Friday, Januray 23
Time
Adult Track
Child Track
7:30am-8:30am
Breakfast/Registration
8:30am-9:00am
Welcome and Opening Address from the SCPA President
9:00am – 10:00am
SC Department of Behavioral Health &
Developmental Disabilities Overview
Robin Crawford
Child Track #1 , John Walkup, MD
10:00am – 10:30am
Exhibit Hall Opens
10:30am – 11:30pm
Behavioral Issues in the Intellectually
Disabled: When Psychiatric Diagnosis
is not the Cause
Jesse Raley, MD
Child Track #2, John Walkup, MD
11:30am-12:30pm
Advanced Treatment Options for
Severe Perinatal Mood and Anxiety
Disorders, Neha Hudepohl, MD
Child Track #3, John Walkup, MD
12:30pm – 1:30pm
Lunch
1:30pm – 2:30pm
The Language We Use: Acknowledging
the Effects of Language in
Undergraduate Medical Education,
Andrew Alkis, MD
Child Track #4, John Walkup, MD
2:30pm-3:30pm
SC Healthy Connections Medicaid
Update, Kevin Wessinger, MD
ASD Updates and Resources, Caroline Nardi, MD
3:30pm-4:30pm
Waiting for Connection: Problematic
Parental Phone Use and Attachment,
Jacob “Austin” Kaiser, MD
Top 10 Pediatrics Articles of 2025, Duncan Norton, MD
& Michael Lever, MD
4:30pm – 6:00pm
Resident/Student Poster Presentations and Judging
6:00pm-7:00pm
President’s Reception & Mixer
7:30pm-9:00pm
Resident Mind Games Competition
Saturday, January 24th
Time
Adult Track Only
7:00am – 8:00am
Breakfast/Registration/Exhibits
8:00am-9:00am
Being with Grief, Jeffrey Black, MD
9:00am-10:00am
Neuroplasticity On-Demand: What Ketamine and Psychedelics Reveal About the Future of Mental Health Treatment, Jennifer Jones, MD
10:00am-11:00am
Addressing Stigma in Mental Health: Understanding our Past and Shaping our Future, Thomas Lewis, MD
11:00am-11:30am
Break and Exhibits
11:30am-12:30pm
Sex, Drugs, and Mental Health: A Clinician’s Guide to Desire & Dysfunction, Brittany Albright, MD & Veronica Ridpath, DO
12:30pm-1:30pm
Lunch, Business Meeting and Awards
1:30pm-2:30pm
AI and the Metamorphosis of Dementia Care, Ipsit Vahia, MD
2:30pm-3:30pm
Buprenorphine Induction Strategies in the Era of Fentanyl, Jessica Obeysekare, MD & Michelle Strong, NP
Dr. Brittany Albright is a Harvard-trained, board-certified adult and addiction psychiatrist based in Charleston, SC, and is the founder and CEO of Sweetgrass Psychiatry, the largest physician-owned psychiatry practice in South Carolina. She serves as an affiliate assistant professor at the Medical University of South Carolina and is a national speaker and educator on mental health issues. She is the co-chair of Psych Congress Elevate and is on the Psych Congress Steering Committee. She also serves as the Vice President of the South Carolina Psychiatric Association.
Dr. Andrew Alkis graduated from Clemson University in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. During his time at Clemson, he became a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. He earned his medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina, where he now serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Psychiatry Clerkship Co-Director. He completed residency at the University of Virginia Health System, where he also served as chief resident. He is board-certified in Psychiatry and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, having completed his C-L training at George Washington University/Inova Fairfax Hospital. He is a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society and Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. Dr. Alkis has been honored with several prestigious awards, including two MUSC Psychiatry Golden Apple Awards for outstanding medical student didactic teaching. He works with the MUSC Center for Telehealth as Behavioral Health Integration Lead Physician and is the Lead Psychiatrist in the College of Charleston Counseling Center. His career interests include medical education, primary care behavioral health integration, telepsychiatry, and student mental health.
Dr. Jeffrey Black has over 25 + years of experience beginning in private practice seeing mostly children, adolescents and young adults. His focus then was PTSD, and he took this area of expertise to work with the Defense Health Agency seeing active-duty marines and sailors for 10 years. He joined Prisma in 2023 and primarily focuses on therapeutic modalities for treating trauma as well as processing grief and experiences surrounding death and dying. As disease is the absence of vibrant health, Dr. Black believes in an integrative approach to medicine and the importance of psychotherapy in psychiatric practice.
Robin Crawford serves as the Director of Governmental Affairs for the newly created SC Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (BHDD). She served in the same role at the SC Department of Mental Health before it was merged with the SC Department of Disabilities and Special Needs and the SC Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Use Services to create SCBHDD in April 2025.
Prior to this, Robin was with McGuireWoods Consulting for nine years where she was a Research Associate and then Assistant Vice President of State Government Relations. She has a Master of Public Administration from Clemson University and a Master of Science in Communication from Purdue University. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of South Carolina.
In her free time Robin likes to spend time with her wife Chelsea, their K9 Charlie, their civilian dog Augie, and their cats Penny and Peanut.
Dr. Neha Hudepohl completed her undergraduate education at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, and medical school at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, TN. She completed her general adult psychiatry residency training at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in 2010. She was appointed Assistant Professor (Clinician Educator) at Brown University – Alpert Medical School following her graduation and was the Medical Director of the Center for Women’s Behavioral Health at Women & Infants Hospital until 2019. There, she founded and led a Women’s Mental Health fellowship training program in 2013. In 2019, Dr. Hudepohl joined Prisma Health/University of South Carolina School of Medicine – Greenville as the Director of the Women’s Mental Health Program and the Program Director of the Greenville Psychiatry residency program.
She was promoted to Clinical Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine – Greenville in 2021. In 2022, she became the Interim Vice Chair of Academic Affairs for the Department of Psychiatry, and in 2023 took on that role full-time. She served in the role as residency Program Director until June, 2024. Her clinical and academic interests including screening and care models for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, perinatal ethics and decision-making, and medical education. She currently directs the Mother Infant Wellness Program, a mother-infant program for severe perinatal mood and anxiety disorders at Prisma Health in Greenville, South Carolina.
Dr. Jennifer Jones, M.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and the Director of the Centerspace Clinic, which provides innovative clinical services for treatment-resistant depression and other complex mental health disorders. Dr. Jones’ academic work focuses on the neurobiology of rapid-acting antidepressants, including mechanisms of neuroplasticity, and the therapeutic applications of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. She has served as a study physician and therapist on Phase 3 MDMA-assisted therapy trials and has led multiple ongoing research projects at MUSC investigating ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and the role of neuroplasticity-promoting medications in mental health treatment.
In addition to her clinical and research work, Dr. Jones has developed the nation’s first hands-on, longitudinal interdisciplinary training program in ketamine and psychedelic-assisted therapies. This curriculum provides structured clinical and didactic training for psychiatry residents, psychology trainees, and other mental health clinicians.
Dr. Jones is nationally recognized for her expertise in ketamine and esketamine treatment and integrative approaches that combine medication-assisted interventions with psychotherapy. She is committed to the translation of complex science into practical, evidence-based approaches that support meaningful recovery for patients.
Dr. Jacob Kaiser is a general psychiatrist and clinical faculty at the Prisma Upstate-USC general psychiatry residency program in Greer, SC. He currently serves as the medical director for the Greer Center for Psychiatry. He received his medical degree from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, and completed his general psychiatry residency at the Prisma Upstate-USC psychiatry residency program in Greer. His current clinical and teaching interests include psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychotherapy-informed approaches to medication management.”
Dr. Thomas Lewis is a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). He also completed his medical school and residency training in general psychiatry at MUSC. He then went on to complete an addiction psychiatry fellowship and a forensic psychiatry fellowship.
In his current role, Dr. Lewis is the attending physician on the addictions inpatient unit at the MUSC Institute of Psychiatry. He also serves as the forensic psychiatry fellowship director. Dr. Lewis has been recognized as an expert witness in forensic psychiatry by the South Carolina court of general sessions. He also conducts forensic evaluations and has provided psychiatric treatment to inmates within the South Carolina Department of Corrections. Dr. Lewis is involved in organizational psychiatry. He is a South Carolina American Psychiatric Association Assembly representative and a national membership committee member. Dr. Lewis has also served as President of the South Carolina Psychiatric Association, the only state-wide association for psychiatric physicians in South Carolina, representing over 400 members.
Dr. Jessica Obeysekare, is a psychiatrist at Prisma Health. She trained at Brown University for medical school and residency, and is board certified in psychiatry and addiction medicine. She is a clinical assistant professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville and Clemson University School of Health Research. Dr. Obeysekare is the Program Director for the Greer Psychiatry Residency program. Clinically, she splits her time between outpatient reproductive psychiatry and addiction medicine consults.
Dr. Jesse Raley is in private practice in Columbia, SC. He is board-certified in Forensic Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and General Psychiatry. His practice is made up of outpatient treatment in his private practice, private forensic psychiatry in a variety of settings, and psychiatric consultation with OID formerly known as DDSN. He has been in practice since 2011.
Dr. Ipsit Vahia, is a geriatric psychiatrist, clinician, and researcher. He is the chief of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry and the Corrigan-Minehan Endowed Chair in Psychiatry at McLean Hospital. He is also director of the Technology and Aging Laboratory. His research focuses on the use of technology and informatics in the assessment and management of older adults and currently, he oversees a clinical and research program on aging, behavior, and technology. He has published extensively in major international journals and textbooks.
Dr. Vahia serves on the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Council on Geriatric Psychiatry and the Geriatric Psychiatry Committee of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He has served on the board of directors of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) and on the editorial boards of five journals including his current role as social media editor of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. He is a recipient of several prestigious awards including the 2016 AAGP Barry Lebowitz Award and the 2014 APA Hartford Jeste Award.
Dr. Kevin Wessinger became Chief Medical Officer at South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services in January 2023. Prior to that, he was a general pediatrician at Sandhills Pediatrics for 33 and 1/2 years and served as CEO of the South Carolina Pediatric Alliance from 2015 through 2022. He also served in several leadership positions in the Palmetto/Prisma Health medical system and within the SC Chapter of the AAP including President from 2016 to 2018 and Chair of Pediatric Council from 2015 through 2022. While serving as the Chair of the SC Pediatric Council, Dr. Wessinger successfully advocated for Medicaid coverage in South Carolina for postpartum depression screening, and depression and anxiety screening in adolescents, and he was closely involved with the development of Medicaid coverage for the Collaborative Care Model for behavioral health.
