Huntsman Mental Health Institute (HMHI) is proud to recognize the following Department of Psychiatry faculty who have been promoted in rank in the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine. Promotions are awarded when an individual has achieved excellence in the School of Medicine's mission areas.
We applaud our incredible faculty for their innovative psychiatric pursuits. Their work extends beyond HMHI, the School of Medicine, and the Department of Psychiatry and makes a tremendous impact on the field of psychiatry to improve the mental health of our communities here in Utah and beyond.
Elizabeth Howell, MD, MS - Promoted to Professor of Psychiatry (Clinical)
Elizabeth Howell, MD, MS, has transformed addiction specialty training through her work in Utah and nationally. While serving as President of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), she initiated the ASAM Medical Specialty Action Group which led to the official formation of the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM) and The Addiction Medicine Foundation. She subsequently served on the inaugural Boards of both organizations. Dr. Howell has been recognized as a Distinguished Life Fellow in the American Psychiatric Association since 2017 and as a Distinguished Fellow in the ASAM since 2016. She has served as the program director for the Addiction Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine fellowships at the University of Utah since their inception in 2010 and 2016, respectively. Dr. Howell is also the Principal Investigator for a NIDA Clinical Trials Network project (CTN-0100) on Opioid Use Disorder. She provides clinical care on the inpatient Addiction Consult Service at University of Utah Hospital and on the adult inpatient service at HMHI.
Paula Gibbs, MD - Promoted to Associate Professor (Clinical)
Paula Gibbs, MD, began her career in the Department of Psychiatry 29 years ago following her previous career as a board-certified family practice physician in Park City. Early in her career, Dr. Gibbs became the first psychiatrist in Utah to develop expertise in HIV Psychiatry and has provided psychiatric care to people living with HIV/AIDs in the University of Utah HIV clinic for 25 years. This HIV clinic has the distinction of becoming the first medical home at the University of Utah and has won numerous national awards. Dr. Gibbs represented the University of Utah in the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) consortium. This consortium of academic medical centers across the US advanced medical care for Kenyan people with HIV/AIDs. She traveled to Africa to support the establishment of a psychiatric service line within Moi University Medical Center's HIV clinic. From 2013 to 2020, Dr. Gibbs served as Medical Director of the University Hospital's Med-Psych Unit and continues to see patients in this setting as well as the outpatient Mental Health Integration Clinic. Dr. Gibb has contributed extensively to high quality psychiatric education in Utah and across the Intermountain West through her roles as the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine's MS III Clerkship Director and as creator and lead mentor for University of Utah Health's Project ECHO for Behavioral Health.
Jeremy Kendrick, MD - Promoted to Associate Professor (Clinical)
Jeremy Kendrick, MD, joined the University faculty after completing residency in Pediatrics and a combined residency/fellowship in Adult, Child, and Adolescent Psychiatry, maintaining board certification in all three specialties. He currently practices inpatient/day treatment child and adolescent psychiatry at HMHI and works with all ages in the University's Treatment Resistant Mood Disorders Clinic. He is co-founder and Director of the HMHI University of Utah Department of Psychiatry Ketamine Clinic and his expertise in ketamine infusion protocols is recognized by state agencies as his recommendations are sought to guide the evaluation of ketamine infusion programs in community settings. Dr. Kendrick has presented on best practices for ketamine infusion at statewide and regional conferences. Nationally, Dr. Kendrick has participated in two American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Committees -- Health Information Technology and Systems of Care. He has subsequently co-authored three policy statements arising from the work of these committees. As an appointed provider informaticist for University of Utah Health, Dr. Kendrick has led the Department of Psychiatry's patient reported outcomes measurement-based care initiative. This work focuses on ensuring the use of patient reported outcomes tools in clinical care to measure treatment effects objectively. Dr. Kendrick also led (as site principal investigator) a National Institute of Health SBIR-funded clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of HealthRhythms, a smartphone-based technology targeting mood disorders. This study's success led to Dr. Kendrick's current role as clinical consultant supporting the extension of HealthRhythms' application to insomnia and alcohol use disorder.
Kristi Kleinschmit, MD - Promoted to Associate Professor (Clinical)
Kristi Kleinschmit, MD, completed a Triple Board internship/residency at the University of Utah, and holds board certifications in Pediatrics, Adult Psychiatry, and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. She is the Vice Chair of Education for HMHI/University of Utah Department of Psychiatry, and training program Director for the Triple Board Residency and Child Psychiatry Fellowship Programs. She is a Fellow of the University of Utah Academy of Health Sciences Educators and has held national leadership positions including as President of the National Association for Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Training Programs and Co-Chair of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) Triple Board and Post Pediatric Portal Committee. Kleinschmit's efforts to promote wellness among resident and fellow trainees has led to collaborations with training directors across the US. Through these collaborations, Dr. Kleinschmit has presented nationally to the American Association of Directors of Psychiatry Residency Training (AADPRT) and published on the implementation of organizational strategies to promote resident well-being. She also contributed to the “WELL Toolkit” for graduate medical education, which is published online and housed at the University of Pittsburgh. As an attending psychiatrist at HMHI, Dr. Kleinschmit provides clinical services for children and adolescents in the partial hospital program. She also provides consultation services to primary care providers across Utah through the psychiatric consultative service that she co-founded, CALL-UP.
Michelle Vo, MD - Promoted to Associate Professor (Clinical)
Michelle Vo, MD, completed the Triple Board Residency training in Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Utah and maintains board certification in all three disciplines. Dr. Vo was first appointed Director, and now serves of Senior Director, of Student Wellness at the University of Utah School of Medicine. The Wellness Curricula that she developed is taught in both University of Utah Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Vo has also presented the Wellness Curricula at the Western Region Graduate Educational Affairs/AAMC Conference. Through her work with School of Medicine stakeholders, Dr. Vo developed a Professional Growth Team to address mild-to-moderate breaches in professional student conduct from a growth-oriented and strengths-based consultation approach.
Dr. Vo is an advisory board member for the National Learning Collaborative. She has brought to Utah the curriculum and framework of this collaborative's nationally-implemented Relational Leadership Initiative. This initiative applies systems-based, positive mental health principles to organizational community engagement and system-level interventions. As Relational Leadership Initiative Course Co-Director, she leads a multidisciplinary health leader team in the implementation and evaluation of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion-informed organizational leadership training. Dr. Vo has led the dissemination of her team's work throughout University of Utah Health and to Primary Children's Hospital and the American Association of Directors of Psychiatry Residency Training. Dr. Vo's clinical practice has focused on early childhood psychiatry. She worked for several years at The Children's Center, progressing from staff psychiatrist to Medical Director. Dr. Vo now serves as the early childhood psychiatry consultant for children ages 0-6 who are prescribed psychiatric medications in state custody through the Utah Psychotropic Oversight Program (UPOP).
Thomas Conover, MD - Promoted to Associate Professor (Clinical)
Thomas Conover, MD, completed residency training in Pediatrics/Psychiatry/Child Psychiatry at the University of Utah and maintains board certification in all three specialties. Dr. Conover's contributions to professional mental health education include the peer-reviewed Depression Module for the Department of Pediatrics and Utah Department of Health's Utah Medical Home Portal. This online resource provides primary care providers with evidence-based treatment algorithms for the management of depression in the primary care setting. For over a decade, Dr. Conover has also overseen curriculum and content development as CME Director for the Critical Issues Facing Children and Adolescents Conference.
During his 12-year tenure as Youth Services Medical Director, Dr. Conover has provided the physician oversight and leadership necessary to support substantial growth in existing youth psychiatric service lines and new service line development. Bed capacity more than doubled; inpatient units expanded from a single unit to four; and an adolescent residential treatment center was established. Accompanying this growth was the opportunity to create specialized acute care settings for youth with severe neurodevelopmental disabilities and a destination care program, the Comprehensive Assessment and Treatment Program. Through Dr. Conover's leadership, HMHI has successfully expanded its inpatient and subacute child and adolescent psychiatry capacity to accommodate growth and support specialization. Because Youth Services provides an excellent setting for academic work, Dr. Conover has also facilitated research participant recruitment for multiple studies conducted by investigators in the University Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, on main campus.
Kelly L. Konopacki, PhD - Promoted to Assistant Professor (Clinical)
Kelly L. Konopacki, PhD, completed her Neuropsychology Internship at the University of Missouri-Columbia and neuropsychology fellowship at Kaiser Permanente (KP)-Roseville, California. Before joining our faculty, Dr. Konopacki practiced lifespan neuropsychological assessments as well as concussion evaluations and management in the Department of Psychiatry at Kaiser Permanente. She was also a clinical supervisor for the postdoctoral neuropsychological fellowship training program.
Dr. Konopacki's clinical interests span a broad range of pediatric, adolescent, and adult neuropsychological assessment and differential diagnosis. As the lead neuropsychologist in the Department of Psychiatry Clinic for Neuropsychology Services, she has expanded the patient population served to include pediatric and adolescent patients. In the HMHI Geriatric Psychiatric Clinic, Dr. Konopacki evaluates older adults with mental health concerns related to mood, behavioral, and neurocognitive disorders. Dr. Konopacki also serves as the team neuropsychologist for Real Salt Lake.