Geriatric Psychiatry Research Program Members

Director

Brent Forester, MD, MSc

Brent P. Forester, MD, MSc, is the Chief of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry at McLean Hospital, Medical Director for Behavioral Health and Evaluation & Research at Partners Population Health and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Forester is an expert in geriatric psychiatry, specializing in the treatment of older adults with depression, bipolar disorder, and behavioral complications of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. He is currently President-Elect of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and has previously served on the Board of Directors and Chair of the Medical-Scientific Committee of the Alzheimer’s Association of Massachusetts/New Hampshire.

Dr. Forester graduated from Dartmouth Medical School in 1992 as a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He completed an internship in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a Residency in Psychiatry at McLean Hospital. Following this, he completed a fellowship in geriatric psychiatry at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. He returned to McLean Hospital in 2002 as the Medical Director of the Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Unit.

At McLean Hospital, Dr. Forester currently leads two NIA-funded R01 multi-center clinical trial R01 grants to study novel treatment approaches, including dronabinol and electroconvulsive therapy, to manage behavioral complications of dementia, such as agitation and aggression. He also uses brain imaging techniques and careful clinical assessment to better understand the causes of depression and bipolar disorder in later life and to identify promising new targets for effective treatments.

In his role as Medical Director for Behavioral Health at Partners Population Health, Dr. Forester works with multidisciplinary teams of healthcare professionals to integrate psychiatric assessment and treatment into primary care settings, with a focus on depression, anxiety and substance use disorders. He is currently leading a healthcare system-wide Memory Care Initiative at Partners Health Care to bring a collaborative care model for dementia assessment and treatment into the primary care setting.

Dr. Forester has published numerous articles and book chapters on topics including Geriatric Bipolar Disorder, the Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia, and Late Life Depression. He also served a co-editor of the textbook, Bipolar Disorder in Older Age Patients, published by Springer in 2017.

Associate Director

David Harper, PhD

David G. Harper, Ph.D. is the Associate Director of Research in the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry. He serves as an Associate Psychologist at McLean Hospital and is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Harper earned his Ph.D. in experimental psychology and neuroscience at Tufts University in 2000.

Dr. Harper’s chief research interests are in the development of disease modifying therapies to be used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, understanding the behavioral and psychological symptoms seen in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative dementias, and understanding cognitive disturbances in late life mood disorders. Dr. Harper uses a variety of tools in these studies, including resting state fMRI to quantify brain connectivity, analyzing cerebral blood flow in various psychiatric and neurological conditions and phosphorus spectroscopy to examine bioenergetics and cell membrane metabolism.

Dr. Harper has published widely in journals including Archives of General Psychiatry (now JAMA Psychiatry), Neurobiology of Aging, Brain, Neuropsychopharmacology and The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. He has written numerous book chapters on subjects ranging from sleep and circadian rhythm disturbances in Alzheimer’s disease to phosphorus spectroscopy in psychiatric illness.

Co-Investigators

Ipsit Vahia, MD

Dr. Vahia is the Medical Director of the Institute for Technology in Psychiatry and the Geriatric Psychiatry Outpatient Programs at McLean Hospital and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. A board-certified geriatric psychiatrist, he completed medical training at Grant Medical College in Mumbai, India and graduated from residency in Psychiatry at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York in June 2007. He completed a research fellowship in geriatric psychiatry at the University of California San Diego in 2009, and clinical fellowship in geriatric psychiatry in 2013.

Dr. Vahia serves on the American Psychiatric Association (APA)’s Council on Geriatric Psychiatry, the geriatric psychiatry committee of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and has serves on the Board of Directors of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP). He has been awarded the AAGP’s Barry Lebowitz Award and the APA’s Hartford Jeste Award for his work in Geriatric Psychiatry.

Dr. Vahia’s research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the John A. Hartford Foundation, the Regents of the University of California, the Once Upon a Time Foundation, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Harvard Aging Initiative.

Regan Patrick, PhD

Dr. Regan Patrick, PhD, is a research associate in the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry and the Neuropsychology Department. His clinical work focuses on neuropsychological and psychodiagnostic assessment in adult and geriatric patients. His research uses cognitive and brain imaging techniques to better understand the causes and consequences of psychiatric and neurocognitive disorders.

In 2014, Dr. Patrick received his PhD in psychology from McMaster University, where his research examining the cognitive and neural mechanisms of schizophrenia was funded by the prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). He went on to complete an APA-accredited internship at the Medical University of South Carolina, with an emphasis in neuropsychological assessment and research. Dr. Patrick then completed a fellowship in adult and geriatric neuropsychology at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, where he has since remained.

Clinicians

Jennifer Holiman, MSN

Jennifer Holiman, MSN, APRN/CNP, PMPHNP-BC, is a full-time Geriatric Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner in the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry. Her clinical work focuses primarily on outpatient psychopharmacological management in the older adult population. She also performs clinical assessments for ongoing research projects and provides oversight as a sub-investigator for multiple clinical trials in McLean’s Geriatric Psychiatry Research Program.

Jennifer completed her undergraduate nursing degree at Loma Linda University School of Nursing in 2011 and her advanced practice nursing degree at Regis College in 2019. During her time at Regis College, she was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. Jennifer also completed part of her student training at Mclean Hospital's Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Unit and Hill Center for Women. She is a board certified Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and an active member in the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA). Jennifer is also a member of the Nursing Research McLean Group, and her research interests include neuropsychiatric and behavioral management in patients with dementia. She is currently pursuing a research project on “De-escalation in Older Adults with Dementia,” which will be presented at the APNA Annual Conference this Fall, 2020.

Jacob C. Holzier, MD

Following service in the U.S. Air Force, Jacob C. Holzer MD completed medical school and a medicine internship at Tufts University, psychiatry residency at Yale University, and fellowships in clinical neuroscience research at Yale and neuropsychiatry/behavioral neurology at Beth Israel Hospital/Harvard University. Since completing training, he has provided direct clinical care in neuropsychiatry, psychopharmacology, and geriatric psychiatry, in addition to consultation in forensic psychiatry and legal medicine. His academic focus has involved teaching, writing and research in various aspects of forensic psychiatry, including research in different forms of capacity assessment and cognitive variables, patient safety and error reduction, and geriatric forensic psychiatry. In addition to ABPN Board Certification in General and Forensic Psychiatry, he received Massachusetts DMH Forensic Division Certification. Past awards have included the Tufts faculty award, Partners in Excellence Award, Future Leaders in Psychiatry, Larry H. Strasburger MD Award from the Harvard Program in Psychiatry and the Law, and the Manfred S. Guttmacher Award from the APA. He was the lead co-editor in a textbook recently published in geriatric forensic psychiatry through Oxford University Press. In recent years, he has developed an academic focus on the relationship of forensic mental health and national security, and has given numerous presentations in this area at clinical and non-clinical sites, including the US Naval War College, the USMC University, the National Intelligence University, and the FBI, and he is now a co-editor of a new book currently being written on a multi-disciplinary approach to lone-actor terrorism.

James M. Wilkins, MD

James M. Wilkins, MD, DPhil, is medical director of the Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Program at McLean Hospital and a site director of the Partners HealthCare Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship. Dr. Wilkins’ clinical interests include care of people with dementia and their families. His academic interests lie at the interface of geriatric psychiatry and bioethics with a focus on the ethical aspects of decision-making, particularly surrogate decision-making for people with dementia.

Alexis Freedberg, MD

Alexis Freedberg, MD, is a geriatric psychiatrist specializing in the complex medical and behavioral needs of older adults. Prior to coming to McLean, she oversaw clinical training as core psychiatry faculty at Cambridge Health Alliance, was an associate professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine, an associate program director for the psychiatry residency at Tufts University, and the associate medical director of inpatient geriatric medical psychiatry at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Freedberg earned an award at Tufts for outstanding faculty teaching. As medical director of behavioral health for Perfect Health, she leads a team providing mental health care for frail homebound older adults with complex medical needs, utilizing a primary care integration platform to improve access and outcomes. Her clinical expertise spans acute and community settings, including hospitals, ECT services, assisted living facilities, and patients’ homes.