JANUARY 2021 MONA MEMBER OF THE MONTH : LOUISA OLUSHOGA MD
Member of the Month Answers
What is your current professional role?
I currently work for a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) on the west side of Chicago called Lawndale Christian Health Center (LCHC). I am one of two psychiatrists working alongside primary care doctors to deliver care to the 60,000 people in the North Lawndale community and its surrounding areas. Additionally, I am affiliated with Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine where I supervise medical students and maintain continued involvement in research.
What drew you to the field of Perinatal Mental Health?
I came to medical school with the intention of becoming an obstetrician/gynecologist so in retrospect, it seems I was headed in this direction without even realizing it. I did not enjoy my OB rotations except for the opportunities I got to sit down and spend time talking with patients about their various psychiatric concerns that were impeding care or limiting their functioning throughout pregnancy. In residency, there was a very specific case of a young, pregnant, bipolar woman for whom our team was consulted. Learning about/working through her case really highlighted perinatal mental health as a subspecialty to pursue.
What is your current research involvement?
I completed my Women's Mental Health fellowship at Northwestern University and continue to work closely with the Asher Center for the Study and Treatment of Depressive Disorders. Additionally, I am directly involved in the ongoing development of psychiatric collaborative care work with Northwestern Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. My research interests include mental healthcare access and management of complex mental health issues within the context of trauma particularly in women of color.
What does a typical workday look like for you-including before and after work?
In these COVID times, my day starts with getting my children (6 and 9yoa) situated at their computers/Ipads for remote learning. If I’m feeling particularly motivated (most often by my overindulgence the night before), I may do a 25-minute home workout prior to getting the kids awake for school. Once everyone else is settled for their day, I’ll get situated in from of my computer to see patients or work on consult requests sent by primary care providers. However, my favorite part of the workday since I began working at LCHC, is my weekly visit to Chicago homeless shelters. On these days, I go on-site to various homeless shelters in Chicago (I rotate through four) to deliver in-person psychiatric care to shelter residents/people experiencing homelessness. By far, the most enjoyable and most fulfilling part of my job. At the end of my workday it’s usually dinner with the family (which has been a silver lining in this COVID craziness), dessert (we love desserts in our house and as such, it deserves to be highlighted as its own occurrence separate from dinner), family time (which is more like everyone doing their own activity within the same space), bath/bed time for the kids, then the (dreaded) notes/documentation that needs to be completed from the day. To bed then we do it all over again 😊
What are you most excited about in your current work?
It has been a very long journey to get here and I am so excited to be working in the community as was my goal so many years ago when I set out to be a physician. I am most excited about my ability to bring my perinatal psychiatric expertise to these underserved communities--specifically, those experiencing homelessness. There is so much work to be done and so much room for development. It’s great to be on the ground floor as we learn/develop better ways to deliver these much-needed services.
What’s one of the most important things you’ve learned from a mentor or role model?
It’s very okay and necessary to say ‘no.’ I have been fortunate to have some amazing mentors along the way who have encouraged me in all my different pursuits and interests. But in this medical training process, I’ve also become a mother, a wife, and have had some significant health challenges. Learning to balance it all is something I’m still working on. However, learning to say no (and not feeling guilty for doing so) is a lesson that stands out from each of my mentors. I am not great at it but I’m getting better and appreciate more and more the value/power in it.
What are your favorite things to do outside of work?
I love listening to music, planning get-togethers with friends (though not this year, of course), laughing with my kids, BOARD GAMES, watching movies and naps (definitely naps).
What is the most interesting book, podcast, TV series, or movie you’ve encountered in the past year?
I can’t choose!
Book: The Fifth Season by NK Jemison (though I’m reading The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides right now and it’s really interestng so far)
TV Series: Queen’s Gambit (2020), The Undoing (2020)
Movie: The Platform (2019), Run (2020), Wander Darkly (2020)
Taber Lightbourne MD, MHS
A native New Yorker, Taber was on the pre-professional track at Dance Theater of Harlem before studying history and Italian at Middlebury College. She then completed a post-baccalaureate pre-medical program at CUNY Hunter College, while working as a research assistant for clinical trials at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She eventually matriculated at Yale School of Medicine. During her time at Yale, Taber received a NIH fellowship for translational research to work for a year in the laboratory of Amy Arnsten, studying neural circuits underlying working memory. She also served on the leadership board of Student National Medical Association (SNMA) where she helped run local outreach programs for disadvantaged students at both the high school and elementary school levels.
She is currently in her final year of psychiatry training at Columbia University Medical Center, where she is completing a fellowship in women’s mental health and continuing her studies in psychoanalysis through a year-long evening seminar at Columbia’s Center for psychoanalytic training and research. She is committed to bringing evidenced-based mental health care to underserved communities and advancing mental health literacy among providers and the public alike. She is excited to learn and gain more experience in mental health education through the NCRP fellowship.
Jasmine Saadatmand, MD, MPH
Jasmine Saadatmand became interested in medicine and public health at Brown University, where she received Honors in Human Biology with a focus on health and human disease. After this, she attended Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, where she earned a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology as well as a scholarship to study women’s sexual and reproductive health in the setting of HIV/AIDS in Durban, South Africa. Before returning to Columbia for medical school, she was awarded a fellowship through the Centers for Disease Control and Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists to work at the public health department’s Infectious Disease division in San Francisco, where she was involved in a variety of public health interventions and field work focusing on community education and outreach. In medical school, Jasmine continued her work in women’s health, conducting research in the field of OB/GYN, including involvement in a prospective study at the intersection of reproductive health and neurology. She was moved to pursue the field of Psychiatry due to her interest in longitudinal care, women’s health, and framing patient care within the context of personal narratives.
Currently as a third-year resident in Psychiatry at Yale, she is spending part of her outpatient year rotating in the Primary Care Mental Health Integration Women’s Clinic, is a co-leader of a weekly women’s PTSD therapy group, and is involved as a trainee member of the VA's national Reproductive Psychiatry Consultation team, which offers national consultation to clinicians presenting complex cases in reproductive psychiatry. As a part of the Women’s Mental Health Conference at Yale planning committee, she helped to launch the inaugural student- and resident-run Women’s Mental Health Conference at Yale, which brought together experts from across the country while shedding light on the salient issues in women’s mental health for a broader audience. She is currently designing a PGY-4 reproductive psychiatry chief year. During this time, she will remain as a consulting psychiatrist at the integrated Women’s Clinic while designing and implementing reproductive psychiatry trainings and didactics geared toward clinicians and trainees and working with the multidisciplinary eating disorders treatment team. She plans to pursue a fellowship in reproductive psychiatry and women’s mental health following residency training. Her interests lie primarily in reproductive psychiatry and women’s mental health both in the general mental health outpatient setting as well as in an integrated care model of practice, collaborating across specialties and disciplines.
She is honored to have been selected as one of the first NCRP fellows and thrilled for this opportunity to connect with and learn from mentors as well as her co-fellow. She looks forward to continuing building skills in education, communication, and application of the literature, as well as building fund of knowledge of reproductive and perinatal psychiatry as part of the team.
CNN COVERAGE OF PROJECT RESCUE: Catherine Limperopoulos
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Marce of North America
The Marcé Society of North America is committed to the advancement of Clinical Care, Research, Advocacy, and Education.
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