Psychiatry Program Faculty
Dr. Denese Shervington
Assistant Dean, Graduate Medical Education
Professor and Chair, Psychiatry Department
Dr. Denese Shervington is the Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Charles Drew University School of Medicine. A graduate of New York University School of Medicine, she completed her residency in Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco and is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Dr. Shervington also received a Masters of Public Health in Population Studies and Family Planning from Tulane University School of Public Health.
Dr. Shervington has an intersectional career in public health, clinical, and academic psychiatry. After Hurricane Katrina, she created a post-disaster emotional recovery and resilience division at the community-based non-profit public health organization that she founded, the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies. She has also held academic appointments as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University in NY and Tulane University in New Orleans. She previously served as Department Chair of Psychiatry at Meharry University and as Director of Psychiatry at Harlem Hospital. She also served as the Deputy Assistant for Population Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington DC.
In 2018, Dr. Shervington received the Award for Excellence in Service and Advocacy from the American Psychiatric Association. In 2012, she received the Jeanne Spurlock Minority award from the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Shervington is a member of the American College of Psychiatrists. She has authored several papers in peer-reviewed journals addressing health disparities, the social determinants of health and resilience in underserved communities. Dr. Shervington is the mother of two magnificent children and two amazing grandchildren.
Dr. Anish R. Dube
Program Director, Psychiatry Residency
Dr. Anish R. Dube completed his general psychiatry residency training at the University of Connecticut, his child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Brown University, and his forensic psychiatry fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. He is correspondingly board-certified in general psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. He has a master's degree in public health from Brown University and is currently a student in the Master’s of Legal Studies (MLS) program at UCLA. Presently, he serves as the program director of psychiatric residency training at Charles R. Drew University College of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry.
Dr. Dube has a particular interest in psychiatric graduate education, the intersection of human rights, public health, and psychiatry, and the ethical issues that arise out of the ordinary practice of medicine and psychiatry. To this end, he has participated in talks at local and national meetings on topics ranging from the nation-state’s role in psychic displacement and psychopathology to adolescent decision-making capacity, integrated care, false confession phenomenology, and the effects of parental separation on children and youth.
Dr. Dube’s current organizational involvements include serving as the Chair of the American Psychiatric Association (APA)'s Council on Children, Adolescents and their Families, Deputy Representative for Area 6 of the APA's Assembly, selection committee chair for the APA Foundation's Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship and as a member of the APA Political Action Committee (PAC) Board. He's also a member of the Publications Board and Arts and Humanities Committee of the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP). He maintains membership in the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), and the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL).
Dr. Amy Woods
Program Director, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship
Dr. Amy Woods is the training director for the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship program and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in CDU’s College of Medicine. Dr. Woods graduated with a BA in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. She subsequently completed a post-baccalaureate program at Columbia University in New York City and returned to California to attend Keck School of Medicine for her medical training. Dr. Woods completed her adult psychiatry residency at UCLA/San Fernando Valley/VA Greater Los Angeles and child and adolescent fellowship at UCLA where she was also the chief resident.
Dr. Woods is a leader within her professional community, serving five years as a council member for the Southern California Psychiatric Society. She has been a strong advocate for policy change around mental health. She spent elective time during her training as an American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Resident Scholar in Washington DC.
Dr. Daniel Cho
Associate Program Director, Psychiatry Residency
Dr. Daniel Cho, the psychiatry program’s associate residency training director, is also the Chief of Medical Staff, Behavioral Health, and an inpatient psychiatrist at Kedren Community Health Center in Los Angeles. Dr. Cho has a strong interest in the interaction and overlap between psychiatric and traditional “medical” illnesses. As such, he completed his residency training in West Virginia and is double board-certified in internal medicine and psychiatry and neurology.
Dr. Cho’s other interests include academic medicine, trainee wellness, and healthcare systems improvement; however, his passion has always been in advocacy for underserved and minority populations. He was elected to the Gold Humanism Honor Society in 2014 and was the recipient of a prestigious APA/APAF Leadership Fellowship. In his first year of fellowship, he served as the Chair of Leadership Development and Council Experience. The following year he was elected as the Chair/President of APA/APAF Leadership Fellowship. He has served on the APA’s Council on Advocacy and Government Relations (2018-2020), the APA Board of Trustees (2019-2020), and most recently on the President’s Ad Hoc Work Group on Bed Capacity (2020-2021).
Dr. Nithya Ravindran
Associate Program Director, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship
Nithya Ravindran is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, an assistant professor of psychiatry, and the associate training director for the child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at CDU. She completed medical school at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine after which she trained in adult psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry at Tulane University in New Orleans.
Dr. Ravindran draws inspiration from a variety of sources including psychodynamic and attachment theories, narrative medicine, art, music and storytelling traditions, and Eastern healing and wellness practices. Her clinical areas of interests include early childhood and infant mental health, dyadic therapy, perinatal mental health, and first episode psychosis. Her passions broadly involve creating and modulating health systems with an emphasis on equity and inclusion and training the next generation of psychiatrists to be compassionate, thoughtful, and just healers.
Dr. Shahrzad Bazargan-Hejazi
Research Director, College of Medicine
Director of Faculty Development, Psychiatry Department
Dr. Shahrzad Bazargan-Hejazi is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine at CDU and at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Bazargan-Hejazi completed her BA, MA and PhD degrees in sociology at the State University of New York, Buffalo. As a professor of medical sociology, she has an extensive and impressive teaching background, and years of service to CDU and the community. Prior to her current position as Research Director in Medical Education Program in the College of Medicine, she was an independent researcher for 12 years funded primarily by the National Institutes of Hea vv lth, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the California Endowment.
Dr. Bazargan-Hejazi’s research is focused on the social aspects of disease and illness, substance abuse, injury and violence prevention, and health services utilization improvement, with an emphasis on their effect on minority populations. She publishes regularly and has over 120 peer-reviewed publications with several papers in Lancet and JAMA as a member of the Global Burden of Disease collaborators. Her significant contributions, particularly focused on racial and ethnic minorities, have included literature on alcohol misuse, injury prevention, intimate partner violence, sexual health, gerontology, and preventive behavior. In addition to her scholarly activities, Dr. Bazargan-Hejazi has years of hands-on and executive editorial experience.
Dr. Diane St. Fleur
Faculty, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship
Dr. St. Fleur MD is a triple board-certified psychiatrist. She is board-certified in the following specialties: adult psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry and forensic psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She is passionate about serving children and their families including those that suffer from trauma, addiction and disrupted community cohesiveness.
She has been trained in Dialectal Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Deconstructive Dynamic Psychotherapy (DDP) and Motivational Interviewing. She is suboxone waivered. She has published a chapter in integrating treatment for substance use and had presented on topic of trauma’s impact on the hypothalamus-pituitary adrenal axis and association between ADHD and obesity in an international study.