Thomas J. Pearsall, Jr., Fellows

Elise Abken, MD
Dr. Abken is a third-year psychiatry resident at UNC interested in psychotic disorders, cultural influences on perceptions of psychiatric illness, and child and adolescent psychiatry. After growing up in Atlanta, DC, and Charlotte, Dr. Abken attended Haverford College where she majored in History. Her interest in psychiatry grew during medical school at the Emory University School of Medicine. She is currently a PGY-3 resident in psychiatry at UNC-Chapel Hill and looking forward to continuing to study psychotherapy through the PCC. 

Kemi Balogun, MD
Dr. Balogun is a third year psychiatry resident at Duke University Hospital with interests in reproductive psychiatry, minority mental health, and psychotherapy. She was born in Nigeria and raised in South Carolina. She received her bachelors degree in Biology from Wake Forsest University. Prior to attending medical school at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, Dr. Balogun served with the National Health Corps as a patient advocate in a federally qualified health center. She is eager to learn more about psychoanalytic thought and hopes to make psychoanalysis more accessible to marginalized communities.  

Samuel De Nooy, MD
Dr. De Nooy is a fourth-year resident at UNC-CH. During his time in small-town Iowa and the Midwest, Dr. De Nooy found his career in medicine. He then discovered his interest in psychiatry while studying medicine at the University of Iowa. Since graduation in 2020, he has appreciated his time as a psychiatry resident at UNC-Chapel Hill, and has subsequently been drawn to psychodynamic and psychoanalytic treatments. He looks forward to another year of growth with colleagues at Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas. 

Samar Fouda, MD
Dr. Fouda is a PGY-3 resident at Duke psychiatry residency program. Prior to starting residency, she did a 3-year post-doctoral research fellowship Yale university where her research spanned working on Ketamine RCTs and fMRI psychiatric underpinnings in mood and trauma disorder. Although she is a big fan of biological and neuroscientific underpinnings for psychiatric disorders, she still believes that psychodynamic and psychoanalytic ideas still currently hold the keys for diagnostic clarity and treatment precision. 

Nicholas Horswill, MD
Dr. Horswill is a second-year resident physician (PGY-2) at UNC Hospitals. He completed his medical degree at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. His clinical education emphasized the social determinants of health and a holistic approach to the practice of medicine. His clinical interests are in consult-liaison psychiatry, primary thought disorders, personality disorders, and mood disorders, particularly bipolar illness. Dr. Horswill has a strong interest in education and has held various teaching and tutoring roles prior to residency and enjoys working with medical students in the hospital. As part of his residency, he is pursuing additional training in clinical informatics.  Dr. Horswill is hoping to blend psychodynamic and humanistic approaches with pharmacologic management. The Pearsall Fellowship will help him to expand on these skills and better serve his patients.  

Shilpa Krishnan, MD
Dr. Krishnan is a 4th year chief resident at the Atrium Health Sandra & Leon Levine Psychiatry program in Charlotte, NC. She completed her undergraduate studies in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, and her graduate medical education at the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Krishnan was drawn to psychiatry during her medical training, with interests in mind-body connection and holistic, alternative approaches to mental health treatment. During her psychiatry residency training, she grew to recognize the importance of utilizing a psychodynamic approach in the medication management setting as well. Dr. Krishnan is looking forward to the Pearsall Fellowship and to gaining further knowledge and practice in psychodynamic psychotherapy.    

Lydia Livas, MD
Dr. Livas is currently a Psychiatry resident at the University of North Carolina. She received her medical degree from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in her hometown of Lexington, Kentucky. After completing General Psychiatry training, she plans on pursuing a fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry with a specific interest in developmental disorders and medically complex children. Inquiry into childhood development, growth crises and attachment theory initially sparked her interest in Psychoanalytic theory. Dr Livas plans to combine medication management and therapy in her future practice and plans to work primarily in the in-patient setting.  

Elizabeth Monis, MD
Dr. Monis is a fourth-year psychiatry resident (PGY-4) at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Dr. Monis was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts and attended medical school at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford, Maine. After experiencing years of snowstorms and frigid temperatures she decided to move to sunny and warm North Carolina, where she intends to stay and practice as an attending for the foreseeable future. Her experience with psychotherapy as a PGY-3 inspired an interest to learn more about different therapy techniques, including psychoanalysis, and incorporate this education within her medical practice.  

Adam Mullet, MD
Dr. Mullet is a fourth-year psychiatry resident at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). After completing medical school at Eastern Virginia Medical School he has enjoyed making the Carolinas his home. During his year working in clinic he was impressed with how well psychodynamic thought organized and assisted his treatment of patients. He looks forward to furthering his knowledge with the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas and mentoring residents at MUSC through his role as a chief resident. 

Catherine Parker, MD
Dr. Parker is a third-year psychiatry resident at the University of North Carolina.  Raised in Asheville, North Carolina, she completed her medical training at Columbia University. She holds a B.A. in French Studies and Philosophy from Scripps College and an MPhil in European Literature & Culture from Cambridge University.   As a member of the UNC Psychiatry Residency Program’s Research Track, she is investigating how an outpatient consultation model can improve access to psychiatric care. In addition to psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy, Dr. Parker is interested in eating disorders, neuropsychiatry, and forensic psychiatry.  

Alan Peh, MD
Dr. Peh is a graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine – Greenville. He completed his psychiatry residency at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Peh is currently enrolled in the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric fellowship at MUSC. 

Shelby Powers, MD
Dr. Powers completed her medical degree and a biomedical sciences masters at The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University in 2020. She is currently a PGY-4 psychiatric resident at Duke University and the chief resident for the Behavioral Health Outpatient clinic. In addition to psychotherapy, her clinical interests include substance use disorders, psychosis, rural mental health and perinatal mental health. She is involved in Duke’s psychotherapy track as well as research on opioid use disorders in pregnancy. After completing residency, she plans to complete an addiction psychiatry fellowship. 

Rhonda Robeel, MD
Dr. Robeel gravitated towards psychiatry late in her medical school career as a fourth-year medical student. She ultimately chose psychiatry over pediatrics and family/internal medicine after two mentors reframed psychiatry as primary care and highlighted the effectiveness of psychotherapy. She completed her undergraduate, medical school, and general psychiatry residency at the USF. Afterwards, she pursued a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at UNC where she stayed on as faculty. She is now combining her interests as the medical director of the inpatient pediatric psychiatry consult service and continues to provide both psychotherapy and medication management to other healthcare professionals within the UNC system.  

Stephanie Vaughn, MD
Dr. Vaughn is a second-year psychiatry resident at the Medical University of South Carolina. She was born in Westchester, NY and earned her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine. She has special interests in child and adolescent psychiatry, social determinants of health and psychotherapy. She hopes to utilize her psychoanalytic training within child and adolescent psychiatry to provide early and lasting interventions for her patients. 

Timothy Walsh, MD
Dr. Walsh is in his final year of child & adolescent psychiatry fellowship at UNC Hospitals. He went to college at the University of Chicago where he studied comparative human development. After college, he worked as a 9th grade biology teacher on the south side of Chicago for a couple years with Teach For America and later worked as an HIV prevention researcher at the University of Chicago. He returned home to Florida for medical school at the Florida State University College of Medicine. He completed general psychiatry residency training at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he developed an interest in psychodynamic psychotherapy.