Feb. 26, 2014 | Feb. 26, 2014 | Pedro L. Delgado, M.D., a nationally known leader in integrating psychiatric care, research and education, has been named director of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Psychiatric Research Institute and the Marie Wilson Howells Professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry in the College of Medicine.

Delgado, who has served as professor and chairman of the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSC) in San Antonio’s Department of Psychiatry since 2005, will join UAMS on April 1.

“Dr. Delgado has achieved wide-ranging accomplishments at UTHSC,” said G. Richard Smith, M.D., dean of the UAMS College of Medicine and former director of the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute. “His department has nationally recognized, federally funded research programs in several areas, including post-traumatic stress disorder, for which UTHSC directs a national research consortium. And, like UAMS, UTHSC holds a highly competitive Clinical and Translational Science Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with Dr. Delgado serving as director of the KL2 clinical scholars training program.”

Delgado’s research interests include the molecular genetics of mood and anxiety disorders, and the neurobiological mechanisms of antidepressants. He also served as associate dean for faculty development and professionalism at UTHSC, and held the Dielmann Distinguished Chair in Psychiatry there since 2005.

Delgado was chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and the Douglas Danford Bond Professor of Psychiatry at Case Western and University Hospitals of Cleveland while also serving as president and CEO of the Foundation for Clinical Neuroscience there. He previously held faculty posts at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson and Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn.

Delgado received his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas, in 1983, and a Master of Arts in pharmacology from UTMB the following year. He completed his internship and residency in psychiatry at Yale and worked on the faculty there until 1992. He is board certified in psychiatry.

“I am honored to have been chosen to join the outstanding team and world-class facilities that Dean Smith and the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute faculty established during his tenure there,” Delgado said. “I have enthusiastically accepted the challenge of taking the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute to the next level based on the level of involvement and support provided by the community and the state Legislature, and the support and commitment evident in the collaborating hospitals and the outstanding faculty, trainees and staff there.”

While at the University of Arizona College of Medicine from 1992 to 2000, Delgado held several leadership posts including associate chairman for research in the Department of Psychiatry and assistant chief of psychiatry at the Tucson Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

“The breadth and depth of Dr. Delgado’s expertise in successfully integrating psychiatric patient care, research and education will be invaluable to faculty throughout UAMS, and to the patients, students and other Arkansans we serve,” said UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn, M.D.

Delgado’s academic interests include multidisciplinary, team-based approaches to health care; mentoring of medical students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty; clinical research training; compensation and evaluation procedures in academic medical centers; and faculty wellness, development and professionalism. He has been an active NIH-funded investigator throughout his career, with an emphasis on mood disorders. He has served on numerous review panels for the National Institute of Mental Health and other NIH institutes and is active in many national professional organizations. He has served on several editorial boards, including the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry and the International Advisory Board of Academic Psychiatry.