Leadership & Faculty

Joshua Leo, MD, MPH

Dr. Leo directs the BIDMC & VA Boston Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship and serves full time on the Consultation-Liaison Service at BIDMC. He is an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

He earned his MD at Tulane University School of Medicine and his MPH in Health Systems Management at the Tulane University Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, followed by residency in the Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Program and fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Leo’s clinical and academic focus is neuropsychiatry, with a commitment to clear, accessible teaching and collaboration across specialties. His teaching honors include the BIDMC Department of Psychiatry Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching and Mentorship and the Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Excellence in Teaching Award. He was honored by the Department of Medicine at BIDMC with a teaching award chosen by internal medicine housestaff, highlighting his role as a psychiatry faculty member dedicated to interdisciplinary education and underscoring the mentorship culture fellows can expect in the program.

Liz Dunn, MD

A third-generation Californian, Dr. Dunn attended Stanford University, completed a Master’s at UC Berkeley with a thesis on metaphor in medical language, and earned her MD from UC San Francisco. She directs the Psychiatry Consultation-Liaison Service at BIDMC, seeing patients in the emergency department and on medical and surgical floors. Her leadership goal is a service defined by collaboration, clinical excellence, and academic inquiry.

She teaches and mentors residents in the Harvard BIDMC Psychiatry Residency Program and Harvard medical students, focusing on interviewing and the patient–doctor relationship while fostering trainees’ professional identities. Her interests include the medical humanities. Honors include the Resident Teaching Award, the BIDMC Faculty Teaching Award, the APA Nancy Roeske Teaching Award, and the HMS Cynthia Kettyle Teaching Award.

Katiuska Ramirez, MD

Dr. Ramirez is the Associate Director of the BIDMC Psychiatric Consultation-Liaison Service and an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She earned her medical degree from Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, completed psychiatry residency at the Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Program, and fellowship training in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Her interests include psychiatric care in complex medical illness, HIV/AIDS psychiatry, care of Hispanic/Latinx patients, and social determinants of health. She is active in ACLP special interest groups in Hispano-American C-L Psychiatry and HIV/AIDS Psychiatry and focuses on medical education across multiple care settings.

Marta Herschkopf, MD, MSt

Dr. Herschkopf earned her medical degree at Harvard Medical School and a Master’s in Theology from the University of Oxford. She completed Adult Psychiatry Residency at NYU School of Medicine and a fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.

She serves as Director of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry for the HMS Department of Psychiatry at BIDMC and as an attending on the C-L Service. She maintains a psychotherapy-oriented private practice in Cambridge and is affiliate faculty at the HMS Center for Bioethics. Interests include bioethics, psychodynamic theory, medical education, and religion/spirituality.

Andrew Budson, MD

Dr. Budson is Chief, Cognitive Behavioral Neurology, at VA Boston; Professor of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine; Lecturer in Neurology at Harvard Medical School; and Associate Director at the BU Alzheimer’s Disease Center. He received his AB from Haverford College and MD from Harvard Medical School, followed by internship at Brigham and Women’s, neurology residency at the Harvard–Longwood program, a clinical fellowship in Cognitive Behavioral Neurology at BWH, and a research fellowship in Psychology at Harvard University.

He has delivered 950+ academic talks and published 150+ papers, reviews, and chapters. He co-authored nine books, including “Memory Loss, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Dementia: A Practical Guide for Clinicians.” His research focuses on improving memory in Alzheimer’s disease and the relationship between memory, consciousness, and dementia. He runs the VA Boston Memory Disorders Clinic, where fellows spend three months on Monday mornings learning brain–behavior relationships, late-life memory disorder diagnosis and treatment (including lecanemab and donanemab), and interpretation of neuroimaging and neuropsychological testing.

Danny Mendoza, MD

Dr. Mendoza completed his internship, residency, fellowships, and Chief Residency at Harvard Medical School. He is board certified in Psychiatry with subspecialty certifications in Addiction Psychiatry, Geriatric Psychiatry, and Psychosomatic Medicine. He serves as Director of Neuropsychiatry at the BIDMC Cognitive Neurology Unit and Director of the BIDMC Heart Transplant Psychiatry Service. He is the BID Community Hospital Regional Director and Chief of Psychiatry at BID Needham and BID Milton, as well as a Lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

His interests include neuropsychiatry, neuroimaging, heart transplant psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, psycho-oncology, and psychiatry in primary care. Dr. Mendoza especially enjoys working with medical students, residents, and fellows on complex medical and neurological cases with neuropsychiatric presentations, guiding them in formulating diagnoses through careful history-taking, neurological examination, and appropriate workup, including neuroimaging, to validate clinical impressions. His teaching honors include the BIDMC Department of Psychiatry Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching and Mentorship.

Larkin Kao, MD, FACLP

Dr. Kao earned her medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco. She completed adult psychiatry residency at Boston University Medical Center and a fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She has worked as a C-L psychiatrist with VA Boston since 2018 and is Medical Director of the C-L service at West Roxbury.

She is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and a Part-Time Lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She has served on ACLP’s Education Committee and Medical Student Education Subcommittee and has been recognized for contributions to clinical education by BUSM, BMC Psychiatry Residency, and Harvard South Shore Psychiatry Residency. Interests include medical education and connections between psychiatry and spirituality/religion.

Rohn Friedman, MD

Dr. Friedman graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed Adult Psychiatry Residency at the Payne Whitney Clinic, New York Hospital–Cornell Medical Center. He is Vice Chair of the BIDMC Department of Psychiatry and Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Part-Time, at Harvard Medical School.

Formerly Director of the Psychiatric Consultation Service at BIDMC, he continues to teach and work on the service. Interests include C-L psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, psychodynamic applications in C-L, behavioral symptoms of dementia and delirium, collaborative care, medical training, mentoring, medical ethics, and quality improvement.

Rashad Alikhan, MD

Dr. Alikhan received his medical degree from Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University and completed his psychiatry residency at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center (now part of Boston Medical Center), where he served as Chief Resident. He then completed the BIDMC & VA Boston Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship.

He is a Consultation-Liaison Psychiatrist at the West Roxbury VA Medical Center, Site Director for the BIDMC & VA C-L Psychiatry Fellowship, and Site Director for the Boston University Psychiatry Clerkship. He is also an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. His clinical interests include emergency and critical care psychiatry, neurocognitive disorders, addiction psychiatry, traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, perinatal mental health, psychodynamic principles in clinical care, and religion/spirituality.

Ryan Henner, MD

Dr. Henner earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia and completed Adult Psychiatry Residency at the Harvard Longwood Program, where he was Resident Chief of Education at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

At BIDMC, he works on the C-L Service, the Collaborative Care team, and runs the Esketamine Clinic for Treatment-Resistant Depression. Interests include psychedelic-assisted therapy and integrating spirituality and awareness practices into treatment.

Stephen Nicolson, MD, FACLP

Dr. Nicolson earned his medical degree at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, completed Adult Psychiatry Residency at Emory University, and a fellowship in Psychosomatic Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Before joining Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital–Plymouth (BID Plymouth), he directed the Psychiatry Consultation Service and the Psychosomatic Medicine Fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

He sees patients at the Senior Behavioral Health Center, directs the Psychiatry Consultation Service and the Addiction Psychiatry Service at BID Plymouth, and is a Part-Time Lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Interests include bedside neuropsychiatric examination, global health, and addiction. He has published in AJP, Journal of Addiction Medicine, Lancet Oncology, Psychiatric Services, and Psychosomatics, among others.

Anthony Weiss, MD, MBA, MSc, CPE, FAPA

Dr. Weiss is Chief Medical Officer at BIDMC, course director of the Physician Leadership Program at BIDMC, and on the HMS psychiatry faculty. He received a BS in pharmacology and toxicology (highest distinction) and an MD from the University of Wisconsin, an MSc from HMS, and an MBA (summa cum laude) from Babson College. He trained in the MGH/McLean residency, completed a consultation psychiatry fellowship at MGH, and additional fellowships including Harvard–MIT HST.

His work focuses on improving health care delivery across mental health and hospital systems. He teaches and sees patients on the BIDMC C-L Service, with interests at the neurology–psychiatry interface and ethics of novel neurotherapies. He has 70+ publications and serves as a peer reviewer for multiple journals. Honors include Young Investigator Awards from the International Congress on Schizophrenia and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, plus HMS teaching awards.

Bernie Vaccaro, MD, FACLP

Dr. Vaccaro earned his MD at Georgetown University, completed Adult Psychiatry Residency at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center/Harvard Longwood Program, and fellowships in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and in Neuropsychiatry at the Behavioral Neurology Unit at BIDMC.

He has consulted to burn/trauma units, comprehensive epilepsy monitoring services, and centers of excellence for epilepsy and movement disorders, and the Center for Violence Prevention and Recovery. He has served as Director and Interim Director of the BIDMC Psychiatric Consultation Service and Clinical Director of Neuropsychiatry at BIDMC. He is a Fellow of the ACLP and the APA and has received teaching awards at BWH and BIDMC.

Talya Shahal, MD

Dr. Shahal earned her medical degree at Tel Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine, completed internship at Meir Medical Center, Adult Psychiatry Residency at St. Mary Mercy Hospital (Michigan), and a fellowship in Geriatric Psychiatry at Mass General Brigham, working across McLean Hospital, Mass General Hospital, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

She is on the C-L Service at the VA Boston Healthcare System and is an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Boston University. Interests include dementia with behavioral disturbances, palliative care in older adults, and education of trainees and nursing staff. She serves as site director for Harvard South Shore and Boston University Psychiatry residents and MGB Geriatric Psychiatry fellows.

Pooja Sarkar, DO

Dr. Sarkar is a board-certified addiction psychiatrist in the Division of Addiction Psychiatry at BIDMC and an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Her clinical practice focuses on outpatient treatment of substance use disorders and inpatient consultation for medically complex patients.

Before joining BIDMC, Dr. Sarkar completed her Addiction Psychiatry fellowship at Boston Medical Center and her general psychiatry residency at the University of Massachusetts Medical School–Baystate. Her academic interests include substance use disorders in perinatal populations and the management of complex alcohol and opioid withdrawal in hospitalized patients.