Residency Training Program
Training Director
Auralyd Padilla Assistant Professor of Psychiatry |
Our Training Director, Auralyd Padilla Candelario, M.D., is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. She completed her residency and fellowship at the UMass Chan Medical School. Dr. Padilla is the department’s Director for Diversity and Inclusion. She has served in multiple national committees and task force groups to enhance diversity and inclusion within organizations and seek culturally sensitive psychiatric care and medical education. She presents on these topics at local and national meetings as part of the American Psychiatric Association, American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Training, and the Association for Academic Psychiatry. Dr. Padilla is a founding board member of CrearConSalud, Inc., a nonprofit organization that aims to provide psychoeducation to communities in Puerto Rico. Her interests include education, cultural psychiatry, integrated care and mentorship. |
Vice Chair for Education
Sheldon Benjamin, MD Associate Training Director for Psychiatry and Neurology/Psychiatry |
Sheldon Benjamin, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology, Director of Neuropsychiatry and Vice Chair for Education in Psychiatry at UMass Chan Medical School, where he served as Interim Chair of Psychiatry from 2017-2020 and Director of the Psychiatry Residency Program from 1995-2020. In addition, he serves as Director of the Neuropsychiatry Fellowship program and Associate Director of the General Psychiatry program and the Combined Neuropsychiatry Program, which he founded in 1997. He has been a member of the UMass Chan Medical School faculty since 1986. Having completed residency training in Psychiatry and Neurology, and fellowship training in Behavioral Neurology, Dr. Benjamin is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in both Psychiatry and Neurology, and by the United Council of Neurological Subspecialties in Behavioral Neurology & Neuropsychiatry. He was recognized by the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society as the 2001 Psychiatric Educator of the Year, was elected by the UMass Chan Medical School faculty to receive the Lamar Soutter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Education in 2008, and was awarded the Chancellor's Medal for Distinguished Teaching in 2012. As winner of the Chancellor's Medal, Dr. Benjamin was asked to give The Last Lecture in May 2013. He chose as his topic, On Mentorship and Memory. In 2018 he received the Gary J Tucker Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award in Neuropsychiatry, the highest honor given in Neuropsychiatry, from the American Neuropsychiatric Association. He has published and lectured widely on neuropsychiatric topics and is a leader in the area of Neuropsychiatric Education. Dr. Benjamin was President of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatry Residency Training from 2010-2011 and was President of the American Neuropsychiatric Association from 2013-2015. He is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the APA, a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Neuropsychiatric Association, and one of the Psychiatry Directors of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He is also co-author of The Brain Card®. Dr. Benjamin's background is in both psychodynamic psychiatry and behavioral neurology. He feels strongly that UMass Chan residents should be trained in psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, community psychiatry, and neuroscientifically-informed biological psychiatry, in addition to becoming effective advocates and teachers. |
Associate Training Director
Elizabeth DeGrush, D.O., who is both associate Training Director in the General Psychiatry Program and Training Director of combined Neurology/Psychiatry Training Program, is a graduate of the University of Rochester, the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the UMass Combined Neuropsychiatry Residency Program. She is board certified in both psychiatry and neurology and works both at UMass and at Community Neuroscience Services, our affiliated private neuropsychiatry practice. Her interests include dementia, mild traumatic brain injury, functional neurologic disorders, multiple sclerosis and related inflammatory brain conditions, and neuropsychiatric education. |
Associate Training Director for Psychotherapy Education
Our Associate Director for Psychotherapy Education, Sureyya Iscan, PhD, earned her MA in Educational Psychology and her PhD in Developmental Psychology at the Ankara University School of Psychology in Turkey. She went on to earn a second MA and PhD in Clinical Psychology at the Fielding Graduate University of Santa Barbara. She was a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan and at the Austen Riggs Center, followed by a fellowship in psychoanalytic research training at the Yale Child Study Center and Anna Freud Center. She is also a graduate of the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute. |
Program Coordinator
Our program coordinator, Vickie White, has been a residency training coordinator for over 30 years. She joined the Psychiatry program in 2000 after 13 years as the UMass Pediatrics residency coordinator. Vickie has presented several workshops on residency administration at annual meetings of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training (AADPRT) and regularly provides training to other program coordinators at UMass. |