Komal Gulati - PGY1
Hi! My name is Komal, and I am so happy to be training with UConn Psychiatry! I was born in New Haven and grew up in lovely Norwalk, CT.
I went to UConn for undergrad, where I double majored in Cognitive Neuroscience and Human Rights. After graduating, I spent a year working for a neuroscience-based management consulting company in NYC, where I collaborated on practical applications of neuroscience and learned more about myself as a person outside of the academic setting. I then moved to Philly to attend medical school at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, where I also earned my Master’s in Urban Bioethics.
While in Philly, I became involved with NAMI Philadelphia as a volunteer and later as a member of the Board of Directors, where I collaborated in leading community mental health support groups, presented to advocate for mental health needs, and now continue to fundraise and organize an annual 5K for mental health in the city. One of my favorite things about psychiatry is the unique opportunity to not only be a patient advocate at the individual level, but also an advocate for policy changes for disadvantaged populations. I relish discovering the avenues for positive change once tuning into our community’s needs.
When applying to residency, I sought a program with a warm, laid-back, and collegiate environment, which is what I’ve felt since becoming a resident at UConn. My class became fast friends within the first couple of weeks of residency, always finding new things to do or places to eat, and I wouldn’t change a thing about us! In terms of the workplace, we get to work closely with our attendings, and have plenty of opportunities to pick up different therapeutic skills and approaches from each person that we work with. In addition to the work environment, it was important for me to be closer to home and closer to great pizza (and other food), both of which are true for me in Connecticut!
Ekaterina (Katia) Vlasova - PGY1
Hi! My name is Katia and I am a PGY1 in UConn's psychiatry program. I was born in St. Petersburg, Russia and came to the US with my parents at a young age. I grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and attended Bryn Mawr College for undergrad, where I studied molecular biology and contemplative traditions. Before attending medical school at Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia, I completed a Watson Fellowship which allowed me to carry out a year-long, self-designed project of studying the mind-body connection in contemplative communities around the world. My fieldwork took me to India, Germany, Thailand, Japan, and Peru. I also completed a year-long healthcare design and innovation fellowship in Washington DC which shaped my interest in design thinking.
My interest in psychiatry grew out of exploration of the mind-body connection, especially in studying mindfulness and how intentional contemplative practices can have physiological impacts, even on the epigenetic level.
When looking at residency programs, I wanted to find a program that had a strong sense of community among the residents, a good work-life balance, and a solid foundation of psychiatric training. I was also interested in having opportunities to learn more about psychodynamic psychotherapy. I found all of the above and more at UConn and I am glad that my path brought me to train here. I've enjoyed working with, and learning from the faculty members, and have felt a great culture of camaraderie and mentorship between resident classes.
Alex Luo - PGY1
Hi! I'm Alex, and I'm very excited to be here at UConn for Psychiatry. I grew up in central Jersey but moved down south to attend undergrad at Vanderbilt. My major was Medicine, Health, and Society, which is an integrated science-medicine-sociology major that allowed to me fulfill my pre-med requirements while also taking unique courses on topics such as Women's Health in Literature and Autism Spectrum. I was also very fortunate to have the opportunity to join and eventually help lead medical mission trips abroad in Honduras and Nicaragua with some of my classmates during my Spring Breaks. I attended medical school back in New Jersey at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson where I had the pleasure of serving within my home community through our student-run clinic. I did not decide on Psychiatry until I found myself enjoying my third-year rotation, but, looking back, it's obvious to me now that many of my interests and activities had been leading me towards Psychiatry for years.
My experience here at UConn has been very positive so far. Some highlights for me have been knowledgeable yet approachable attendings who enjoy teaching and supportive co-residents and staff. Overall, I feel a strong sense of teamwork within the department, and I enjoy seeing the people I work with every day. I also think UConn does a great job balancing autonomy vs supervision, providing opportunities to hone our clinical skills while maintaining a supportive environment where questions are treated as learning opportunities rather than failures.
Outside of medicine, my hobbies include skiing, mountain biking, tennis, and food. We are located only two hours from some great Vermont destinations, and I am always looking for new ski and bike buddies! Eventually, I would also like to have a golden retriever as well.
Christy Anderson - PGY2
Greetings, fellow humans! Like a guarded patient, I might initially tell you I am Christy Anderson “from California.” Further clarification may elicit that I was born near the Appalachians, moved abroad, and witnessed the deleterious effects of “othering” those with psychiatric illnesses, learning disabilities, and members of racial, gender and sexual minorities. While completing my Molecular Environmental Biology major and Creative Writing minor at UC Berkeley, my curiosity about the needs of local youth led me to advocate for their education, environmental justice, and voting rights. I also started my career of dissemination of poetry, short stories, and biomedical science writing and research, and personally observed how different racial and sex biases influence the chance of publication by using pseudonyms.
I pursued medicine as a means for promoting health of the individual lived experience. Psychiatry elucidated how attentive listening permits examining a story from many angles, segueing the “why” of a person’s malcontent into a “how” we can make it better. Outside of residency, I have continued to decompress by baking and by engaging in online inclusive writing communities.
At UConn Psychiatry residency, I’ve met passionate and intelligent colleagues, role model faculty and memorable patients, and have collaborated on care with down-to-earth administrators and staff. As a physician, I aim to continue blending inquiries about the patient’s story and advocacy into thoughtful care. I anticipate combining both lived and clinical experience into serving gender and sexual minorities of color as a child/adolescent psychiatrist.
Luis Velez Figueroa - PGY2
Hello! My name is Luis; I am incredibly excited to have matched in UConn's psychiatry! I was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and grew up in El Paso, Texas, and San Antonio, Texas. My family moved back to Puerto Rico during my senior year of high school. I stayed for undergrad while under a tennis scholarship and then medicine at Universidad Central del Caribe in Bayamon. I initially began medical school wanting to pursue cardiology, to the point that I did several research studies, which ultimately led to Implementing a pharmacogenetic-driven algorithm to guide dual anti-platelet therapy in Caribbean Hispanics patients. But progressively, through the nine years I spent on the island, I got to experience a plethora of events such as Hurricane Maria, earthquakes that impacted the island in 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic. During these events, I actively participated and help direct excursions to affected sites of the island under a group called "Medicina Urbana," which focused on medical student-run relief clinics. I interacted with a behavioral health unit from a neighboring medical school during one of these excursions and later participated in it. From there, I was sure I wanted to pursue psychiatry! As I continued rotations, I re-assured that psychiatry is what I enjoyed the most, and I am ecstatic that I still love it more every day!
I was over the moon when I matched at UConn! Everyone has been welcoming and extremely helpful in transitioning from medical student to resident physician. All residents and staff have been great at making me feel welcomed and part of the team since day 1. The work environment feels very friendly for learning and extremely rewarding. The plethora of opportunities to work on research projects, and public health committees, among other things, is also one of the many things that motivate me about UConn! In addition, my family lives mainly in New Jersey/New York City, which allows me to visit often as it's only a drive away.
Sarah Stinson - PGY2
Hello! My name is Sarah Stinson, and I am a PGY2 in UConn’s psychiatry program. I originally grew up in Santa Rosa, California. I then moved to attend UC Berkeley for college, where I studied psychology and creative writing, pursuing an interest in the mind and the human condition. I was dedicated to work helping peers with mental health on campus including serving as a coordinator of Student-to-Student Peer Counseling, and facilitating courses for undergraduate students on body image.
An interest in addiction research led me to work as a research coordinator for several years in the Stanford Prevention Research Center, contributing to two clinical research trials focused on smoking cessation interventions in the San Francisco Bay Area and rural Alaska. I remain interested in contributing to research during residency, including emerging areas in psychiatry research. California Northstate University College of Medicine was where I attended medical school near family, which propelled my interest in psychiatry forward, and connected me to the next step of my journey at UConn.
The University of Connecticut’s program has been a positive experience thus far, providing strong clinical training working with diverse patients, within a supportive culture that offers truly both autonomy and helpful supervision. There is also wonderful mentorship for scholarly projects and a warm and friendly group of residents and faculty in the program. Connecticut itself offers whatever one might seek, including experiences in nature, the arts, large cities, local places to play trivia with other residents, and seasons.
Nadav Hart - PGY3
Hi! My name is Nadav and I am a PGY3 in UConn’s psychiatry program. I grew up in Israel and was living in California up until starting residency here in Connecticut. I came to medicine a bit late after majoring in classical music and linguistics in college and then working as an opera singer. A few years ago, I became interested in neuroscience and mental health, so I worked at an Alzheimer’s research lab at Cedars Sinai Medical Center and then went to medical school at the University of Southern California.
What drew me to psychiatry is how we interact with a person’s biochemical makeup as well as their personal narrative, their unique version of reality, and their “reality testing”. It’s a puzzle to figure out what is or isn’t working properly, like physical sensations in psychosis, self-perception in mood disorders, appraisal of danger in anxiety and trauma, or tolerance of discomfort in addiction. Our toolbox is also varied – from medication and somatic techniques that rely on our understanding of physiology to psychological principles where our sharpest tool may be learning how to be better listeners.
While applying to residency, I was looking for a program with a warm environment, opportunities in psychotherapy, and faculty with a variety of interests and expertise. So far, I have been impressed with the efforts made at employee wellness and have found the residents and faculty to be kind, thoughtful, and enthusiastic teachers.
This area also has a lot to offer outside of work! My partner and I wanted to live somewhere with clean air and natural sights while not being too far from a big city. I have found a bunch of good restaurants close-by as well as interesting parts of New England to explore on the occasional weekend off.
Shae Rowlandson - PGY3
Hey! My name is Shae, and I am ecstatic to have couples-matched with the UConn Psychiatry team!
I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and I grew up hopping between family homes in Milwaukee and Lake George, New York. After finishing undergrad and conducting wet-bench diabetes mellitus research at the University of Vermont (UVM), I was initially planning on getting my Ph.D. in Biochemistry or Molecular Biology, but I decided to take a detour instead after further considering medicine and public health, and I pursued a Master of Health Science at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Though I was not aware of it at the time, I am pretty sure this was my first step towards becoming a psychiatrist. I not only quickly reoriented myself to wanting to pursue medicine, but I also found the most meaningful moments I had with patients and homeless individuals were focused on mental health and trauma and how those impacted their physical health, relationships, and behavior. I loved these interactions so much that I became a behavioral interventionist for male adolescents at Vermont's Howard Center after graduation and I continued working through my preclinical years at UVM's Larner College of Medicine. I also participated in clinical nicotine research leading up to medical school, provided medical education to tenants at a juvenile rehabilitation facility, and ran monthly events for the homeless that provided home-cooked food, access to social services, and essentials throughout medical school. Despite being interested in medicine and surgery and continuing to conduct research in diabetes and orthopedics through medical school, I could not stop coming back to psychiatry, and I could not be happier about making this choice! Overall, I hope to pursue a career in emergency/consult and inpatient services with a focus on psychotic and personality disorders, and I hope I will one day be able to offer more outreach and support to underserved communities and homeless populations.
UConn has offered me everything I could have wanted in a program. The team is collaborative and fun, our superiors have been incredibly supportive and receptive to our needs, I have been continuously exposed to inpatient and emergency/consult practice, and I feel like I have become part of a new family by training here. The work environment so far has been very intellectually stimulating, not only because of the unique cases we have worked with and the mentoring that we have provided to students, but also because of the colleagues I am working and conversing with. It is hard for me to imagine working with anyone else during my residency! There are also a number of impactful research projects available at UConn and I think the options are phenomenal. Also, for my partner and I who couples-matched, the location has been amazing and has provided an excellent quality of life for us. The food and entertainment have been fantastic since moving here, and it has been wonderfully surprising to be surrounded by forest, wildlife, and so many people and stores at the same time. It feels like I'm still getting a daily, healthy dose of New England nature after living in Vermont and Upstate New York for most of my life - and we can also always take a quick drive back to our home states! My partner also works as a family medicine resident at Middlesex Health and she loves it! We are really looking forward to our future here!
Richard Zhang - PGY3
I am thrilled to be a psychiatry resident at UConn. I was born in Singapore and grew up in Long Island, New York. Early on, my immigrant identity advanced my curiosity about how cultural heritage can impact people’s worldviews and life experiences. This led to my passion for the humanities and understanding what motivates people, which developed in parallel with my also early desire to become a physician.
After high school, I completed a six-year B.S./M.D. program between Penn State and Sidney Kimmel Medical College. Between my third and fourth years of medical school, I also spent a year completing an M.A. in History of Science and Medicine at Yale. I saw in psychiatry the medical future that I most wanted: applying my fascination with the human condition and past to improve people’s health, and serving an often misunderstood and vulnerable patient population.
My elation on Match Day for residency was well-justified. Across our cohorts, the psychiatry residents at UConn enjoy a collegial and collaborative culture. Moving to Connecticut has allowed me to see longtime friends as well as create friendships in a new setting. Furthermore, the program’s position within the broader UConn community allows me to pursue a humanities-oriented, secondary appointment as affiliated faculty at UConn’s Asian and Asian American Studies Institute. I look forward to the coming years of patient care, scholarly work, and exploring Connecticut with friends.
Ireon LeBeauf - PGY4
My name is Ireon LeBeauf and I am from the bayou region of Louisiana. I completed medical school in the West Indies at Saint George’s University in the beautiful country of Grenada. The University of Connecticut has afforded me an incredible opportunity to pursue a non-traditional path toward psychiatry. I have an earned doctorate in Counselor Education from the University of New Orleans which was also my undergraduate alma mater. I am a former professor of Counseling at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) where I taught graduate level course work to master’s and doctoral candidates in the areas of mental health, multicultural, and marriage and family counseling. I was also responsible for conducting quasi-experimental research efforts university-wide and supervising clinical psychological services rendered in the UNR Downing Counseling Clinic.
As a newly minted medical doctor, I began my residency training in anesthesiology and later transitioned to psychiatry. The dire and urgent needs, both domestic and abroad for equitable access to pain management protocols initially sparked my interest in the field of anesthesiology. However, part of being an effective practitioner in any field of medicine is the ability to assess your skill set and manifest your clinical knowledge where it is most valuable in society. Psychiatry residency presented a unique opportunity for me to reach a diverse populace while capitalizing on the skills I have learned as a fierce advocate for mental health. I have interests in women’s health issues, reproductive psychiatry, and pain management. In my free time, I enjoy international travel, live music, and great seafood.
Ultimately, doctoring begins with the ability to listen to and connect with others, foster relationships with patients and within the community. I believe the challenges of the UConn psychiatry residency have allowed me to thrive and ultimately, become a well-rounded physician who can face a multitude of challenges with moxie.