Faculty Disclosures

Dr. Arias is a graduate of Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine (2001), and he completed his residency in psychiatry as well as a master’s degree in clinical and translational research at the University of Connecticut Health Center. He was on the faculty at UCONN School of Medicine for 5 years and then was a full-time faculty member at Yale University School of Medicine for 7 years in the department of psychiatry before joining VCU in 2018 as an associate professor and the Associate Division Chair for Addiction Psychiatry.  He is board certified in Psychiatry by the ABPN and board certified in addiction medicine by ABPM.

Dr. Arias has logged many hours teaching to medical students, residents, and fellows at all three universities for which he was on the faculty. He has developed several innovative teaching programs such as an elective course in psychiatric and addiction pharmacogenetics (at Yale), and a tele-addictions buprenorphine training clinic for fellows. He created the didactic program for the addiction medicine fellowship at VCU Health. He currently teaches as an attending at the MOTIVATE outpatient addiction clinic and as the program director of the Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program. He received a training grant from HRSA to expand the fellowship training program.

Catherine Casey MD (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Virginia, and a co-founder of UVA’s comprehensive, multidisciplinary Gender Health Program.  She is the sole WPATH-certified physician in Virginia, and trains health professionals of all stages in gender-affirming medical care. Her awards related to advocacy, teaching, and serving gender-diverse patients include the 2020 John H. Casteen III Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award and the 2022 Medical Society of Virginia’s Salute to Service Award.

Varun Choudhary MD, MA, DFAPA is a Board-Certified Forensic Psychiatrist and the Chief Medical Officer of FloreoVR and Interim Chief Medical Officer of Talkspace. Dr. Choudhary is active in policy, legislation, and behavioral health advocacy. He is the current Governor-appointed Psychiatrist to the Behavioral Health & Disability Board for the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is also a board member of the Psychiatric Society of Virginia & Medical Society of Virginia Prior to joining FloreoVR, Dr. Choudhary spent 2 years at Talkspace as the Chief Medical Officer. He also has a background in managed care, and prior to joining Talkspace he was the Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer of Behavioral Health for Magellan Health. Dr. Choudhary has worked in the behavioral health industry for close to 20 years providing care to patients in the public sector, correctional arena, private practice, and community-based settings. He has specialty in Telepsychiatry, Managed Care, Population Health, Collaborative Care, Quality Metrics, Behavioral Health Outcome Measures and Autism/Intellectual Disabilities. Dr. Choudhary is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Kenneth Dekleva is a Senior Fellow at the George HW Bush Foundation for US-China Relations and holds the McKenzie Foundation Chair in Psychiatry I at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, where he is Professor of Psychiatry and director of Psychiatry-Medicine Integration. He is a graduate of UTSW Medical School, where he also trained in adult psychiatry. From 1993 to 2001, he worked in a variety of clinical settings in Dallas/Fort Worth affiliated with UTSW Medical Center. During 2002 to 2016, he served as a senior U.S. diplomat and regional medical officer/psychiatrist with the U.S. Department of State, mostly overseas, but also in a leadership role (from 2013 to 2015) as director of the U.S. State Department's worldwide diplomatic mental health program, providing mental health support to 60,000 U.S. diplomats and family members based overseas and in the United States. He has published widely in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, The Hill, The Cipher Brief, 38 North, and The Diplomat and given numerous presentations in academic and U.S. government settings in the field of leadership analysis, including profiles of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un. He has also given media interviews to CNN, National Public Radio, Intelligence Matters, Messy Times, VOA-China, Burn Bag Podcast, and Background Briefing.

Kara Keuthan Beatty is a board-certified psychiatrist. She completed her Bachelors of Science in Psychology at Texas A&M University. She attended the University of Texas at Houston for medical school. For residency, she went Virginia Commonwealth University, where she served as chief her last year. After residency, she completed a fellowship in Brain Injury Medicine at the Center for Neurorehabilitation Services. In July 2018, Dr. Beatty started her own practice, Resilience Health, where she provides general psychiatric and neuropsychiatric services. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for Community Brain Injury Services and serves as Vice Chair for the Virginia Brain Injury Council. This year, she was recognized by Style Weekly as one of Richmond’s Top 40 Under 40.

Dr. Jeremy Kidd is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry in the Division on Substance Use Disorders at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute. For over 15 years, Dr. Kidd's research has focused on the intersections of sexuality, gender identity, and substance use. His current work, which is supported by a K23 award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, focuses on developing and evaluating a culturally adapted psychotherapeutic intervention for transgender and nonbinary individuals with alcohol-related problems. Originally from Narrows, VA; Dr. Kidd lived in Richmond for 13 years while completing his undergraduate and MD degrees at Virginia Commonwealth University. He also received an MPH from Boston University and completed psychiatric residency and addiction psychiatry fellowship at Columbia University. He is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications on LGBTQ+ health and speaks nationally on this topic. He is also a member of the American Psychiatric Association's Council on Addiction Psychiatry. In addition to research, Dr. Kidd directs the substance-use consultation service at the Washington Heights Community Service, a publicly funded system of three outpatient psychiatric clinics and one inpatient unit serving individuals with severe mental illness.

Anne McDonnell is the Director of Brain Injury Services for Cantor Grana Buckner Bucci. She is the former Executive Director of the Brain Injury Association of Virginia. She has a BS in Occupational Therapy from the Medical College of Virginia, and a Master of Public Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Anne has 35 years’ experience in brain injury rehabilitation and advocacy across a continuum of hospital and community based settings. She is a Certified Brain Injury Specialist Trainer, holds a clinical faculty position in the School of Occupational Therapy at VCU, and is Chair of the VCU TBI Model Systems Advisory Board. Anne has worked closely with elected and appointed policymakers to pass laws and increase funding to expand access to services for person with brain injury in Virginia. She has received numerous state and national awards, and is a nationally recognized association executive, brain injury expert and advocate.

Erin leads APA's State Government Relations team and is the primary contact for membership and APA staff regarding state affairs. Erin is an attorney with experience in both legislative matters and political law. Her background includes drafting and analyzing state and federal legislation, federal congressional relations, state government relations, legal and political research, speech writing, and building coalitions to support specific legislation and policy goals. Before coming to APA in 2018, Erin worked at the American Society of Anesthesiologists where she managed state government affairs issues for all 50 states and served as a subject matter expert on scope of practice. Erin began her legal career on Capitol Hill as Legislative Counsel to a member of the House Judiciary Committee and subsequently worked at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. Previously, she was also Deputy Counsel for two major state political organizations. Erin lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her family.

Dr. Bela Sood is Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, was Chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Training Director of the Child Psychiatry Fellowship program at VCUHS. She was the Medical Director of VTCC at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA till 2014 and has transitioned into the role of senior professor for child mental health policy. She joined VCU in 1988. She is a 2002 Fellow of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) through Drexel University, and completed a Masters of Science in Health Administration in May 2006 from the Health Administration Program at VCU.  She has served on the SOM admissions committee, faculty awards committee, COSOWAM, special faculty awards committee, presidential task force on campus safety and Psychiatry P&T committee.  Her special interests are in the training of an adequate work force in child mental health, reduction of stigma around mental health issues, outcomes research, Mood disorders and ADHD. She is specifically focused on ways of providing optimal mental health care to the children of Virginia, focusing on innovation of technology such as telemedicine to bring such care to rural areas of the State by integrating mental health, pediatrics and primary care. She served as the president of WISDM from 2003 to 2006. She served on the national Residency Review Committee for Psychiatry from 2003 to 2009.

She has advocated for initiatives of the VA Council of Child Psychiatry and has lobbied for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s (AACAP) Work Force initiative in D.C. and nationally. She served on two statewide initiatives for Systems of Care reform in child mental health & Early Intervention programs in Virginia and champions involvement of families in the development of child mental health policy. She was elected as Councilor at large for the AACAP’s Executive Council in 2005 for a three year term and Secretary of AACAP. She served as the co-chair on the National Task force for school Violence of AACAP from 2014 to 2016. She was appointed by Governor Tim Kaine as the mental health expert to the blue ribbon panel that investigated the VA Tech massacre of 2007.  She has been on the Best Doctors list for Richmond and the US from 1996 onwards to 2018. In August 2017 she was appointed to the newly formed Advisory Board for Pediatric Autoimmune neuropsychiatric Disorder associated with Streptococcal Infections by Governor McAuliffe. She was recognized and honored by the America Indian Foundation in their 2017 annual gala for her work in Public mental health.

In 2018 she was appointed by Governor Northam to the Governors working group on trauma informed care to children in the commonwealth. In January 2019 she received the VA American Academy of Pediatrics Advocate of 2018 Award in the pediatric General Assembly day. She was named the 2020 Agnes Purcell McGavin Prevention award by the American Psychiatric Association. She currently serves as the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Lead for the Virginia Mental Health Access Program (VMAP) and is a course master for the REACH program, a mini fellowship in child psychiatry for pediatricians and PCPs in Virginia and nationally.

For the past four years she has focused efforts on prevention in child mental health within which she is focusing her efforts in developing an attachment clinic at VCUHS, supporting work that improves education in early childhood and infancy for all caregivers who interact with children and violence prevention efforts in the Richmond VA. She has edited two books on mental health policy and prevention in children’s mental health. Her third book is on children and social justice.

Ms. Worthen is the Deputy Director of Digital Health at the American Psychiatric Association. Her work focuses on behavioral health equity, access, and quality through regulatory policy and strategy for technology-enabled mental health care. Previously, she has held roles in international, federal, state, and nonprofit agencies at the intersection of population health and health care policy and practice. Ms. Worthen holds a master's degree in public administration from the University of Colorado, Denver and a BA in Public Health from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ms. Yowell is the Director of Reimbursement Policy and Quality at the American Psychiatric Association. Her work focuses on ensuring coverage of and payment for mental health and substance use disorder services as well as supporting activities related to quality of care.  Ms. Yowell works closely with APA's CPT coding and documentation experts on coding education and oversees APA's collaboration with AMA's reimbursement groups (AMA CPT Editorial Panel and AMA RVS Update Committee) and federal agencies including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).