Speakers

Damon Tweedy, M.D. is a professor of psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine and a staff physician at the Durham Veteran Affairs Health Care System. He completed his medical degree and specialty training at Duke, and studied law at Yale University, where he focused on health policy and medical ethics. His research and writings explore the intersections of race, medicine, and mental health, with publications in medical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA, as well as in print publications such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. His 2015 book, Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine, was a New York Times bestseller and named a Top-10 Nonfiction Book by Time magazine. In 2024, he published Facing the Unseen: The Struggle to Center Mental Health in Medicine, which was recognized by Nature scientific journal as one of the best science books of that year. 

Kavita Kothari, M.D., F.A.P.A. is an adult psychiatrist and Vice Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Atrium Health Cabarrus in Concord, NC, where she also serves as a Lifestyle Medicine Consulting Psychiatrist in collaboration with the institution's Lifestyle Medicine Department. She is dual board-certified in General Psychiatry and Lifestyle Medicine and has been at the forefront of integrating lifestyle-based interventions, including nutrition, physical activity, sleep, and stress resilience into mainstream psychiatric practice. She is an active member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and the North Carolina Psychiatric Association. Dr. Kothari is passionate about advancing the evidence base for lifestyle psychiatry and empowering clinicians to incorporate whole-person, lifestyle-centered approaches into everyday psychiatric care.

Regina Nagarajan, M.D. is a board-certified psychiatrist, educator, and physician leader with experience in clinical training, professional development, and outpatient psychiatric care. She served as Associate Director of Clinical Education and later Director of Professional Development at Mindpath Health, where she helped support clinician growth and care quality across a large behavioral health organization. Since 2024, she has been the owner and Medical Director of Joyful Minds Psychiatry PLLC, a psychiatry practice in Cary, NC. 

Warren Taylor, M.D., M.H.Sc. is Professor and Chair of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned his medical degree from the University of South Florida College of Medicine and completed his psychiatry residency and geriatric psychiatry fellowship at Duke University Medical Center. After serving on the Duke faculty, he joined Vanderbilt University in 2012, where he held the James G. Blakemore Chair in Psychiatry and served as Vice Chair for Research. An accomplished physician-scientist, Dr. Taylor leads numerous NIH-funded research projects and is nationally recognized for mentoring clinical scientists in aging and mental health. His research focuses on the neurobiology of late-life depression, cognitive decline, and brain aging, with the goal of identifying biological targets and improving treatment outcomes for older adults.

Randie Schacter, D.O. is the founder of Silver Psychiatric Services in Matthews, NC, where she cares for women and children, with a special focus on women physicians. She is president of the NC Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and creator of Mindfulness Based Arts and Stress Reduction (MBASR), a program supporting women medical professionals through mindfulness, creativity, and evidence-based stress reduction. 

Joseph P. Jordan, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of the North Carolina Physicians Health Program (NCPHP), has over 30 years of experience working with persons experiencing substance use and mental health disorders. Dr. Jordan has been with NCPHP for 19 years, the last ten of which has been in the role of CEO. Prior to joining NCPHP, Dr. Jordan served as Ethics Officer for a national credentialing board and worked in hospitals, owned and operated group and private practices, and taught at several universities.

Sarah Young, M.D., MRO has served as Medical Director of the North Carolina Professionals Health Program since March 2026. A board-certified internist with more than 20 years of clinical and physician leadership experience, she previously practiced as a hospitalist at UNC Health Caldwell, where she served as Chief Medical Officer and Chief of the Department of Medicine. Prior to becoming Medical Director, Dr. Young served on the NCPHP Board of Directors and remains dedicated to advancing physician well-being, recovery, and patient safety across North Carolina.

J. Nathan Copeland, M.D., M.P.H., D.F.A.P.A. is an Assistant Professor in the Duke Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and an attending child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development. He completed medical school at University of Tennessee and both his general adult psychiatry residency and child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at University of North Carolina. Dr. Copeland has interests in the management of mental illness and mental health among autistic and developmentally different children, integrated care with a focus on improving mental health access in the primary care setting, and mental health advocacy. Dr. Copeland is a child psychiatrist with the North Carolina Psychiatry Access Line, Medical Director of the Duke Primary Care Behavioral Health Program, PHMO Medical Director for Specialty Case review, Legislative Affairs Chair for the North Carolina Psychiatric Association, Immediate Past President of the North Carolina Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, a Representative to the Assembly of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, and a Member of the Committee on Integrated Care for the American Psychiatric Association.

Nate Sowa, M.D., Ph.D. is a Clinical Associate Professor in the UNC Department of Psychiatry, with primary clinical duties in integrated care settings, providing care to patients with comorbid medical and mental illness. He serves as a psychiatric consultant in several collaborative care partnerships with the Department of Internal Medicine and the Department of Family Medicine. He is also the Director of the Division of Virtual Care within the Department of Psychiatry, coordinating the department’s virtual care strategy and integration into the health care system as a whole. His primary clinical interests are in the development and practice of collaborative care models, as well as the use of telepsychiatry to expand access to care.

Kenya Windley, M.D. is an early-career psychiatrist boarded in general psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry providing outpatient psychiatric care to children, adolescents, and young adults at LifeStance Health in Raleigh. She firmly believes that all who need mental health (and physical health) care should have access to quality care, which has sparked her interest in alternative forms of care, like the collaborative care model. She currently is a psychiatric consultant with the North Carolina Statewide Telepsychiatry Program (NC-STeP) providing consultations for rural outpatient pediatric offices. Psychiatry is Dr. Windley’s second career, as she was a certified public accountant for over a decade before attending medical school at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University and completing her general residency and child fellowship at Duke University; however, she is a proud UNC Tar Heel!

 Saturday, September 26, 2026 

Julia N. Riddle, M.D. is an educator, clinical researcher, and reproductive psychiatrist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she serves as Director of Outpatient Psychiatry at the Center for Women's Mood Disorders and as a consultant on the North Carolina Maternal Mental Health Access Line (NCMatters). She completed medical school, psychiatry residency, and a two-year Advanced Reproductive Psychiatry fellowship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Riddle's research focuses on perinatal loss, neurosteroids, and physiological determinants of mental health in the peripartum period, and she is an active Principal Investigator on several funded studies in these areas. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Curriculum in Reproductive Psychiatry (NCRP) and has directed its annual intensive conference since 2023.

Alyson Kuroski-Mazzei, M.D., D.F.A.P.A., F.A.S.A.M. is the CEO and Chief Medical Officer of HopeWay, a nonprofit mental health treatment organization in Charlotte, NC. A triple board-certified psychiatrist in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, and addiction medicine, she has held leadership roles in academic medicine, behavioral health, and addiction treatment throughout her career. Since founding HopeWay in 2016, she has led the organization's growth into a nationally recognized provider of evidence-based mental health, substance use, eating disorder, and specialty treatment programs. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and continues to serve in academic and leadership roles that advance psychiatric care and education.

Baron Short, M.D., MSCR is a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). He completed a combined residency in Internal Medicine and Psychiatry at MUSC in 2006, joined the faculty with dual appointments in Medicine and Psychiatry, and earned a Master of Science in Clinical Research in 2009 with a focus on transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Since 2010, he has served as Medical Director of the Brain Stimulation Service, overseeing the clinical application of neuromodulation therapies—including electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), and deep brain stimulation (DBS)—for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders. In 2026, he was appointed Co-Director of the Division of Neuromodulation and Behavioral Medicine and Medical Director of System Neuromodulation Services, leading the expansion of MUSC’s neuromodulation programs across South Carolina. His clinical, research, and administrative work focuses on advancing innovative brain stimulation therapies and improving access to evidence-based neuromodulation treatments

Mina Boazak, M.D. is the founder, CEO, and Medical Director of Animo Sano Psychiatry, a multi-state, virtual-first, behavioral health practice headquartered in Durham, NC. He also serves as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine, where his work has included clinical education, digital mental health, and healthcare innovation. Dr. Boazak’s interests center on the practical integration of artificial intelligence into psychiatric care, clinical operations, measurement-based care, and access to behavioral health services. He has spoken on AI in healthcare and clinical practice, with a focus on how emerging technologies can improve quality, scalability, and clinician effectiveness while preserving thoughtful, patient-centered care. 

Courtney McMickens, M.D., M.P.H., M.H.Sc., D.F.A.P.A. is a double board-certified General and Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist. She serves as Deputy Chief Medical Officer at Healthy Blue Care Together, a single, statewide plan for North Carolina Medicaid’s Children and Families Specialty Plan. Dr. McMickens’ previous research and clinical work has focused on addressing barriers to mental health services, assessing school mental health crises, assessing trauma-informed childcare, evaluating use of innovative community-based treatment of maternal depression, and providing outpatient psychiatric services for children and young adults with history of trauma and substance use disorder. Prior to joining Healthy Blue Care Together, Dr. McMickens served as an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Duke University Medical Center, Clinical Education Training Specialist within the UCLA-Duke University National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, and psychiatry lead of the North Carolina Psychiatry Access Line (NC-PAL) Child Welfare Collaborative. She currently serves on the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) Program Committee and the Executive Committee of North Carolina Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Kristin Winsor, M.D. is a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist and Assistant Professor at Duke University. Her clinical practice focuses on children, adolescents, and young adults with complex psychiatric, neurodevelopmental and medical conditions. Dr. Winsor is passionate about advancing interdisciplinary collaboration and educating clinicians and trainees on the interface between psychiatry, neurology, and pediatric medicine.

Ethan Ashley, M.D. is originally from Dallas, Texas and completed medical school at Texas A&M University College of Medicine in 2017. He then moved to Charleston for his residency training in Psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), where he also served as chief resident. After finishing his residency in 2021, he joined the faculty at MUSC as an Assistant Professor. He then joined the Brain Stimulation Laboratory Division in the Department of Psychiatry in 2023. As a member of the Brain Stimulation team, he provides different brain stimulation treatments for various psychiatric disorders, such as treatment-resistant depression. These treatments include electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). He also manages the educational tract for 3rd and 4th-year residents rotating in the Brain Stimulation Service.

Nicole Helmke, M.D. is a board-certified general internist and psychiatrist, and she is the program director for the Internal Medicine and Psychiatry Combined Residency Program at the Duke University School of Medicine. In addition to working with residents at Duke in the Behavioral Health Outpatient Clinic and rounding on the inpatient medicine-psychiatry service at Duke University Hospital, Dr. Helmke provides primary care and serves as clinic director for the Lincoln Community Health Center Healthcare for the Homeless Clinic in Durham, NC.

 Sunday, September 27, 2026 

John Gilmore, M.D., F.A.P.A. focuses his research on early childhood brain development and how it contributes to risk for schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. He leads the UNC Early Brain Development Study, a longitudinal study of brain development and its relationship to cognitive and behavioral development in normal and high risk children, as well as in twins. Over 1,000 newborns have had brain imaging and are being followed longitudinally with brain imaging and cognitive and behavioral assessments every two years. He is also the Founding Director of the UNC Center For Excellence in Community Mental Health.

Carrie Brown, M.D., M.P.H., D.F.A.P.A. serves as the Deputy Secretary for Facilities, Behavioral Health & IDD and as the Chief Psychiatrist for NC DHHS. In this role, she provides psychiatric leadership for North Carolina’s public behavioral health system and oversees both the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Services and the Division of State Operated Healthcare Facilities. A graduate of Princeton University, she completed her medical training at Duke University and earned her MPH from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. She also holds consulting faculty appointments in the Departments of Psychiatry at both UNC and Duke.

Chris Aiken, M.D., D.F.A.P.A. is Editor-in-Chief of the Carlat Psychiatry Report and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the New York University and Wake Forest Schools of Medicine. A nationally recognized expert in mood disorders, he is the author of Bipolar, Not So Much, The Depression and Bipolar Workbook, and Prescribing Psychotropics, with additional work on difficult-to-treat depression. Dr. Aiken is the founder of Mood Treatment Center, serves as Chief Medical Officer of Psych Partners Collaborative Care, hosts the Carlat Psychiatry Podcast and The Pocket Psychiatrist, and has published extensively on the diagnosis and treatment of mood disorders.