Women's Mental Health Fellowship
The Department of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital provides a unique and robust setting for women’s mental health training with rich and varied clinical exposure across a variety of settings including subspecialty ambulatory, in hospital consultation liaison, and state perinatal access program. Trainees work in an interdisciplinary and collaborative team setting with clinicians from OBGYN, MFM, REI, and NICU teams. There is exposure to multiples areas of subspecialty within women’s mental health including reproductive psychiatry, mental health at midlife and beyond, perinatal addiction psychiatry, women’s mental health at the intersection of forensics/ethics, female cancer care. Elective rotation opportunities exist through McLean Hospital and other programs, where the fellow will be exposed to diagnosis and treatment of personality disorders, eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder across varied settings.
The program provides exciting subspecialty training opportunities for potential applicants interested in the ways sex and gender can exert a major influence on the course, expression and treatment of psychiatric disorders. Fellows will develop expertise in the psychiatric care of women, and in the assessment and treatment of psychiatric symptoms linked with
female reproductive cycle transitions. The fellowship emphasizes clinical experience, but also includes a scholarly project, the nature and scope of which depends on the fellow's interests. For those who are interested, there may be opportunities to expand the academic project to include a larger amount of protected research time throughout the course of the fellowship.
Why Brigham?
Our fellow will be trained in an extraordinarily rich clinical, educational, and research environment. BWH
has 8,000 deliveries per year and is world-renowned for expertise in psychiatry, gynecology, and neurology care, and ranks consistently as one the nation’s top ten hospitals according to US News and World Report. The BWH Research Institute is the second largest recipient of National Institutes of Health funding among independent hospitals in the United States, and is home to the landmark Nurses' Health Study and Women’s Health Initiative, two of the largest studies of women ever conducted. In addition, the Women's Mental Health and Reproductive Psychiatry Fellowship is one of the oldest WMH fellowships in the country, training fellows continuously since 2006.
Our Leadership Team
Polina Teslyar, MD
Program Director
Dr. Polina Teslyar completed medical school at Tufts School of Medicine, psychiatry residency at the University of Maryland/Sheppard Pratt Psychiatry Residency Program, followed by Consult-Liaison Psychiatry fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Teslyar is board certified in general psychiatry, CL psychiatry and addiction medicine. Dr. Teslyar joined the BWH Psychiatry faculty in 2019 when she returned to work in CL psychiatry and women’s mental health and reproductive psychiatry. Dr. Teslyar is the Medical Director of Women’s Mental Health and Reproductive Psychiatry as well as Director of the Women’s Mental Health and Reproductive Psychiatry fellowship and core faculty for women’s mental health training in the psychiatry residency program. In addition to being a psychiatric consultant for MCPAP for Moms, Dr. Teslyar is also the Associate Director of the Substance Use Disorder program for MCPAP for Moms. Dr. Teslyar’s focus has been on education and collaborative care across OBGYN, MFM, NICU, and psychiatry.
Natalie Feldman, MD
Associate Program Director
Dr. Natalie Feldman is a psychiatrist and researcher in the BWH Division of Women's Mental Health and Reproductive Psychiatry. She completed medical school at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and her residency and fellowship training at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and is board-certified in Psychiatry. She is the Director of Perinatal Anxiety Research in the Mood Disorder Research Program at BWH. Her research focuses on perinatal mental health, with a particular focus on postpartum anxiety and the development of innovative tools for its assessment and treatment. She is the Assistant Director of the BWH Women's Mental Health Fellowship and supervises residents on the preconception consult rotation. She is also a psychiatric consultant for MCPAP for Moms.
Arianna Bouchard
Program Coordinator
In her role as Program Administrator, Arianna supports the Psychiatry Residency Program, Women's Mental Health Fellowship, and Clinical Psychology Internship Program. Her education role includes coordinating for the resident didactic series, department Morbidity & Mortality Rounds, and integrated MGB Psychiatry Grand Rounds along with program leadership. Arianna is a graduate of Boston University’s College of Communication where she received a Bachelor of Science in Journalism.
Our Current Fellows
Chelsea Shannon, MD
Residency
UCLA
Rebecca Yoon, MD
Residency
University of North Carolina
Our Past Fellows
AY 2026 Fellows
Sitara Soundararajan-Shah, MD
Residency
Montefiore Medical Center
Position After Graduation
WMH Psychiatrist - Academic Medical Center
Diana Nakad-Rodriguez, MD
Residency
Atrium Health, North Carolina
Position After Graduation
Adult Reproductive Psychiatrist - Private Practice
AY 2025 Fellows
Samina Mahesar, MD
Residency
Westchester Medical Center
Position After Graduation
Associate Psychiatrist - Academic Medical Center
Marissa Caan, MD
Residency
HMS/CHA
Position After Graduation
Associate Psychiatrist - Academic Medical Center
AY 2024 Fellows
AY 2023 Fellow
Natalie Feldman, MD
Residency
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Position After Graduation
Attending Psychiatrist - Academic Medical Center
Sara Kashani, MD
Residency
University of Ilinois, Chicago
Position After Graduation
Psychiatrist - Private Practice
Marlee Madora, MD
Residency
Montefiore Medical Center
Position After Graduation
Reproductive Psychiatrist - Academic Medical Center
AY 2022 Fellows
AY 2020 Fellow
Jennifer Okwerekwu, MD
Residency
HMS/CHA
Position After Graduation
Emergency Psychiatrist - Medical Center
Gali Hashmonay, MD
Residency
SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Position After Graduation
Associate Psychiatrist - Academic Medical Center
Priya Kumar-Kaparaboyna, MD
Residency
Brown University
Position After Graduation
Perinatal Psychiatrist in Academic Medical Center
AY 2019 Fellow
AY 2018 Fellow
AY 2017 Fellow
Kate Lieb, MD
Residency
Sackler SOM at Tel Aviv University
Position After Graduation
WMH Private Practice in Colorado
Dorothy Chyung, MD
Residency
New York Presbyterian Hospital - Cornell
Position After Graduation
CAP Psychiatrist, Texas Childrens Hospital
Margo Nathan, MD
Residency
Johns Hopkins
Position After Graduation
Assistant Professor, Reproductive Psychiatry Fellowship Director - UNC Chapel Hill
AY 2016 Fellow
AY 2015 Fellow
AY 2014 Fellow
Kara Brown, MD
Residency
McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University
Position After Graduation
WMH Private Practice in Louisianna
Marley Doyle, MD
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Residency
Northwestern Univeristy
Position After Graduation
WMH in academic program in Nebraska
Deborah Knudson-Gonzalez, MD
Residency
University of Puerto Rico
Position After Graduation
WMH in Academic Program in Florida
Employment Compensation
Clinical fellows receive appointments to Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. All trainees shall be employees of Brigham and Women's Hospital and will receive salary, benefits and liability insurance coverage. Visit the Mass General Brigham site for more information pertaining to graduate medical education. The Mass General Brigham Office of Resources for Trainees provides further details surrounding salary, benefits and employee services.
How to Apply
Application Timeline
Application Period:
Applications are accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis. Interested applicants are encouraged to contact us as soon as possible.
Interview Invitations:
As applications are received and reviewed, qualified candidates will be invited for an interview day. We begin accepting applications in May, with the plan to conduct interviews in late summer until full. We encourage early application as interviews are conducted on a rolling basis.
Eligibility Requirements:
Potential applicants who do not have US citizenship or permanent residency in the US should contact us before submitting their application.
Applicants must have completed an ACGME-accredited psychiatry residency before the fellowship begins and can be licensed to practice medicine in Massachusetts.
For more information about the fellowship and the application requirements, please contact the Women's Mental Health Fellowship coordinator at wmhfellowship@bwh.harvard.edu
