Celebrating 2025-2026 Pearsall Fellows

Emily Aarons, MD is a fourth-year psychiatry resident at Duke with interests in general adult psychiatry, psychotherapy, and working with Spanish-speaking populations. She is originally from Raleigh, NC and completed a B.A. in Spanish at Duke University before earning her medical degree at UNC Chapel Hill. She is looking forward to deepening her understanding of psychodynamic therapy, which she hopes to incorporate into her future practice.

Elise Abken, MD is a second-year fellow in child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of North Carolina. She studied history at Haverford College prior to completing medical school at the Emory University School of Medicine. She is interested in growing her understanding of and facility for psychotherapy through learning more about psychoanalytic theory and practice through the Pearsall fellowship.

Gabriel Brotzman, DO is a fourth-year psychiatry resident at Cape Fear Valley Hospital in Fayetteville, NC. After studying English at Brown University, he returned to North Carolina to complete his medical training at Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine. His interests include the philosophy of psychiatry, psychotic disorders, and psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Adriana “Dree” Kavoussi, MD is in her final year of a child & adolescent fellowship at UNC-Chapel Hill. She completed her undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of California Berkeley. After graduation, she completed neuropharmacology research at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea and worked in wilderness therapy rehabilitating troubled youth in the backcountry of Utah. She then completed her medical school training at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, NY and her general psychiatry training at Duke University Hospital. She is looking forward to continued learning and development through the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas to better serve her patients.

Yi Ting Liu, MD is a third-year psychiatry resident at the Medical University of South Carolina. She completed both her undergraduate studies and her medical degree at the University of Virginia. Originally from Taiwan and raised in the U.S., she was drawn to psychiatry after witnessing the stark contrast in how mental illness is perceived across cultures. Her clinical interests include working with underserved communities, consult-liaison psychiatry, and reproductive psychiatry. Through the Pearsall Fellowship, Dr. Liu looks forward to integrating a psychodynamic approach to more meaningfully connect with her patients.

Thomas Mayer, MD is in his second year of the child & adolescent psychiatry fellowship at UNC. After graduating from Boston College with a degree in psychology, he spent three years teaching middle school math in Houston, TX with Teach for America. He completed medical school and general psychiatry residency also at UNC where he has been involved with clinical education projects. He is looking forward to developing his
understanding of analytic theory and technique.

Joyce A. Meza Venegas, MD is a third-year resident in Duke’s Psychiatry Residency Training Program. Originally from Ecuador, she completed her medical internship in Mexico City and went on to serve a year of social service in the Galapagos Islands. Before starting residency, she spent a year in Boston as a research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Meza is particularly interested in addiction, global health, and psychoanalysis. During her first years of training at Duke, she developed a strong interest in psychotherapy and joined the Duke Psychotherapy Track. As a Pearsall fellow, she is eager to deepen her understanding of psychoanalytic theory and practice. She is
confident that her time with the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas will help her cultivate a more comprehensive and thoughtful approach to patient care.

Joseph Muñoz Dayaa, MD, MS is a child and adolescent psychiatry fellow at the University of North Carolina. He completed psychiatry residency at University of North Carolina. He was raised between Massachusetts and Florida prior to moving to North Carolina for college. He completed his undergraduate studies at UNC Chapel Hill in Biology, Chemistry, and English; graduate studies at Columbia University in Narrative Medicine; and medical school at UNC Chapel Hill. His interests in psychiatry span child and adolescent psychiatry, women’s and reproductive psychiatry, and psychodynamic as well as narrative approaches to caring for a person across the lifespan.

Saagar Patel, DO is a fourth-year psychiatry resident and chief resident at the Cape Fear Valley Medical Center Psychiatry Residency Program in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He studied Exercise Science at the University of South Carolina and subsequently completed his medical school training at the Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Patel has interests in crisis/emergency psychiatry, interventional psychiatry, cross-cultural psychiatry, and sports psychology. His time in Fayetteville thus far has provided a greater appreciation of the varying impacts and presentations that trauma can lead to, specifically on military populations. He looks forward to expanding his psychoanalytic skills through the Pearsall Fellowship in order to make more meaningful impacts for his patients.

Julia Rothschild, MD, Sc.M. is a fourth-year psychiatry resident at Duke University, where she serves as chief of the Behavioral Health Outpatient Clinic. She earned her undergraduate and medical degrees from Brown University, along with a Master of Science in Population Medicine to better understand health systems and equity. Her clinical interests include child and adolescent psychiatry, reproductive psychiatry, and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Julia is also deeply involved in advocacy, education, and research at the intersection of climate change and mental health. She is eager to join the Pearsall Fellowship to grow as a therapist, deepen her understanding of psychoanalytic theory and practice, and engage with a generative community of psychodynamic thinkers.