Sudhakar Madakasira, M.D.
Candidate for 2023 Area 5 Trustee
A Message from the Candidate
Biography
Dr. Madakasira is Chief Executive Officer, Medical Director and founder of Psycamore Psychiatric Programs that operates multisite Partial Hospital Programs (PHP) and Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP) across the state of Mississippi. After completing general psychiatry residency at the University of Kansas medical Center, he was in academic medicine for 16 years and has been in private practice of psychiatry for over 25 years. His research has involved psychopharmacology and disaster reactions, and he has lectured and published several articles on these topics. His administrative experience also includes running university outpatient departments, VA psychiatry department, and a university psychiatry department as clinical vicechair. His clinical experience is wide ranging and includes community mental health work, general hospital consulting, adult and geriatric inpatient service, and PHP and IOP. He currently teaches psychiatry residents as an adjunct faculty at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Dr. Madakasira is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and has been a Mississippi Representative to the APA Assembly for almost ten years. During presidency of the Mississippi Psychiatric Association, he was able to achieve mental health parity enacted in the state. He has been active in the APA Assembly and authored several approved action papers on psychiatric education of medical students and family physicians, partial hospitalization nosology and training, and social security mental disability evaluations. He has helped establish a mentorship program for new Assembly representatives in Area 5 Council. He also serves as an ambassador to the APA Foundation.
Dr. Madakasira is an international medical graduate, now a long-term American citizen, deeply rooted in psychiatric profession and compassionate about the mentally ill. He has received awards for research and disaster assistance. He received the APA Assembly Award for Profile of Courage in 2013 for his long fight for access to care of mentally ill when a prejudiced coastal town in Mississippi rejected his psychiatric program, and he secured victory through the state supreme court as well as the US Department of Justice. He has been an avid advocate for the mentally ill, psychiatric profession, and the APA. His motto: APA is more than DSM, it’s Diverse, Strong and Meaningful.
Education
- Pathology Internship, University of Kansas Medical Center
- General Psychiatry Residency, University of Kansas Medical Center
- Sri Venkateswara Medical College (Sri Venkateswara University), Tirupati, India
Awards and Honors
- APA Profile of Courage Award
- APA Distinguished Life Fellow
- "Best Physicians in the U.S. Southeast Region"
- Mississippi Red Cross Award for Service to Tornado Victims
- Special Merit Award, Dayton V.A. Medical Center
- Pitt County Recognition Award for service to tornado victims
- Annual Research Award (in association with Takao Sato) of North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians
- Edward E. Baumhardt Award for Research in Psychiatry
- Highest Merit Scholarship, Sri Venkatesawara Medical College, Tirupati, India
- Gold Medal for highest scholastic achievement in HSSLC
Endorsements
- Valerie Arnold, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, University of Tennessee-Memphis School of Medicine
- Rahn Bailey, M.D., Professor and Chairman of Psychiatry and Assistant Dean of Diversity and Community Engagement, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA
- Mark Haygood, D.O., M.S., President, New South Psychiatry, Mobile, AL
- Eugene Lee, M.D., , Private Practice and Forensic Psychiatry, Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Fayetteville, AR
- George Mathews, M.D., Medical Director, Trust Point Hospital, Murfreesboro, TN
- Henry Nasrallah, M.D., Vice Chair for Faculty Development and Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
- Grayson Norquist, M.D., MSPH, Professor and Vice Chair of Psychiatry, Emory University School of Medicine
- Mark Townsend, M.D., Professor and Associate Chair of Psychiatry, University of Texas-Austin Dell School of Medicine