Fellows become leaders in psychiatry and engage in public and private forensic psychiatry, forensically-informed clinical practice, research, education, and public policy.
Fellows become leaders in psychiatry and engage in public and private forensic psychiatry, forensically-informed clinical practice, research, education, and public policy.
Brown Psychiatry and Human Behavior's Forensic Psychiatry fellowship, which accepts three fellows per year, emphasizes direct collaboration with our faculty, who are recognized nationally for their leadership in the field.
Fellowship Program
Our fellows engage in a broad didactic curriculum. Forensic seminars are held a half-day per week during protected hours. Monthly “Think Tank” meetings encourage forensic research and scholarship. Fellows audit a one-semester course in Law and Mental Health at the Roger Williams University School of Law. We hold an annual mock trial, as well as a review of Board of Medical Licensure & Discipline forensic case material. Fellows routinely testify at Mental Health Court, and when called to criminal or civil court matters.
Weekly didactic topics are broken down into five main areas. We include examples of seminars within these topics here:
The Brown University forensic faculty members:
The Forensic Psychiatry program is undergoing significant growth in its diversity and relationships with institutions throughout the state of Rhode Island and beyond. Brown’s blend of government and private university academic training provides broad experiences in criminal law, public sector forensics, private practice forensics, correctional psychiatry, and research/scholarship.
Barry W. Wall, M.D. is a clinical and forensic psychiatrist in Rhode Island. He completed his adult residency training at Brown University and a forensic psychiatry fellowship at the University of Massachusetts. He is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and is the Forensic Fellowship Program Director at Brown. As a clinical psychiatrist, he is a psychopharmacologist and conducts psychotherapy with most of his patients. As a forensic psychiatrist, he is Director of the Forensic Service of the Eleanor Slater Hospital, within the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental Disabilities & Hospitals, helping lawyers and judges understand psychiatric issues in legal settings. He teaches medical students, psychiatry residents and fellows, and psychology masters and Ph.D. candidates. Dr. Wall is a Distinguished Lifetime Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is a Past President of the Rhode Island Medical Society as well as the Rhode Island Psychiatric Society. He has published articles primarily relating to competence to stand trial, Intellectual Disability Disorder, and work-related disability.
Jennifer Y. Kim, J.D., M.D., MSHCM, is an adult clinical and forensic psychiatrist who completed her adult residency at SBH Health System in the Bronx, New York, serving as Chief Resident in her third and fourth year and completed a forensic psychiatry fellowship at Brown University. Dr. Kim received her law degree from the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University in 2006, completed an Environmental Law certificate, concentrated in Health Law and Policy, and worked as an attorney prior to entering residency. After completing medical school from St. George's University, she received a Masters in Healthcare Management from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester. Dr. Kim is a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and she is the Associate Director of the Forensic Service of the Eleanor Slater Hospital, within the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental Disabilities & Hospitals. Dr. Kim is a psychiatrist at the Rhode Island State Psychiatric Hospital, where she provides treatment for patients deemed incompetent to stand trial and not guilty by reason of insanity. She is on the Board of Directors of Outreach Development Corporation, which provides community treatment services in substance use and mental health. Dr. Kim is a member of the American Psychiatric Association, American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Rhode Island Medical Society, and the Rhode Island Psychiatric Society. Dr. Kim is interested in education and research in mental health law and advocacy, competency to stand trial restoration and mental health treatment in correctional facilities.
Dr. Ugorji is a Clinical Instructor and the Assistant Program Director of the Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship within Brown University's Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior. He is Assistant Director of the Forensic Service at Eleanor Slater Hospital, where he conducts forensic evaluations and risk assessments within the RI Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals. Dr. Ugorji also provides supervision to forensic psychology interns from Roger Williams University, PhD psychology candidates from The University of Rhode Island, and is the liaison between the forensic psychiatry fellowship and The Roger Williams University School of Law.
Dr. Myers is a Professor and Chief of Forensic Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He also is the Medical Director for Newport Mental Health. Formerly, he was a Professor and Chief of the Divisions of Forensic Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of South Florida Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine. He received his medical degree from Temple University. His training after a general psychiatry residency included fellowships in child and adolescent psychiatry and forensic psychiatry, and he is board-certified in all three of these specialties. Dr. Myers has been licensed to practice medicine in the state of Florida since 1984 and in Rhode Island since 2009.
He is the author of over 100 scientific publications and the book Juvenile Sexual Homicide. His primary research interests are in juvenile and adult homicide, sexual homicide, and malingering by homicide defendants. Additionally, he is the developer of the SADSEX-SH-R, a homicide crime scene rating scale that assesses for the presence of sexual sadism in offenders, and he is currently working on a structured professional judgment instrument for the assessment of criminal responsibility in homicide defendants.
Fellows work on private practice cases through the Rhode Island Hospital Forensic Psychiatry Clinic an average of one day per week. Fellows conduct adult public-sector forensic evaluations through the Eleanor Slater Hospital Forensic Service an average of two days per week. The correctional psychiatry experience is limited to three hours per week in a jail clinic, and three hours per week in a prison clinic. The Rhode Island Training School provides juvenile forensic experiences a half day per week.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AM | BHDDH (Forensic Service + RISPH) | Didactics | BHDDH (Forensic Service + RISPH) | BHDDH or ACI* | BHDDH (Forensic Service + RISPH) |
| PM | RITS or BHDDH** | Brown University Health | BHDDH or RITS or Hope Clinic*** | BHDDH or ACI* | Brown University Health |
* Fellows complete a 4-month rotation at BHDDH and two 4-month rotations at ACI.
** Fellows complete a 4-month rotation at RITS and two 4-month rotations at BHDDH.
*** Fellows complete a 4-month rotation at each site.
Brown University Health is a comprehensive, integrated hospital system affiliated with The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. It is composed of several partner hospitals, the largest of which being Rhode Island Hospital (RIH). The RIH Forensic Evaluation Clinic is a key training site for the Brown Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship. Over the 12 months of training, the fellows spend 8 hours weekly at the RIH Forensic Evaluation Clinic participating in the evaluation of civil and criminal forensic outpatient cases referred by a multitude of sources such as public defender offices, state attorney offices, law firms, private attorneys, and state agencies (DCYF, schools). An average case load for a fellow will consist of one to two new cases monthly. This evaluation case load by necessity is limited because any given case may involve many hours of activity. The fellow’s responsibilities will include communication with referral sources, review of case records, participation in psychiatric evaluations supervised by faculty, writing of forensic reports, and giving testimony on occasion, under faculty supervision. Case assignments are monitored to ensure a balanced breadth and variety of forensic experiences (e.g., competence to stand trial, legal insanity, personal injury, pediatric focused issues, and standard of care). Fellows will receive several hours of weekly supervision by Wade Myers, M.D., RIH site director.
The Hasbro Outpatient Psychiatric Evaluations for Justice-involved and At-risk Youth, or “HOPE for Justice” Clinic, is an outpatient child and adolescent psychiatry clinic providing services to patients involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Referral sources include Family Court, DCYF caseworkers, residential/correctional transitions and a range of hospital-based clinics (e.g. Hasbro’s “Aubin Center” Child Abuse Pediatrics Clinic and “Fostering Health” Foster Care Primary Care Clinic). In addition, the Clinic contracts with several different programs working with adolescents involved in the juvenile legal system, including Ocean Tides (a residential treatment program for adolescent boys with legal involvement as well as a therapeutic school) and Tides Family Services “Youth Transition Center” team (a community-based organization with a team of outreach and tracking staff providing intensive services to adolescents on probation). Fellows provide clinical services with a correctional/forensic component with a primary goal of learning about the system of care and understanding clinical needs for patients and families involved with RI DCYF, the RI Training School, and Juvenile Probation, also at times incorporating elements of risk assessment and forensic consultation to clinical services through second opinion evaluations. The HOPE clinic is supervised by Elizabeth Lowenhaupt, M.D.
Adults under correctional supervision within the State of Rhode Island fall within the jurisdiction of the state’s Department of Corrections (RIDOC). RIDOC’s facilities are known collectively as the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI). The ACI is the primary site for the fellowship’s training experience in correctional psychiatry. Fellows rotate at the ACI to provide psychiatric care to incarcerated individuals (a jail clinic and a prison clinic). Dr. Christopher Matkovic is the Site Director for the fellows’ ACI training experience and provides the lead on the trainees’ correctional education and supervision. Fellows will receive 1 hour of weekly supervision by Dr. Matkovic, and this time is also used for didactic discussion of assigned correctional topics and landmark cases.
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The Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) is responsible for conducting statutory forensic evaluations and providing care and treatment to forensic inpatients. Fellows spend 20 hours per week conducting Competence to Stand Trial evaluations and Risk Assessments, and providing longitudinal care of forensic inpatients at the Rhode Island State Psychiatric Hospital. All forensic evaluations are conducted under the supervision of Dr. Barry Wall, BHDDH Forensic Service Director and Fellowship Program Director, as well as Dr. Ruby Lee, BHDDH Forensic Service Associate Director and Fellowship Associate Program Director.
The Rhode Island Training School (RITS) is a secure correctional program for male and female youth who are detained and /or sentenced to the facility by order of the Rhode Island Family Court. The RITS provides for the rehabilitation of youth through a comprehensive continuum of services. Faculty consists of one full-time triple-boarded psychiatrist, one part-time forensic child psychiatrist, and one part-time forensic child psychologist. All treatment team personnel will have interactions with the fellow on this rotation and will contribute to the fellow’s learning experience. Staff include both RIH and state-employed social workers who have extensive experience and training in working with justice-involved youth, substance abusing youth, and youth who have sexually offended or have been victims of childhood trauma. Fellows will attend case conferences, some staff meetings, and some Family Court appearances by their patients depending on educational and clinical value. Faculty are on-site and available for consultation. All fellows will have one hour of individual supervision weekly by Elizabeth Lowenhaupt, M.D., the site director, or another faculty member.
Roger Williams University (RWU) is a private university in Bristol, Rhode Island. Its law school is the only law school in Rhode Island. Fellows will audit and participate in a law school course on Mental Health & The Law. The course is taught by Judge Steven Erickson and a psychiatrist on the Brown forensic faculty attends each lecture to assist and provide the mental health perspective of the course. Topics include Psychiatric Malpractice, Civil Commitment, Sexual Offender Involuntary Confinement, Civil & Criminal Competencies, Informed Consent, Criminal responsibility, Competency to be executed, Criminal Justice Response to the Mentally Ill, and Juvenile Issues. This course also is the setting for one of the Mock Trials for the forensic fellows.
Dr. Micah Duggins-Warf graduated from Houghton College in 2010 with degrees in Classical Guitar Performance and Philosophy. He worked in the community mental health and research laboratory settings before deciding to pursue psychiatry. He obtained a Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Medical Certification at Boston University in 2015 and went on to receive his Doctor of Medicine from Eastern Virginia Medical School in 2020. He was honored to be inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society as well as the Gold Humanism Honor Society during his medical training. He completed his general psychiatry residency at Brown University and served as a Chief Resident in Psychiatry during his final year. His clinical interests are in correctional and forensic inpatient psychiatry. He enjoys exploring and discussing ethical issues in psychiatry and the complex entanglement of psychiatric pathology and normal human experience. His life outside of psychiatry happily revolves around his partner and their three children; and, to a lesser but still significant extent, their dog, cat, and turtle.
Dr. Sana I. Khan obtained her bachelor's degree from the University at Albany, where she triple majored in chemistry, English, and biology. She received her medical degree from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), during which time she served as class president and as Gold Humanism Honor Society secretary. At NYIT, she was commended with the TOUCH Award for commitment to community service as well as the Alumni Association Award for services to the school. While subsequently earning her master's in public health through Columbia University, Dr. Khan was elected department representative for health policy and management. She completed her residency in psychiatry at Albany Medical Center. During residency, she was named the Veterans Affairs Resident of the Year. Her professional interests include bioethics, forensics, and addiction.
Dr. Andreas Kruse received his medical degree from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, where he also was awarded a research grant for an epidemiology project at the Woolcock Institute in Sydney, Australia. He represented his medical school at the Universidad Austral, Buenos Aires, Argentina, the University of Minnesota and completed global health rotations in Kampala, Uganda. Dr. Kruse completed postgraduate training of general medicine and worked as a licensed physician in psychiatry in Sweden. He completed general psychiatry residency training at the University of New Mexico where he was appointed Research Chief and received the Rosenbaum Research Award for his project on neuroimaging in psychosis and the Rural Community Award for his work with underserved populations. The last 6 months of residency he was selected to represent his program in Auckland, New Zealand, where he served Severely Mentally Ill patients in an outpatient setting. His interests include psychotic disorders, medical ethics, and cultural psychiatry.
Our fellowship program accepts the common application approved by Association of Directors of Forensic Psychiatry Fellowships (ADFPF).
Email all core materials to Natasha Ethier, Program Coordinator. The subject line of your email should be: Forensic Fellowship Application [APPLICANT LAST NAME, APPLICANT FIRST NAME].
Please submit three letters of reference, one of which must be from your current program director, or, if you have completed training within the past five years, the director of the program from which you graduated most recently.
In addition, please submit a Dean’s Letter with an official medical school transcript.
These letters should be emailed directly by their authors to Natasha Ethier, Program Coordinator. PDF is the preferred file format.
Interview invitations will be sent upon receipt of your completed application. Interviews will be scheduled in compliance with AAPL guidelines.
We strive to be transparent about our procedures and encourage applicants to email us with any questions.
Providence has undergone a rebirth since the early 1990s. The city re-established the rivers running through downtown and developed a waterfront park that is now the site of the popular WaterFire celebrations, evenings of music, entertainment, and fiery cauldrons along the canal.
Providence's diverse population means that the dining opportunities are extensive -- and affordable! Federal Hill, the historically Italian neighborhood, is home to numerous restaurants from grilled pizza to multi-course meals. Portuguese food means excellent seafood choices. Asian and and middle eastern food choices abound!
The city is home to nationally recognized performing arts, including the Trinity Repertory Theater, a range of music venues, and the Providence Performing Arts Center, which hosts national touring companies of most major productions. Sports fans can enjoy the New England Patriots games (we are closer to Foxboro than Boston is!), Providence Bruins, and other various sporting events.
Providence is a city of neighborhoods -- residents can chose to live in the city in newly converted lofts downtown, apartments in historic homes on the Eastside, or historic building in the Armory District. Outside of the city, residents live in affordable apartments and homes -- some near the water and in comfortable smaller communities. To get out of the city, follow the bike trail from Providence to Bristol along Narragansett Bay 13 miles south.
Rhode Island has a vast variety of natural beauty in picturesque towns such as Westerly and Watch Hill. In the summer, a short ferry ride to Block Island is a favorite for families and beach lovers. Just 45 minutes away by car or ferry is Newport, known for its famed Cliff Walk, jazz, and folk music festivals, Gilded-Age mansions and fabulous beaches. Sailing, fishing, kayaking, and windsurfing are popular recreational activities. Day trips to Boston are easy with a commuter train or quick drive north. New York City is an easy 3 hour drive south. Want to travel further? TF Green Airport lets you avoid the lines and hassle of bigger city airports, but flies anywhere you want to go!
Residents and fellows are faculty at Brown. As Brown faculty, you can access Brown’s libraries, athletic complex, and take advantage of the talks and performances on campus. Another Providence university, Johnson and Wales is one of the country’s top culinary schools, making it no surprise that the city boasts many superb restaurants. Local Rhode Island School of Design which brings world-class culture, art, and diversity to the city.