Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Program

Training Sites

Fellows rotate longitudinally for two days per week on the UTMB Forensic Service, one day per week in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ, the state prison system), and one day per week at the Harris County Jail. In addition, fellows have a dedicated one-month intensive rotation in aerospace psychiatry at NASA Johnson Space Center.

Sample schedule (11 months; specific day assignments may change):

Sample schedule (1 month):

UTMB Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Forensic Evaluation and Consultation Service

 The UTMB Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences provides consultations and forensic evaluations to courts and attorneys. Various types of forensic cases are received from government agencies, law school clinics, and private law practices, including, among other things, competence to stand trial, aid-to-sentencing, insanity/criminal responsibility, fitness for duty, risk assessment, disability, personal injury, immigration/asylum, guardianship, and testamentary capacity. In addition, the department maintains a collaboration with local county courts to conduct competence to stand trial and insanity evaluations. Fellows will be assigned cases received by the department. They will conduct evaluations, draft reports, consult with attorneys and other professionals, and testify (if necessary) in their assigned cases under the supervision of program faculty. Finally, there will be opportunities to engage in research and scholarship with UTMB program faculty.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice Wayne Scott Unit

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is the largest state prison system in the United States and comprises 100 state jails and prisons. UTMB Correctional Managed Care (CMC) provides medical, dental, nursing, specialty care, and psychiatric and mental health services statewide to over 120,000, or approximately 80% of, TDCJ inmates. The TDCJ Wayne Scott Unit in Richmond, TX is a maximum-security prison unit that provides specialized crisis management and inpatient psychiatric care to inmates with acute and chronic mental illnesses.

Fellows participate on-site in the clinical evaluation, treatment, and management of patients at the TDCJ Wayne Scott Unit, as well as provide specialized forensic consultation to UTMB CMC mental health staff based within certain TDCJ prisons in the Greater Houston and Galveston regions that house inmates with mental disorders. Although direct patient care in a correctional setting is a part of this rotation, an emphasis will be placed on administration, health systems improvement, and medical leadership. Fellow activities can include involvement in multidisciplinary treatment team meetings, administrative hearings for forced medications, evaluation and testimony for civil commitment, risk assessment and triage, and quality improvement projects and committees, as well as opportunities for unique educational experiences in specialized TDCJ prison treatment programs across the state.

Harris County Jail/The Harris Center

The Harris Center is a community mental health agency that provides mental health services, competency and sanity evaluations, and jail-based competency restoration (JBCR) to the Harris County Jail. One of the largest in the United States, the jail holds nearly 10,000 inmates, approximately 40% of whom are treated with psychotropic medications. Fellows will rotate on the JBCR unit providing evaluation, treatment, and management of inmates found not competent to stand trial and undergoing competency restoration. In addition, fellows will participate in petitions and testimony for forced medications, as well as court education activities (such as didactics and mock trials) for inmates.

NASA Johnson Space Center

NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) is a world-class institution dedicated to the advancement of human spaceflight and the home of NASA mission control and astronaut training. UTMB has had a long-standing collaboration with NASA and maintains a two-year ACGME-accredited residency program in Aerospace Medicine. NASA also operates a highly competitive month-long Aerospace Medicine clerkship at JSC twice a year for medical students, residents, and attending physicians. NASA and UTMB aim to train physicians to serve and support the specialized healthcare needs associated with aviation, human spaceflight operations, and extreme environments, including spaceflight analog crew isolation research facilities.

Fellows will have access to this unique and remarkable resource. They will join other healthcare professionals in the month-long clerkship at JSC, where they will be introduced to NASA operations and facilities not available to the public, such as the Mission Control Center, Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, and Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility; the effects of aviation and spaceflight on human physiology; the limitations imposed by aviation and spaceflight; and the strategies NASA employs to maintain safety and mitigate risk. They will complete a scholarly project and present their findings during a poster session at the end of the clerkship.

In addition, fellows will receive individualized supervision, training, and mentorship from NASA aerospace psychiatrists. They will learn about psychiatric, psychological, and behavioral factors that affect human spaceflight. They will have the opportunity to observe or assist with astronaut selection (when available), psychological support during International Space Station missions, neurocognitive assessments of astronauts, psychiatric assessments of astronauts and flight controllers, psychiatric consultations to the Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Air Surgeon, and astronaut family support services.

Didactic program:

UTMB is collaborating with forensic psychiatry fellowships throughout the state of Texas to present a joint didactic curriculum for one-half day each week. Faculty in forensic psychiatry, psychology, and law from across the University of Texas System and Texas Medical Center will lead lectures, case discussions, seminars, and Landmark Cases. UTMB fellows will join with fellows at sister institutions to present and discuss cases, dissect legal opinions, and engage in scholarly inquiry.

Fellows will also receive weekly individual supervision from the program director and one other forensic psychiatry faculty member for cases and reports that they are working on.

Program Faculty:

• Core Faculty
  
  • Gary Beven, MD, Adjunct Assistant Professor (UTMB); Chief of Space Medicine Operations Division, NASA
  • Joseph Penn, MD, Clinical Professor, UTMB Correctional Managed Care
    
  • Omar Pinjari, MD, Wayne Scott Unit Director, UTMB Correctional Managed Care
    
  • Kimberly Warneke, MD, Adjunct Assistant Professor (UTMB); Director of the Jail Based Competency Restoration Program, The Harris Center
  • Rocksheng Zhong, MD, MHS, Associate Professor & Fellowship Training Director, UTMB Dept of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
    
• Forensic Psychiatry
  • Stephen Baughn, MD, Adjunct Assistant Professor, UTMB Correctional Managed Care
  • Stacey Belcher, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, UTMB Correctional Managed Care
  • Jacqueline Bickham, MD, The Harris Center
  • Lisa Doguet, MD, UTMB Correctional Managed Care
    
  • Edythe Harvey, MD, Professor, UTMB Dept of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
  • Gabrielle Hobday, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, UTMB Correctional Managed Care
  • Vinay Kothapalli, MD, Adjunct Assistant Professor, UTMB Correctional Managed Care
• Psychology
  • Kate Glywasky, PsyD, Adjunct Assistant Professor (UTMB); Private practice
    
• Law
  • Jessica Anna Cabot, JD, Clinical Associate Professor, University of Houston Law Center
    
  • Patrick Gurski, JD, Adjunct Instructor (UTMB); Private practice
    
  • Hilary Miller, JD, Adjunct Assistant Professor (UTMB); Private practice
  • Shawn Williamson, JD, Private practice
    

Application Information:

Consistent with new policies put forward by the Association of Directors of Forensic Psychiatry Fellowships (ADFPF), UTMB will use the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) and the National Residency Match Program (NRMP a.k.a. "The Match") for applicants to the 2026-2027 Academic Year.

ERAS: https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-residencies-eras/applying-residencies-eras-system
NRMP Match: https://www.nrmp.org

The key dates (tentative) for the 2026-2027 Academic Year application process are:

• 7/2/25 – Applicants may apply to forensic psychiatry fellowships via ERAS.
• 7/16/25 – Forensic psychiatry fellowship programs begin to review applications on the ERAS platform.
• 7/16/25 and after – Forensic psychiatry fellowship programs interview applicants.
• 8/6/25 – Match Registration opens.
• 9/3/25 – Ranking opens.
• 10/8/25 – Rank Order List Certification deadline.
• 10/22/25 – Match Day. Unfilled/Unmatched Lists will be available.
  

Forensic psychiatry fellowship program directors have agreed that forensic psychiatry fellowships may not make fellowship offers to applicants outside of The Match, unless the program is attempting to fill an unfilled position after Match Day. This is consistent with the All-In Policy of The Match that the ADFPF has adopted.

Please look to the AAPL website (https://aapl.org/fellowship) for updates on this transition and links to ERAS and
The Match.

Application Components:

All applications should be submitted via ERAS and should include the following:

• MyERAS Application:
  • Personal information
  • Biographic information
  • Education
  • Experience
  • Licensure
  • Publications
• Standard ERAS Documents:
  • Personal Statement
  • Med School transcript
  • Letters of Recommendation (at least three, one of which must be from your current program director or, if you have completed training within the past five years, the director of the program from which you graduated most recently)
  • MSPE
  • Photo
  • Board Scores
  • ECFMG certificate (if international medical graduate)
• Non-Standard ERAS Documents:*
  • Supplemental forms (documents that individual programs require)
  • Publications
    

*UTMB requires at least two writing samples, which may include deidentified forensic reports or evaluations, authored articles or papers, or deidentified patient evaluations/discharge summaries. Writing samples should be uploaded via ERAS as a supplemental form or publication. Please contact the program if you have questions about this requirement.