Following an exhaustive national search, UC San Francisco clinician and educator Tammy Duong, MD, has been selected to serve as the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences’ new vice chair for medical education, effective November 1, 2024.
Duong is a health sciences associate clinical professor and geriatric psychiatrist who joined the department faculty in 2017. She completed her undergraduate studies and medical training at the University of Kansas, a residency in psychiatry at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, and a postdoctoral fellowship in geriatric psychiatry at UCSF.
She is currently the director of the UCSF Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship Program and has also served as the executive medical director for adult behavioral health since 2021. Throughout her time at UCSF, Duong has been deeply involved in the department's clinical education efforts. In addition to leading the geriatric psychiatry fellowship, she has acted as the School of Medicine's career advisor for psychiatry, taught small groups in medical student foundational foundational courses, directed the UCSF Psychiatry Resident Advising Program, and led the Adult Psychiatry Residency Training Program's inaugural course in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
In recognition of her contributions to UCSF's educational mission, Duong was inducted into the UCSF Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators in 2023. She also received the group's Excellence in Teaching Award in 2020.
"Tammy is a nationally recognized educator who brings a wealth of leadership experience to this role," said Oberndorf Family Distinguished Professor and department chair Matthew W. State, MD, PhD. "I couldn't be more thrilled to add her expertise and insight to our department's leadership team."
As the vice chair for medical education, Duong will manage and provide programmatic oversight for the department's psychiatry-focused training programs, including its residency program and fellowships in child and adolescent psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, consultation-liaison psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, public psychiatry, and psychiatric research. She will also supervise the appointment of psychiatrist volunteer clinical professors and work closely with the department's vice chair for psychology education and educational administrative team to develop department-wide academic medical activities, share and adopt best practices in graduate medical education, and champion faculty development and mentoring for clinician-educators.
Duong will succeed longtime faculty member and clinician-educator Descartes Li, MD, who is stepping down after five years in the role. Over the course of his tenure, more than 150 residents and psychiatric fellows completed their training across the department, all while navigating the unique academic challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I am enormously grateful to Descartes for his leadership and service as our vice chair for medical education over the past five years," added State, "and I know that he will continue to be an integral part of our education efforts going forward."
About UCSF Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
The UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute are among the nation's foremost resources in the fields of child, adolescent, adult, and geriatric mental health. Together they constitute one of the largest departments in the UCSF School of Medicine and the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, with a focus on providing unparalleled patient care, conducting impactful research, training the next generation of behavioral health leaders, and advancing diversity, health equity, and community across the field.
UCSF Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences conducts its clinical, educational, and research efforts at a variety of locations in Northern California, including the UCSF Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building; UCSF Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital; UCSF Health medical centers and community hospitals across San Francisco; UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland; Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center; the San Francisco VA Health Care System; UCSF Fresno; and numerous community-based sites around the San Francisco Bay Area.
About the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences
The UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, established by the extraordinary generosity of Joan and Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill, brings together world-class researchers with top-ranked physicians to solve some of the most complex challenges in the human brain.
The UCSF Weill Institute leverages UCSF’s unrivaled bench-to-bedside excellence in the neurosciences. It unites three UCSF departments—Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Neurology, and Neurological Surgery—that are highly esteemed for both patient care and research, as well as the Neuroscience Graduate Program, a cross-disciplinary alliance of nearly 100 UCSF faculty members from 15 basic-science departments, as well as the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, a multidisciplinary research center focused on finding effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders.
About UCSF
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. UCSF Health, which serves as UCSF’s primary academic medical center, includes top-ranked specialty hospitals and other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area.
