Shapiro, Saunders appointed to leadership roles

Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center elevated two faculty members to key leadership positions in April 2015: Dr. Dan Shapiro weas named vice dean for faculty and administrative affairs, and Dr. Erika Saunders was named chair of the Department of Psychiatry.

Shapiro, who had been chair of the Department of Humanities, will work to elevate the culture of respect at the institution. He will also serve as a liaison between the dean's office and search committees for department chairs.

Shapiro, the Garner James Cline Professor of Humanities in Medicine, joined Penn State in 2008. He earned his PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Florida and went on to Harvard Medical School, where he completed an internship and an endowed post-doctoral fellowship. A psychologist, Shapiro's writings about physician-patient relationships and physician wellness have appeared in the New York Times, the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and Academic Medicine, as well as on NPR’s All Things Considered and other outlets. He is an award-winning author of three books, has served as a consultant for the television show “Grey’s Anatomy” and has also held two professorships from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.

Saunders, who served as interim psychiatry chair since December 2014, is director of the Mood Disorders Program and a professor of psychiatry. She is also an adjunct research investigator with the Department of Psychiatry and Depression Center at the University of Michigan. Saunders came to Penn State in 2008 as an assistant professor of psychiatry. She received her undergraduate education from the University of Michigan and her medical degree from the University of Iowa. She completed a Howard Hughes Research Fellowship at Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard Medical School and residency training in psychiatry at the University of Michigan, and she was awarded a Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Fellowship. Saunders' work has been recognized nationally, and she has been accepted to speak about her work to the Society of Biological Psychiatry, the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology and the American Psychiatric Association. She is a member of the American College of Psychiatrists and is a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Saunders is active in medical student and resident education, and was awarded a Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching and a Psychiatry Resident's Teaching Award. She succeeded Dr. Alan Gelenberg, who retired from the organization in December 2014 after five years as department chair.

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