Faculty Members

The following child and adolescent psychiatrists are full-time faculty of the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Lurie Children's and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine:

Division Chief

John T. Walkup, MD

John T. Walkup, MD, joined us on October 2nd, 2017 as the Ann Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health and Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Prior to joining us, Dr. Walkup was Professor of Psychiatry, DeWitt Wallace Senior Scholar, the Vice Chair of Psychiatry, and Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College and New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Prior to joining the faculty at Weill Cornell, Dr. Walkup spent 20 years at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine serving as Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Deputy Director in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Associate Faculty and Director of Behavioral Research in the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health. He remains an Adjunct Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with an appointment in the Center for American Indian Health.

After receiving his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Minnesota, Dr. Walkup completed his residency in psychiatry and fellowships in child and adolescent psychiatry and research at Yale University School of Medicine.

Dr. Walkup is an international authority on Tourette syndrome and has extensive experience as a principal investigator in NIH-funded treatment trials in child and adolescent psychopathology, including anxiety and mania. Dr. Walkup has three main academic areas of interest. His work with Tourette syndrome, uniquely spans psychiatry, child psychiatry and neurology; his expertise in interventions research focuses on the development and evaluation of psychopharmacological and psychosocial treatments for the major psychiatric disorders of childhood including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, Tourette syndrome and suicidal behavior; and lastly, he has been involved in developing and evaluating interventions to reduce the large mental health disparities facing Native American youth, specifically drug use and suicide prevention.

For his work, Dr. Walkup has been awarded the Norbert and Charlotte Rieger Award for Academic Achievement in 2009 from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Blanche F. Ittleson Award for Research in Child Psychiatry in 2011 from the American Psychiatric Association and the Schonfeld Award from the American Society of Adolescent Psychiatry in 2016. His team at the Center for American Indian Health at Johns Hopkins won the Bronze Achievement Award from the Institute of Psychiatric Services of American Psychiatric Association in 2012 for the pioneering suicide prevention project on the White Mountain Apache Reservation.

Dr. Walkup serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Trichotillomania Learning Center and the Anxiety Disorders Association of America and the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention. In the recent past, Dr. Walkup was the Chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Tourette Association of America. He is also the Deputy Editor for Psychopharmacology for the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He was recently elected Councilor at Large of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. His research has been published in major medical journals including Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine, an unusual accomplishment for a child and adolescent psychiatrist.

Director of Education (Training Director)

Julie M. Sadhu, MD

Julie M. Sadhu, MD, is an outpatient Attending Physician who joined our faculty in 2011. She completed her general psychiatry residency at Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Program (Harvard Medical School) in Boston and her Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean Hospital (Harvard Medical School).

Prior to becoming the Training Director, Dr. Sadhu was heavily involved in fellow education, serving as the Fellow Faculty Mentor from 2013-2015. In addition, Dr. Sadhu is the course director for the Diversity and Cultural Competency Course for the first year child psychiatry fellows, social work interns and psychology interns. Dr. Sadhu serves on the Clinical and Organizational Development Provider Liaison Advisory Council and the Wellness Committee for the hospital. Dr. Sadhu has presented at the American Association of Directors of Psychiatry Residency Training and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry annual meetings and served as a mentor for medical students, residents, and fellows during the AACAP annual meetings. She chairs the AADPRT Assessment Committee and served on the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Maintenance of Certification Committee. She is a co-author of the Concise Guide to Adolescent Psychiatry, 5th edition published in 2017 by the American Psychiatric Association Publishing. Her clinical interests include treatment of mood and anxiety disorders and scholarly interests include ethics, professionalism, and cultural aspects of care.

Teaching Faculty

Rachel Ballard, MD

Rachel Ballard, MD, earned her BSc in Biology at Brown University and her MD at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA). She has an MA in Anthropology from University of Texas at Austin, and a master's degree in Health Services and Outcomes Research from Northwestern University. She completed a residency in General Pediatrics at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC, and practiced as a pediatrician in San Antonio, Texas. She completed a second residency in Adult Psychiatry and a fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UTHSCSA. She then practiced as both a pediatrician and a child psychiatrist at a large community health system, where she was Director of Behavioral Health. Dr. Ballard’s clinical interests include mental health and teen pregnancy, early intervention, integrated health, and measurement-based psychiatric care. She is a co-author of the Concise Guide to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 5th edition, published in 2017. 

Ewa D. Bieber, MD

Ewa D. Bieber, MD, joined the department as a consultation-liaison and outpatient Attending Physician in August 2020. She completed medical school at Jagiellonian University Medical College in Krakow, Poland; and general psychiatry residency, child and adolescent psychiatry, and consultation-liaison psychiatry fellowships at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Throughout her training, Dr. Bieber was heavily involved in medical student and resident education and received the Golden Stethoscope Award for commitment to education from the Mayo Medical School graduating class of 2015. Dr. Bieber really enjoys working with adolescents and their parents. Her particular clinical interests include co-morbid psychiatric and physical illnesses, and trauma-related disorders. 

Mina K. Dulcan, MD

Mina K. Dulcan, MD, served as Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Head of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Lurie Children’s for 24 years. She continues to be very active in fellow education and supervision. She is a past president of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training (AADPRT), served a 10-year term as editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and was a member of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s Residency Review Committee for Psychiatry. She received the 2015 Virginia Q. Anthony Outstanding Woman Leader Award from AACAP for lifetime achievements in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry.

Dr. Dulcan is a graduate of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC) residency program at the University of Pittsburgh and has particular expertise in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and child psychiatric epidemiology. 

Dr. Dulcan’s newest textbook, Dulcan’s Textbook of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 3rd Edition, will be released in October 2021. She is also the lead author of the Concise Guide to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (now on its 5th edition) and the co-editor, with Rachel Ballard, MD, of Helping Parents, Youth and Teachers Understand Medications for Behavioral and Emotional Problems: A Resource Book of Medication Information Handouts, 4th Edition.

She was recognized by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) for serving as an oral examiner for more than 100 two-day examinations (Adult and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry).

Dr. Dulcan is actively involved in program administration, didactic teaching, and clinical supervision. She teaches the Year 1 Clinical and Clinical Research Assessment Course, the Year 1 Practice Parameters/Journal Club and co-teaches the Year 2 Research Literacy/Journal Club. Dr. Dulcan also works individually with each fellow during the CAP2 year as an outpatient supervisor. She was selected as Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Teacher of the Year in 2007, 2014 and 2020.

Jeanne Greenblatt, MD, MPH

Jeanne Greenblatt, MD, MPH joined the Lurie Children's Psychiatry faculty in 2022 as the Medical Director of the Behavioral Consultation and Training in Collaborative Healthcare (B-CATCH) Program. She earned her BA in Medical
Anthropology at the University of Michigan and her MD from Michigan State University – College of Human Medicine. She received her MPH in epidemiology from the University of Michigan School of Public Health following completion of a transitional internship at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, MI. Dr. Greenblatt completed her general psychiatry residency, her child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship and a two-year research fellowship at Cornell University – Payne Whitney Clinic in New York City. 

Dr. Greenblatt was an attending psychiatrist and the co-director of the pediatric psychopharmacology clinic at the University of Vermont and was the director of a 5-year statewide QI project that provided education and support to VT pediatric primary care physicians treating patients with ADHD. Dr. Greenblatt worked for the Vermont Department of Health and Department of Mental Health from 2003 – 2017 developing and implementing integrated behavioral health (IBH) programs for pediatric PCPs. In 2018 she took a position at NYU as the Director of the Pediatric Collaborative Care Service at Bellevue Hospital and in 2019 she also became the Director of the Pediatric Consultation Liaison program at NYU Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital and Bellevue Hospital Center. 

Dr. Greenblatt has presented at numerous regional and national meetings and has co-authored journal articles and book chapters. Her interests include: the development of integrated behavioral health programs and the assessment and treatment of patients with anxiety, developmental disabilities including autism spectrum disorders and complicated ADHD. 

Aron Janssen, MD

Aron Janssen, MD, is a clinical Associate Professor and the Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs in the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Prior to joining our team, Dr. Janssen was on faculty at the New York University Child Study Center, where he was the founder and director of the Gender and Sexuality Service and the co-director of the NYU Consultation-Liaison Service. His time there was defined by his innovative program development and delivery and community advocacy. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Colorado, and his general psychiatry residency and child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at NYU.

Dr. Janssen is an expert in transgender mental health across the lifespan, and his primary clinical and research interests have focused on understanding co-occurring mental health disorders among transgender and gender diverse youth. Dr. Janssen’s work has been widely published, and he has had the privilege to present locally, nationally and internationally on his work. He is an associate editor of the journal Transgender Health, and sits on several international workgroups that are setting the standards of care for the World Professional Association of Transgender Health. He is a member of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issue Committee for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and on the advisory board for the Trevor Project. His most recent book is Affirmative Mental Health Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth.

MaryBeth Lake, MD

MaryBeth Lake, MD, is an attending in outpatient services. Dr. Lake trained in the combined track in general and child psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh’s Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC) where she then was faculty for 2 years providing inpatient care, consultation services at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and served as medical director of the adolescent afterschool partial program. Prior to joining the department in 2000, she also worked in the private sector in Iowa in OP, PHP and IPU services. She has been active in regional and national professional organizations including board membership of ICCAP and the Continuing Medical Education Committee of AACAP. She also served on the AADPRT Henderson Award Committee and was active in AACAP mentoring while she was the Director of Education and CAP Fellowship Training in the department for ten years. Dr. Lake co-authored a prior edition of the Concise Guide to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, as well as other publications and presentations. She has served as a board examiner for the ABPN and is a Distinguished Fellow of both the APA and AACAP. She co-developed a professionalism/wellness curriculum in the Feinberg School of Medicine and is also interested in preschool mental health, family therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy. She has been selected as teacher/program of the year three times in her career.

Tapan Parikh, MD, MPH

Tapan Parikh, MD, MPH, is Medical Director of Acute Care Services (inpatient, PHP, and IOP). He is a graduate of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship at Northwestern University/Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. He completed his general psychiatry training at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in New Jersey. Before his residency, he completed his Masters in Public Health with a focus in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from New York City, where he also worked in the area of clinical trials and has experience in working with IRB, DSMB, FDA, and industry. Dr. Parikh attended medical school at Pramukhswami Medical College, India.

Dr. Parikh served as Chief Resident and Chief Fellow during his residency and fellowship training, respectively. In addition to his formal training, he completed a three-year intensive program in psychoanalytic psychotherapy at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia. He has published several peer-reviewed journal articles and has also presented posters at various national meetings, including AACAP and APA. He was a recipient of the AACAP Systems of Care Award in 2019. During his training, he has mentored medical students and residents in producing scholarly activities. He continues to have a strong interest in research and teaching trainees on how to engage in scholarly activities and gain research skills.

Marisa Perez-Reisler, MD

Marisa Perez-Reisler, MD, is a consult liaison Attending Physician who joined our faculty in 2018. She attended medical school at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed her general psychiatry residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell and her Child & Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia-Cornell.

Prior to joining our faculty, she was on the faculty at the University of Hawai’i, John A. Burns School of Medicine as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and was an Attending Physician on the pediatric and adult consult liaison service, teaching and mentoring CAP fellows and medical students. She was involved in a quality improvement project for diabetes treatment adherence in her department and has a chapter on diabetes adherence in children and adolescents in a pediatric consult liaison book. She has also worked in telepsychiatry and collaborative care teams in Ohio and New York, respectively, as well as school-based and community-based mental health clinics in Maryland. Her clinical interests include: consult liaison, collaborative care, Women’s Health and telepsychiatry.

Alba Pergjika, MD, MPH

Alba Pergjika, MD, MPH, is an outpatient and consultation-liaison attending psychiatrist who joins us in September 2017. She attended medical school and obtained her Master’s in Public Health at St. George’s University in Grenada. She went on to attend Baystate Medical Center/Tufts University School of Medicine for general psychiatry residency and Washington University School of Medicine for her Child and Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship. She served as a chief fellow during her fellowship. She has co-authored a review of ADHD in preschool children for Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America. She received the Resident Mentoring Award while in fellowship.

Sigita Plioplys, MD

Sigita Plioplys, MD, is the head of the Lurie Children’s Pediatric Neuropsychiatry Program. She completed her Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) fellowship at Children’s Memorial Hospital/Northwestern University in 2001 and received the first A. Todd Davis, MD Outstanding Resident Award at Children’s Memorial Hospital (for which she was chosen from all pediatric and subspecialty programs). Prior to completing her CAP training, Dr. Plioplys was a neurologist in Lithuania. She received grants and awards for her publications and clinical research in the area of psychopathology in children with epilepsy, and she is involved in several national initiatives on mood disorders in children with epilepsy and pediatric non-epileptic (psychogenic) seizures.

Dr. Sigita Plioplys collaborates with Lurie Children’s Division of Neurology and the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. She directs the CAP1 Neuropsychiatry course and the CAP2 Neuropsychiatry Clinic rotation. She also serves as faculty sponsor for CAP elective on clinical research and pediatric neuropsychiatry, with a particular focus on psychopathology in patients with epilepsy. Dr. Plioplys was the recipient of the 2010-2011,2013-2014, and the 2018-19 Teacher of the Year award from the graduating class of CAP fellows.

Courtney Romba, MD

Courtney Romba, MD, joined our faculty in September 2017. A native of Chicago, she completed her medical school and general psychiatry residency training at Rush Medical School, before joining the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Program at Northwestern University/Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. During her fellowship, she served as a co-chief fellow. Dr. Romba is an outpatient attending and supervises fellows. She has an interest in fellow wellness and collaborative care.

Khushbu Shah, MD, MPH

Khushbu Shah, MD, MPH, is a dual board-certified psychiatrist. She completed both her medical education and public health training at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She completed her general/adult psychiatry training at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, where she served as Chief Resident. During her time there, she developed a Wellness program for the training program, and served on the GME Housestaff Health and Wellness Committee for three years. Dr. Shah completed her child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Vanderbilt University. She concurrently completed a Distinction in Biomedical Ethics certificate through the Vanderbilt Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society.

During her time in fellowship, she served on the Education Policy Committee. She was an active member of the Behavioral Health/Social Emotional Learning team of Allignment Nashville. She developed an asynchronous mental health training for the Metro Nashville Public School system, which has since been implemented as mandatory annual training for all school staff.  She also engaged in clinical and research work at the Center for Excellence for Children in State Custody. She has been involved with the AACAP Schools Committee, and was the recipient of the AACAP Systems of Care Award Special Program Clinical Project Award in 2020.

Dr. Shah joined Lurie Children's and the Northwestern University community in the Fall of 2021. Her clinical time is spent as Associate Medical Director of Acute Care Services. She is actively involved in CAP fellow training and education, serving as Course Director of the Schools & Communities rotation and lecture series. Dr. Shah has a special interest in acute care, developmental trauma, and various systems of care. 

Andrea Spencer, MD

Andrea Spencer, MD, is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and Vice Chair for Research in the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Lurie Children's. Dr. Spencer is a clinician and researcher who is passionate about improving mental health care for disadvantaged children – in particular reducing disparities in care for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) related to race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Her research mainly currently focuses on developing and testing innovative methods to improve and reduce disparities in ADHD treatment and outcomes. Her research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Charles H. Hood Foundation, and Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation. She is a bilingual medical provider (Spanish/English) and strives to conduct research studies and develop interventions in multiple languages. Dr. Spencer received her bachelor's degree in Music from Yale College in 2003 and her Medical Degree from Harvard Medical School in 2008. She graduated from the 5-year combined MGH/McLean Adult and Child Psychiatry Residency in 2013 and is Board Certified in both Adult Psychiatry and in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 

Dr. Spencer loves mentoring trainees interested in research and scholarly work. Her resident, fellow, and junior faculty mentees have received numerous national pilot and fellowship awards including the APA SAMHSA Minority Fellowship, the APA Diversity Leadership Fellowship, the AACAP Pilot Research Award for Attention Disorders, and the APA Foundation Research Grant on the Impact of COVID-19 in Psychiatry.

Tareq Yaqub, MD

Tareq Yaqub, MD, is an Attending Physician who joined our faculty in 2021. He completed his General Psychiatry Residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin and his Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at the University of Michigan. He also was fellow of the American Psychoanalytic Association during 2019 – 2020 and completed the Adult and Child/Adolescent Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Program through the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute.

Dr. Yaqub currently serves as a medical director of psychiatric acute care services, primarily working clinically on the inpatient unit (IPU) and the partial hospitalization program (PHP). He also is a faculty member of the Forensic Asylum Immigration Relief (FAIR) clinic, where he conducts psychiatric evaluations for minors seeking asylum. He is committed to teaching and encourages trainees to develop a holistic understanding of a presenting symptom. His clinical interests include refugee mental health, intergenerational trauma, and psychodynamic understandings of embodiment.

Volunteer Physician Faculty Supervisors

During Year 2 of training, each fellow works with two volunteer outpatient supervisors (in addition to outpatient supervisors who are members of our department faculty). Our volunteer supervisors, many of whom also teach in seminars, include:

  • Sarah Florence, MD
  • Lisa Korman, MD
  • Gunnbjorg Lavoll, MD
  • Susan Friedland, MD
  • Miriam Gutmann, MD

Elective Faculty Supervisors

During Year 2 of training, each fellow individually arranges electives in areas of his or her particular interests. Please see the electives page for more information on the many individuals (and organizations) from whom fellows can obtain supervision.

Other Physician Instructors

In addition to our faculty and volunteer supervisors, our volunteer physician instructors include not only child and adolescent psychiatrists working in the community, but also specialists in forensic psychiatry, neurology, sleep disorders, pediatrics, medical ethics, and many other disciplines.

Instructors in Allied Disciplines

Fellows receive important training from psychologists, social workers, and experts in other allied fields in both Year 1 and Year 2 of their training. Our multidisciplinary teachers include: