Shastri Swaminathan, MD

Dr Shastri Swaminathan MD is Retired Chair of Psychiatry at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center and a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at University of Illinois,Chicago. Dr Swaminathan has served organized medicine and psychiatry and advocated for our patients and our members for over 3 decades with distinction.

He has served as the President of Illinois Psychiatric Society, President of the Chicago Medical Society also President of the Illinois State Medical Society( only one of two psychiatrists over the last 50 yrs). He has been active at the AMA serving as the Chair of the Illinois State Medical Society’s Delegation to the American Medical Association's House of Delegates.

He has been a passionate educator, being one of the most highly rated teachers in the University of Illinois-Rosalind Franklin University system with his many contributions at Advocate Illinois Masonic, having won the Golden Apple ,the APA’s Nancy Roeshke award for excellence in medical student education and numerous Teacher of the year Awards.

After having served in several key positions nationally with our APA, the Committee on Litigation and funding , Council on healthcare and financing,  the Political Action Committee’s Board, and over a decade as our Representative to the APA Assembly he was asked to serve this  past year as the Assembly’s Parliamentarian.Last year, he was our APA’s nominee to be on the Board of the American Board of the Psychiatry and Neurology.

He has tirelessly fought to end the stigma of mental illness through his involvement in leadership positions on the Kennedy Forum(Illinois) and NAMI Chicago where is currently on the Executive Committee of the Board.

Dr Swaminathan has lobbied our Illinois Congressional delegation for the preservation of GME funding and has been in the leadership of our district in its fight for Mental Health Parity and against unsafe expansion of scope of practice Psychologist prescriptive Authority. He is seen as a resource on critical issues in mental health such as Behavioral Health Integration into Primary Care and improving access through Collaborative Care Model initiative.

For the past few years he has served as a key resource to our Illinois Psychiatric Society’s leadership on critical issues in mental health such as Behavioral Health Integration into Primary Care,improving access through Collaborative Care Model initiative and Managed Medicaid reform.

We are pleased to honor him with the Member of the year Award !

Samir Sarda, DO

Samir Sarda is currently an Executive Co-Chief Resident as a PGY-4 in the Rush University Medical Center Psychiatry Residency Program. After graduating from Georgetown University with a B.S. in Neurobiology, he conducted health outcomes and health policy research that ultimately led him to pursue a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Health Policy and Management. Upon completion, he joined PwC as a healthcare management consultant engaging in quality improvement work and in efforts to address the structural and social determinants of health at the health system level. After graduating medical school from PCOM Georgia and starting psychiatry residency thereafter, he began serving as a clinical advisor for a start-up dedicated to enhancing access to community-based mental health for minority youth. As an APA Foundation (APAF) / Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Minority Fellowship Program recipient, he is currently integrating task-sharing principles into mental health programming for refugee populations in Chicago through community-based work. Clinically, he was awarded as the 2024 Lawrence W. Lazarus Scholar for academic work with and delivery of compassionate psychiatric care to the geriatric population. He plans to practice as a general adult psychiatrist in academic and community-based settings upon completion of residency.

Eliza Hofman

Eliza Hofman, MFA, is a fourth year medical student at Rosalind Franklin University and has been an active member of the IPS Medical Student Committee since its founding. She currently serves as Co-Head Chair of the committee and is passionate about bringing excellent psychiatric education to medical students, increasing opportunities for medical students to be involved in mental health advocacy, and creating a strong network and common vocabulary for psychiatrists at all professional levels. Originally an actor and yoga teacher, Eliza decided to pursue psychiatry after working as the Integrative Services Specialist at Yellowbrick, a comprehensive psychiatric treatment center for emerging adults in Evanston. When not studying, she enjoys cheering on her son’s baseball team, practicing yoga, and watching theatre throughout Chicagoland. She extends gratitude to all members of the Illinois Psychiatric Society for their continued support of her professional development, and thanks always to Adam and Colin for their patience and support on this journey.

Kalyan Kandra, MD

Kalyan Kandra is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Southern Illinois School of Medicine, Springfield, Illinois. He completed his psychiatry residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 2019 and completed medical school training at J.J.M. Medical College in India. 

Dr. Kandra is passionate about academic psychiatry and is dedicated to training the future generation of psychiatrists. He loves teaching and aims to shape the future of mental health care through education. He always tries to use the latest technology and active learning methods to make sure students and residents stay engaged and are ready for the changing world of psychiatry.

Dr. Kandra believes in creating interactive learning experiences that help students think critically and understand psychiatry deeply. He aims to inspire the next generation of mental health professionals to provide patient-centered, evidence-based care. Through teaching and mentoring, he hopes to make a positive impact on the field of psychiatry.

Chelsea Karson, MD

Dr. Chelsea Karson, MD, completed her residency training at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital where she was Chief Resident of her program. Dr. Karson is passionate about patient care, believing in caring for the whole person. While completing her residency training, she led an interprofessional team to bring miniature-therapy horses to the inpatient psychiatry unit and thereby forged a relationship between the organization and all of Advocate Aurora Healthcare.

Dr. Karson partnered with a mental health counselor to create a virtual therapy program of resources, the Bridge Project, to close the gap between inpatient and outpatient care that is now used throughout the Advocate Aurora network. At graduation, Dr. Karson received the 2024 Advocate Lutheran General Hospital Ruggie Humanitarian Award.

Dr. Karson attended undergraduate at Elmhurst University, a biology major with minors in chemistry and medical humanities. She went to medical school at Rosalind Franklin University and was chosen to join the Gold Humanism Honor Society for her dedication to compassionate patient care. 

Dr. Karson is now practicing outpatient psychiatry at Talkiatry, a telehealth corporation providing convenient, affordable, accessible care to patients across the country.

MaryBeth Lake, MD

MaryBeth Lake, MD is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (“LC”). Before joining LC and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in 2000, Dr. Lake trained, served as chief fellow, and worked as a faculty member at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh. While in Pittsburgh and then in Iowa, she provided consultation-liaison, inpatient/partial hospitalization, and outpatient child and adolescent psychiatry services. During her 24 years at LC, Dr. Lake has honed her expertise in longitudinal integrated outpatient treatment using medication and individual/family psychotherapy. She also enjoys teaching and supervising child and adolescent psychiatry fellows and multidisciplinary trainees/staff in her role as clinician-educator. She was Director of Education and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Training from 2002-2012. Dr. Lake is a member of regional and national professional organizations, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. She has been honored with numerous Top Doctor listings in Chicago Magazine and co-authored the Concise Guide to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and other publications.

Sudhakar Shenoy, MD

Sudhakar Shenoy, MD earned his medical degree from the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute and was the valedictorian of his class. He completed his psychiatry residency and a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, Illinois. He is Board-Certified by ABPN in both psychiatry and the subspecialty of child/adolescent psychiatry.

Before residency training, Dr. Shenoy participated in research training at Harvard Medical School, Virginia Commonwealth University-Medical College of Virginia, and the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in India.

 When Dr. Shenoy was young, a life-threatening accident required him to undergo multiple surgeries. Due to a lack of resources and hospitals in India, it was initially difficult for him to receive medical care. However, this experience and the physicians who treated him with compassion and excellent care inspired him to become a doctor. The impact that these doctors had on him continues to be a driving force to provide exceptional care to his patients.

 As an International Medical Graduate(IMG), Dr. Shenoy is deeply committed to medically underserved areas(MUAs) and health professional shortage areas(HPSAs). He is a Child and Adult Psychiatrist in Chicago at Clarity Clinic. As a clinician, he enjoys the challenges of learning and treating the brain and its complexities. 

Dr. Shenoy passionately advocates for patients and psychiatry. He is also the current ECP Trustee-at-Large on the APA’s Board of Trustees. He was nationally elected earlier this year for a term of 3 years.

Ewa Bieber, MD

Ewa Bieber is a child and adolescent, consult-liaison psychiatrist at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

 Ewa earned her B.S. in Chemistry at Loyola University Chicago and her Medical Degree from Jagiellonian University Medical College in Cracow, Poland. She then completed four years of general psychiatry residency, followed by fellowships in child and adolescent psychiatry and consultation-liaison psychiatry at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She and her husband returned to Chicago in 2020 and have been at Lurie Children’s since.

Ewa’s clinical and research areas of interest include the impact of critical illness on mental health, development, and family dynamics. She has published on delirium, anxiety among the critically ill, and Post-Intensive Care Syndrome among adults and children.  Ewa enjoys the ability to collaborate with and learn from colleagues in other medical fields, and loves to work with medical students, residents and fellows.

Joshua Nathan, MD

Dr. Joshua Nathan, MD, currently works as the Great Lakes Regional Medical Director for LifeStance Health, Inc., responsible for medical care in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.  He is a Visiting Associate Professor at University of Illinois College of Medicine - Rockford (UICOM-R).  In a prior role as faculty at UICOM-Chicago, amongst many academic endeavors, he co-chaired the UI Hospital Clinical Ethics committee, developed a model for teaching empathy to medical students and health professions’ students and served as Wellness Sub-theme leader during the UICOM Curriculum Transformation project. 

Dr. Nathan currently serves as Chair of the Illinois State Medical Society Council on Economics, is appointed to the APA Committee on RBRVS, Coding, and Reimbursement, and represents Illinois on the APA Assembly.  He was President of Illinois Psychiatric Society (IPS) 2018-2019 and is a Government Affairs Committee member since 2014.  In 2020 he was awarded the IPS Community Service Award and was recognized as Distinguished Fellow by the APA.  He is especially proud of successful efforts in Illinois to destigmatize the physician licensure application process, and his APA grant-supported Physician Suicide Prevention Project.

Dr. Nathan completed medical school at UIC, and psychiatry residency at Brown University.