Center for Professional Health

William Swiggart, M.S., L.P.C.

Mr. Swiggart has been involved in the practice of psychotherapy for over 35 years.  He is currently an assistant in Medicine in the Department of Medicine and the co-director of The Center for Professional Health. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Society for Advancement of Sexual Health (SASH). He also maintains a private practice.  Mr. Swiggart was the primary therapist for The Vanderbilt Institute for the Treatment of Addiction, and the first Registered Art Therapist in the state of Tennessee.  He received his bachelor’s degree in special education, his master’s degree in educational psychology from the University of Tennessee, and is a licensed professional counselor.  He is the past president of Nashville’s Psychotherapy Institute.  Mr. Swiggart has conducted workshops in the Commonwealth of Independent States (Russia), Australia, Canada, Great Britain and Norway. 

 

Charlene M. Dewey, M.D., M.Ed., F.A.C.P.

Charlene M. Dewey, M.D., M.Ed., FACP, received her M.D. from the Morehouse School of Medicine (1990) where she also received the Ciba Geigy Award for Academic and Community Leadership and the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry Achievement Awards.  Dr. Dewey completed training at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center in the Residency Program in Social Internal Medicine in 1993. Dr. Dewey then joined the faculty of the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, as an Instructor of Medicine and was designated as a T. T. Chao Scholar 1993-94.  Dr. Dewey is most interested in faculty development (teaching skills and career development as clinician educators), resident teaching and leadership skills, students' skills with physical diagnosis and history taking, and patient education.  Dr. Dewey joined the faculty at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine with joint appointments in the Department of Medical Education and Administration-Division of the Office of Teaching and Learning in Medicine and the Department of Medicine-Division of General Internal Medicine and Public Health in September 2007.  She was recently appointed to the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine’s Academy of Teaching Excellence.  Dr. Dewey is co-director of the Center for Professional Health.

Anderson Spickard, Jr., M.D.

Anderson Spickard, Jr., M.D., has more than 40 years of experience in active treatment of patients with substance abuse problems. Most recently his focus is on physician health and behavior. He is Professor of Medicine Emeritus at Vanderbilt Medical Center and is the past medical director of The Center for Professional Health (CPH). In June 2003, he was awarded the Chancellor’s Chair in Medicine for his contributions to research and addiction related to physician wellness. Dr. Spickard is a nationally recognized expert in the area of substance abuse.  He is the co-author of the book, Dying for a Drink: What You and Your Family Should Know about Alcoholism, which was translated into seven languages and Braille. The revised edition was released in November 2005.

Ronald E. Neufeld, B.S.W., L.A.D.A.C.

Mr. Neufeld is a licensed addictions counselor who began working in mental health and addictions in 1979. The Vanderbilt Institute for Treatment of Addiction (VITA) employed him from its inception in 1984 until 2002. Mr. Neufeld is currently the program director of the Vanderbilt Comprehensive Assessment Program, for professionals in high accountability positions.

 

Ginger Manley, M.S.N., R.N., C.S.

Ginger Manley is a nurse psychotherapist and sex therapist with over 25 years experience practicing and teaching in the field of sexual health. Her specialties include sexual addiction, sexual trauma, sexual dysfunction, and sexual boundary issues in health care practitioners. She retired from her Franklin, TN practice in 2005, where she had worked with individuals, couples, and groups. She is a clinical professor of Nursing in the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and an associate in Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical School. She is professionally certified as a Psychiatric / Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist by the American Nurse Credentialing Center, and as a Certified Diplomate of Sex Therapy and Certified Supervisor by the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists. She has published numerous articles in professional journals and is a frequent media guest, both regionally and nationally, as well as a popular workshop presenter across the country.

 

Michael Baron, M.D.

Dr. Mike Baron is board certified in Psychiatry, Addiction Medicine and Anesthesiology and uses this combination of expertise to care for patients that have addiction and chronic pain. He is currently a clinical assistant professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and is very involved in resident and medical student education. His private practice is located just off 21st Avenue in Nashville, TN, where he spends half of his clinical time. The other half is divided between being the medical director for Bradford Health Services for the Nashville, Clarksville and Franklin offices and the medical director for the Dual Stabilization Unit at the Parthenon Pavilion, Centennial Medical Center.

Tobi Fishel, Ph.D.

Dr. Fishel has been a faculty member of the departments of psychiatry, pediatrics and psychology since 1998. Her responsibilities include teaching, clinical practice, administrative, and research activities. As an educator, she teaches the first year medical school course, Mind and Medicine. In addition, she teaches cognitive behavioral therapy, health psychology, and family therapy to psychiatry and psychology residents, psychiatric child fellows, and psychology doctoral graduate students who are specializing in behavioral medicine. Currently, her research focuses on helping pediatric patients with chronic illness adequately transition to adult clinic settings. In her very active clinic practice, she treats children, teens, and adults in Vanderbilt Center for Integrative Health who have difficulties with trauma, coping with chronic illness, and family issues. In addition, a large proportion of her practice is devoted to helping physicians and their families better negotiate the stressful demands of home and the workplace. Moreover, Dr. Fishel has been involved in the resident core curriculum stress management course and facilitates small group discussions. Lastly, Dr. Fishel is very active in the community, participates in educational outreach, and she sits on many committees throughout the medical center as a mental health representative.
 

G. Waldon Garriss, III, M.D., M.S.

Waldon Garriss is an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University and also serves as the Program Director for Vanderbilt's combined Medicine-Pediatrics residency program. After receiving a M.S. in physiology and biophysics, he received a M.D. with honors from the University of North Carolina in 1993 and then did a combined residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Vanderbilt. While on the Vanderbilt house staff, he received on of the 1997 clinical teaching awards for his role in teaching medical students. Following his residency, he did a general medicine fellowship at the University of Virginia, where he completed his M.S. in epidemiology. His primary clinical focus is on management of chronic disease states. In his role as residency director, he has the opportunity to work with residents to manage patients with chronic painful conditions.
 

Linda L.M. Worley, MD

Dr. Worley is a visiting professor in the Vanderbilt Program for Distressed Physicians. She is a professor of Psychiatry with a secondary appointment in Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, where she has been faculty since 1992. She has special expertise in health care provider wellness, non-verbal communication, women’s mental health and psychosomatic medicine. Her current projects include: being an educational consultant in the UAMS Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology in women’s mental health; leading the development of a student wellness program to reach out to returning young soldiers who are attending rural community colleges in Arkansas; serving as the selected SVMIC (State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company) speaker to teach over 5,000 physicians in 2010 how to recognize non-verbal communications and how to remain vital and current in practice. Dr. Worley is also active on a national level in the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, is a Psychiatry Board Examiner and is a Past President of the Association for Academic Psychiatry. She received both the UAMS Outstanding Woman Faculty Award (for mentorship, leadership & achievement) and the Robert F. Shannon, M.D. Award (for contributions to psychiatric education in Arkansas) in 2008.

Diana Phillips, Sr. Executive Secretary

Marine Ghulyan, Research Analyst