacob T. Suicide Risk Assessment by Residents: Deficiencies of Documentation. Acad Psychiatry [print-electronic]. 2017 Aug; 41(4): 513-9. PMID: 28083763, PII: 10.1007/s40596-016-0644-6, DOI: 10.1007/s40596-016-0644-6, ISSN: 1545-7230.
Springer AE, Tanguturi Y, Ranjit N, Skala KA, Kelder SH. Physical activity during recess in low-income third-grade Texas students. Am J Health Behav. 2013 May; 37(3): 318-24. PMID: 23985178, PMCID: PMC3761405, DOI: 10.5993/AJHB.37.3.4, ISSN: 1945-7359.
Dr. Stambaugh's research interests include anxiety and depression among children and the social and emotional needs of gifted students.
Dr. Stambaugh joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2008. His primary focus is mental health counseling with pediatric clients who need support with symptoms such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, and family issues. He has previously served as a therapist and center director at a community agency as well as a managing therapist in a private practice.