I am board certified in child, adolescent, and adult psychiatry and have been in private practice since 2002. I am licensed to practice medicine in Virginia and North Carolina.

 

I attended the University of Virginia for my undergraduate education and medical school, where I was an Echols Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa, and elected to AOA, the National Medical Honor Society. During my last year of medical school, I was awarded a scholarship from Columbia University to study Human Rights and Medicine and spent the year practicing medicine in several developing countries across the globe. I next completed my medical residency training at Duke University, where I was a Chief Resident. Finally, I completed an additional fellowship in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina. (This might make you wonder whom I cheer for during March Madness).

 

I have appeared on live television news and contributed to multiple articles in popular magazines discussing issues regarding child mental health. For nearly a decade, I served as an elected officer on the Executive Council of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Society of Greater Washington, the local branch of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). I am a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and have held elected positions for the Washington Psychiatric Society (WPS), the APA's Washington area chapter.

 

I have been named a "Top Doctor" by the Washingtonian Magazine "Top Doctors" issues since 2008. I love to lecture regionally and nationally. I am engaged to speak regularly at schools and organizations to parents, students, and professionals.

 

Besides the fun fact that I started my first few months of life in Uganda, the rest of my life has been as a real Washingtonian, growing up in Washington DC and now entering the third decade of my private practice in McLean, Virginia. With our grown children now in college and beyond, my husband (a former Peace Corps volunteer) and I continue to seize every opportunity to travel and dedicate time to supporting education and healthcare in developing countries. I do my best to practice everything I preach. I exercise, meditate, get outside, and laugh (usually at myself) as much as humanly possible. I love nature, the outdoors, and meeting as many other humans as I can.

 

I'm highly dedicated to my patients. At the height of the pandemic, the telemedicine screen often proved suboptimal for full human connection with kids. So instead of my office, you could find me hidden (for doctor-patient HIPPA privacy) during appointments in a blocked-off corner of my office parking lot, as doctor and patient, sitting on 'Life is Good" beach chairs. We now have quite the unforgettable memories of the "Dr. M's parking lot office" visits—whether in beautiful sunshine, rain, snow, and even (eww) cicadas. Now that the pandemic has eased up a bit, I am happy to meet with patients inside my office if they are fully vaccinated and healthy.

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 I still offer plenty of flexible telemedicine appointments, adapting to schedules, traffic, travel, or wellness situations. Flexibility is good for the brain, so if I don't see a patient in my waiting room at the scheduled appointment time, I will meet you remotely by phone or screen, wherever you are, and fully utilize our precious scheduled time together to give you my all.