Resilience, Trauma, and Breakthroughs with Dr. Dennis Charney
In this episode of The Vitals podcast, Leslie Schlachter, PA, Chief Physician Assistant in the Department of Neurosurgery, hosts a discussion regarding the role of resilience in both professional and personal struggles. She is joined by Dennis S. Charney, MD, the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs for the Mount Sinai Health System. Dr. Charney explains how resilience helped guide him following an unsuccessful attempt on his life, and through the rigors of scientific discovery.
Leslie Schlachter: [00:00:00] Hi. Welcome to the Vitals, Mount Sinai Health System's newest video podcast. I'm your host, Leslie Schlater, a neurosurgery physician assistant. Today I'm grateful for the opportunity to have an intimate one-on-one interview with Dr. Dennis Charney, Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Health System.
Dean Dennis Charney is a psychiatrist, researcher, scientist. Author leader and has devoted his life to the neurobiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders. He's not only committed to researching and teaching resilience, but he's experienced it himself in the most personal way. He went to medical school at Penn State, completed his residency at Yale and Fellowship at the Connecticut Medical Health Center.
Prior to coming to Mount Sinai, he led the mood and anxiety research program at the National Institute of Mental Health. And he was on the faculty at the Department of Psychiatry at Yale. [00:01:00] He was elected to the National Institute of Medicine in 2000, and then Dr. Charney became the Dean of Research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 2004, later becoming the Dean of Academic and Scientific Affairs.
Then in 2007, he became the dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He has five children, nine grandchildren, and is known for his love of sports. In weightlifting. I'm thrilled to have him here. Thank you so much for coming today.
Dr. Dennis Charney: Happy to be here.
Leslie Schlachter: Yeah. Do you remember the first time that we met?
Dr. Dennis Charney: I do. If we're thinking about the same thing.
Leslie Schlachter: Okay. You wanna tell, do you wanna tell the story how we met?
Dr. Dennis Charney: Well, we're at the, one of the, the crystal party.
Leslie Schlachter: That actually wasn't the first time that we met. Oh. We met in the Annenberg lobby during the, like a basketball shooting contest. Okay. And, um. You came up to me and you asked me who I was and I said, who are you?