Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Program

Training Sites

Fellows rotate longitudinally for two days per week on the UTMB Forensic Service, one day per week in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ, the state prison system), and one day per week at the Harris County Jail. In addition, fellows have a dedicated one-month intensive rotation in aerospace psychiatry at NASA Johnson Space Center.

Sample schedule (11 months; specific day assignments may change):

Sample schedule (1 month):

UTMB Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Forensic Evaluation and Consultation Service

 The UTMB Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences provides consultations and forensic evaluations to courts and attorneys. Various types of forensic cases are received from government agencies, law school clinics, and private law practices, including, among other things, competence to stand trial, aid-to-sentencing, insanity/criminal responsibility, fitness for duty, risk assessment, disability, personal injury, immigration/asylum, guardianship, testamentary capacity. In addition, the department maintains a collaboration with local county courts to conduct competence to stand trial and insanity evaluations. Fellows will be assigned cases received by the department. They will conduct evaluations, draft reports, consult with attorneys and other professionals, and testify (if necessary) in their assigned cases under the supervision of program faculty. Finally, there will be opportunities to engage in research and scholarship with UTMB program faculty.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice Wayne Scott Unit

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is the largest state prison system in the United States and comprises 100 state jails and prisons. The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) Correctional Managed Care (CMC) provides medical, dental, nursing, specialty care, and psychiatric and mental health services statewide to over 120,000, or approximately 80% of, TDCJ inmates. The TDCJ Wayne Scott Unit in Richmond, TX is a maximum-security prison unit that provides specialized crisis management and inpatient psychiatric care to inmates with acute and chronic mental illnesses.

Fellows would participate on-site in the clinical evaluation, treatment, and management of patients at the TDCJ Wayne Scott Unit, as well as provide specialized forensic consultation to UTMB CMC mental health staff based within certain TDCJ prisons in the Greater Houston and Galveston regions that house inmates with mental disorders. Although direct patient care in a correctional setting is a part of this rotation, an emphasis will be placed on administration, health systems improvement, and medical leadership. Fellow activities can include involvement in multidisciplinary treatment team meetings, administrative hearings for forced medications, evaluation and testimony for civil commitment, risk assessment and triage, and quality improvement projects and committees, as well as opportunities for unique educational experiences in specialized TDCJ prison treatment programs across the state.

Harris County Jail/The Harris Center

The Harris Center is a community mental health agency that provides mental health services, competency and sanity evaluations, and jail-based competency restoration (JBCR) to the Harris County Jail. One of the largest in the United States, the jail holds nearly 10,000 inmates, approximately 40% of whom are treated with psychotropic medications. Fellows will rotate on the JBCR unit providing evaluation, treatment, and management of inmates found not competent to stand trial and undergoing competency restoration. In addition, fellows will participate in petitions and testimony for forced medications, as well as court education activities (such as didactics and mock trials) for inmates.

NASA Johnson Space Center

 NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) is a world-class institution dedicated to the advancement of human spaceflight and the home of NASA mission control and astronaut training. UTMB has had a long-standing collaboration with NASA and maintains a two-year ACGME-accredited residency program in Aerospace Medicine. NASA also operates a highly competitive month-long Aerospace Medicine clerkship at JSC twice a year for medical students, residents, and attending physicians. NASA and UTMB aim to train physicians to serve and support the specialized healthcare needs associated with aviation, human spaceflight operations, and extreme environments, including spaceflight analog crew isolation research facilities.

Fellows will have access to this unique and remarkable resource. They will join other healthcare professionals in the month-long clerkship at JSC, where they will be introduced to NASA operations and facilities not available to the public, such as the Mission Control Center, Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, and Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility; the effects of aviation and spaceflight on human physiology; the limitations imposed by aviation and spaceflight; and the strategies NASA employs to maintain safety and mitigate risk. They will complete a scholarly project and present their findings during a poster session at the end of the clerkship.

In addition, fellows will receive individualized supervision, training, and mentorship from NASA aerospace psychiatrists. They will learn about psychiatric, psychological, and behavioral factors that affect human spaceflight. They will have the opportunity to observe or assist with astronaut selection (when available), psychological support during International Space Station missions, neurocognitive assessments of astronauts, psychiatric assessments of astronauts and flight controllers, psychiatric consultations to the Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Air Surgeon, and astronaut family support services.

Didactic program:

UTMB is collaborating with forensic psychiatry fellowships throughout the state of Texas to present a joint didactic curriculum. Faculty in forensic psychiatry, psychology, and law from across the University of Texas System and Texas Medical Center will lead lectures, case discussions, seminars, and Landmark Cases. UTMB fellows will join with fellows at sister institutions to present and discuss cases, dissect legal opinions, and engage in scholarly inquiry.

Program Faculty:

• Forensic Psychiatry
  • Stephen Baughn, MD, Adjunct Assistant Professor, UTMB Correctional Managed Care
  • Stacey Belcher, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, UTMB Correctional Managed Care
  • Gary Beven, MD, Adjunct Assistant Professor (UTMB); Chief of Space Medicine Operations Division, NASA
  • Jacqueline Bickham, MD, The Harris Center
  • Edythe Harvey, MD, Professor, UTMB Dept of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
  • Gabrielle Hobday, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, UTMB Correctional Managed Care
  • Vinay Kothapalli, MD, Adjunct Assistant Professor, UTMB Correctional Managed Care
  • Joseph Penn, MD, Clinical Professor, UTMB Correctional Managed Care
  • Omar Pinjari, MD, Wayne Scott Unit Director, UTMB Correctional Managed Care
    
  • Kim Warneke, MD, Adjunct Assistant Professor (UTMB); Director of the Jail Based Competency Restoration Program, The Harris Center
    
• Psychology
  • Steven Coats, PhD, Director of the Competency & Sanity Evaluation Unit, The Harris Center
• Law
  • Jessica Anna Cabot, JD, Clinical Associate Professor, University of Houston Law Center
    
  • Hilary Miller, JD, Adjunct Assistant Professor (UTMB), Private practice
  • Shawn Williamson, JD, Private practice
    

For more information or to apply, please contact:

Rocksheng Zhong, MD, MHS
Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Training Director
Associate Professor & Director of Forensic Services
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
University of Texas Medical Branch
Phone: 409-266-5253
Email: rozhong@utmb.edu

Miranda Stinecipher
Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Coordinator
UTMB Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
301 University Blvd - Rebecca Sealy 7.612, Galveston, TX 77555-0193
Phone: 409-747-9722 | 409-266-1652
Fax: 409-351-3464
Email: mnstinec@utmb.edu

Interested applicants should submit:

• Common application form provided by the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (in the “Training” tab at https://www.aapl.org/home)
• Photograph
• Curriculum Vitae
• Personal statement
• At least two writing samples: Writing samples may include deidentified forensic reports or evaluations, authored articles or papers, or deidentified patient evaluations/discharge summaries.
• Copies of medical school diploma, ECFMG certificate (if applicable), current medical license(s), and USMLE/COMLEX score report
• Proof of citizenship and/or visa status
• Please request that the following documents are sent directly to the fellowship program from the source:
  • Three letters of reference, one of which must be from your current program director or, if you have completed training within the past five years, the director of the program from which you graduated most recently
  • Official copy of medical school transcript and Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE, formerly known as the dean’s letter)