A Message from Program Director
Dear Applicants,
I am pleased to introduce you to our Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship program located in Westchester Medical Center.
We have a total of 6 fellows in our program, and we pride ourselves on our dedicated faculty who are passionate about patient care, teaching, and providing personalized, direct mentorship and attention to each of our fellows.
Our program location offers a unique opportunity to work with a diverse range of patients. You will be exposed to varied psychopathologies, which is essential for developing into a confident and competent child psychiatrist.
Training takes place across various settings, including acute inpatient services, in our 21-bed adolescent unit, and our 15-bed school-age unit. Additionally, our psychiatry hospital is a walk away from Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, where we provide a robust Consultation-Liaison experience within a premier regional pediatric center.
Your outpatient experience will include continuity clinic, where you will build therapeutic skills and relationships in the fellows’ clinic and gain unique insights within the residential program through Andrus, among other experiences.
We’re situated about 30 miles north of NYC, giving you the flexibility to explore the city’s cultural scene or explore the Hudson Valley’s landscape.
We look forward to meeting you and to the possibility of welcoming you to our team!
Sincerely,
Grace Pinto Britton, MD
Program Overview
The program is committed to training professionals who, as medical specialists, are concerned with the healthy development of children, adolescents and their families and who diagnose and treat psychiatric disturbances of childhood and adolescence. Residents who have completed a minimum of three years of the Psychiatric Residency Program are eligible to enter the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency Program. Offered by the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division, this program accepts three trainees each year.
The Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry includes an unparalleled array of clinical services on our main campus at Westchester Medical Center. There are separate acute psychiatric inpatient units for Adolescents and Children along with an Outpatient Clinic at the Behavioral Health Center. We provide Consultation-Liaison services to the pediatric patients at the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, where fellows also rotate with the Pediatric Neurology service. Fellows also spend time at a foster care mental health clinic at the Westchester Institute for Human Development. Nearby institutions such as the Blythedale Children’s Hospital, a specialized physical medicine and rehabilitation hospital for children, and The Children’s Village, a residential treatment center, enhance our trainees’ ability to learn to provide excellent care across multiple systems. Fellows in our program also have the opportunity to create elective rotations using the amazing local resources available on our campus and in surrounding area.
Our didactic program is designed to complement these rich clinical experiences and to encourage deeper understanding of normal development, family functioning, psychopathology, and the array of therapeutic interventions available for child and adolescent psychiatrists. Our faculty are actively engaged in supervising our fellows both in vivo and in weekly supervision to provide education, guidance, and support as the fellow advances in their knowledge and experience, helping to foster a spirit of life-long learning necessary to sustain a career as a child and adolescent psychiatrist. We participate in the Grand Rounds program in the Department of Psychiatry which allows continued growth and education in the wider field of Psychiatry while receiving specialized training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Curriculum
First Year of fellowship centers around hospital-based rotations in Adolescent Inpatient Unit (4 months total), Child Inpatient Unit (4 months total), Child Psychiatry Consultation/Liaison in Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital (2 months total), Pediatric Neurology (1 month), and a Month dedicated to a Scholarly or Research project.
First Year fellows pick up 1-2 longitudinal psychotherapy patients with weekly supervision.
The Second Year of fellowship centers around the longitudinal outpatient experience of caring for patients with a combination of medication management and seeing some for longitudinal psychotherapy.
Second Years have other part-time rotations during this year including at the Andrus Residential Treatment Center (therapeutic school), Child Psychiatry Consultation Liaison at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital (2 months), exposure to other aspects of child and adolescent psychiatry including Administrative experiences, Family Court observation, Group Psychotherapy, School Psychiatric Evaluations. They receive weekly individual psychotherapy supervision and caseloads management supervision.
Currently no night or weekend call for child psychiatry fellows but program is in process of evaluating
There is dedicated and protected didactic time on Tuesday afternoons with a 2-year rotating curriculum.
There is dedicated time in the rotation schedule to pursue scholarly or research activities. Faculty are available for mentorship and there are opportunities to teacher medical students, residents, give Department Grand Rounds, and give talks in the community.
Alumni and Fellowship
- Graduates from 2022-2026 currently working in a variety of practices including outpatient psychiatry in Texas, Telepsychiatry positions with companies including Happier Living and Lifestance, academic centers,
- Our Fellows are encouraged to participate in wellness events that are held throughout the year. Academic support services are available through New York Medical College.
- Alexander Libman, MD – Tel-Aviv University-Sackler School of Medicine, New York
- Tara Mehrad, MD – Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran
- Adil Sarfraz, MD – American University of Antigua
- Sade Frazier, DO
- Naomi Oyemwense, MD
- Vishnupriya Samarendra, MD
- Rafael Coira, MD
- Pooja Palkar, MD
- Rachel Talley-Bruns, MD – New York Medical College
Fellowship: Sports Medicine at Brown University - Rachel Silverstein, MD, MBS – The Geisinger Commonwealth Medical College, Fellowship: Pediatric Orthopedics at Baylor/Texas Children’s
- Azlyn Goff, MD – New York Medical College, Fellowship: Pediatric Orthopaedics at Vanderbilt University
2026-2027 Faculty Roster
Grace Pinto Britton MD Program Director
Stephanie Cristofano-Casella MD Program Faculty Member, Program Director of Psychiatry Residency
Steven Dickstein MD Associate Program Director
Rhea Dornbush MPH, PhD Neuropsychologist
Krizia Gupiteo DO Attending Psychiatrist
Hiejin Yoon MD Child Outpatient Clinic Director
Naomi Oyemwense MD Attending Psychiatrist
Shreya Nagula MD Attending Psychiatrist
Alexander Lerman MD Attending Psychiatrist
Stephen Ferrando MD Department Chair
Philip Overby MD, MA Attending, Pediatric Neurology
Abraham Bartell MD, MBA Associate Director Department of Psychiatry Division Chief, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Contact Us
Stephanie Cristofano-Casella MD Program Faculty Member, Program Director of Psychiatry Residency
To learn more about our program, please call our office at 914.493.8424 or email [email protected]