Department of Psychiatry Leadership Change

Friday, January 22, 2010

Effective Monday, February 1, Andres J. Pumariega, MD, will step down as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, and become Chief of the Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Also effective February 1, Kolin D. Good, MD, will become the Interim Chair of the Department of Psychiatry while a search for a permanent successor is underway.

Brief Background

Dr. Pumariega, who joined The Reading Hospital in 2006, made the decision to step down as fulltime Department Chair to focus his clinical interests in child and adolescent psychiatry and to continue scholarly research in a broader array of psychiatric topics. 

Board certified in both psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry, he relocated to Berks County four years ago from his position as professor and director of child and adolescent psychiatry at East Tennessee State University’s James H. Quillen College of Medicine.  He had previously held leadership, faculty, and clinical positions with the University of South Carolina, University of Texas Medical Branch, Baylor College of Medicine, and Vanderbilt University.

During his TRHMC tenure, the Department added eight Hospital-based psychiatrists, developed the psychiatric transition unit and  telepsychiatry service for the evaluation and initial treatment of patients with emergent behavioral health issues, and helped launch a Hospital-wide patient suicide screening program.  In addition, the department established four-evidence-based practice programs, including the assertive community treatment program based at The Reading Health Dispensary, and several continuing education initiatives.

Dr. Good has served as Associate Chair of the Department of Psychiatry for the past two years.  A Berks County native, Dr. Good has been a member of the Hospital Medical Staff for eight years and a practicing clinician for 15 years.  She is a graduate of the Medical University of South Carolina and completed her residency at Albert Einstein Medical Center.