Teach Recovery

Alice Medalia, Ph.D.

Professor of Medical Psychology 
Director of Psychiatric Rehabilitation 
Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Dr. Medalia is an international leader in the field of psychiatric rehabilitation, who focuses on the treatment of neuropsychological disorders in psychiatric illness. She developed the widely used NEAR (Neuropsychological & Educational Approach to Remediation) model to help people with mental illness improve their thinking skills in such areas as attention, memory, processing speed and problem solving. She lectures and consults to agencies worldwide and conducts training workshops for clinicians who want to learn how to provide cognitive remediation to psychiatric patients. Dr Medalia works with policy makers, researchers, clinicians, families and patients to bring awareness about the impact of cognitive dysfunction on recovery. In order to facilitate greater awareness about cognition in the rehabilitation field, she started the largest conference on this topic, Cognitive Remediation in Psychiatry, which takes place the first Friday in June in New York City. Her research focuses on the factors that impact a successful recovery of neuropsychological functions. Dr Medalia’s contributions as a Neuropsychologist, Researcher and Advocate of Cognitive Remediation have won her awards from professional and advocacy groups.

Wikipedia Profile
Columbia University Faculty Profile
2012 Brain Behavior Foundation Productive Lives Award Winner
CNN feature on cognitive remediation in psychiatry

Tiffany Herlands

Clinical Director, The Lieber Clinic 
Director of Rehabilitation, Columbia University Psychiatry, Eastside 
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry 
Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons

Dr. Herlands received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Ferkauf Graduate School of Yeshiva University. She completed a clinical internship in neuropsychology on the neuropsychiatric service at Montefiore Medical Center. After completing her internship, Dr. Herlands was awarded the Marie Kessel Fellowship, a clinical and research fellowship in the neurocognition and treatment of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Following the fellowship, Dr. Herlands became an attending neuropsychologist at Montefiore Medical Center and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. In 2006, she was promoted to Director of Neuropsychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center. Later that year, she joined Columbia University to take part in the development of the Lieber Clinic and was appointed Clinical Director. Dr. Herlands lectures regularly on a broad range of topics related to rehabilitation and recovery in psychotic disorders, intrinsic motivation, and cognition, and consults on complex cases.

Columbia University Faculty Profile

Enid Gertmenian-King, LCSW

Therapist

Ms. Gertmenian-King has been a clinical social worker at the Columbia University Day Treatment Program since 2008. She received her Bachelor degree from Eugene Lang College where she majored in psychology and literature. She worked on several NIMH-funded research projects for the next five years, and then completed a graduate degree in social work at the Columbia University School of Social Work with a focus on mental health. She worked at several community mental health programs before joining Columbia University Department Of Psychiatry’s Day Treatment Program and the Lieber Clinic. Here, she has developed curriculum for groups to address executive functioning and self-esteem problems for individuals with ADHD as well as for those with mood and psychotic disorders. She has also adapted Dialectical Behavioral Treatment (DBT) for individuals with psychotic disorders.