Dennis Popeo, MD, MSc graduated from Union College before attending SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine (now called Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University). He trained in psychiatry and geriatric psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, and subsequently worked there as an attending psychiatrist and Unit Chief of the geriatric psychiatry inpatient unit. After training in electroconvulsive therapy at Zucker – Hillside Hospital, his role shifted to include providing ECT to the patients at Mount Sinai and participating in NIH-funded research that compared ECT treatment to treatment with medication.

Dr. Popeo was recruited to NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital Center to revive Bellevue’s dormant ECT program. As Director of ECT at Bellevue Hospital, he developed and expanded the ECT service. Over the course of the eight years of his tenure as director, the service grew to include six providers, and the number of treatments given increased by over 500%. At Bellevue, Dr. Popeo was also instrumental in creating a medical psychiatry inpatient unit that acts as a quaternary care referral source, serving the most medically and psychiatrically complex patients from all five boroughs of New York City and Long Island.

Dr. Popeo has a long standing interest and expertise in medical education of trainees of all levels. He holds a Master of Science in Health / Science Professions Education from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. At Mount Sinai, he served as the Director of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry where he modernized and reorganized the curriculum from the ground up. At NYU Grossman, he converted the Inter-clerkship Intensive from low-rated, lecture-based course to a highly rated hands-on workshop / simulation course that drew material from across the curriculum. As the Director of the Psychiatry Clerkship, he steered the department through a curriculum change that decreased the time of the clerkship and added an integratedneuro psychiatry component, while maintaining the clerkship’s position as the highest rated in the school. He also co-created a faculty development workshop at the annual meeting of the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatrists and is a mentor in the Educational Leadership program sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges. He spent the last several years as the host of “The Healthy Aging Show” on SirusXM’s Doctor Radio.

In recognition of his dedication to clinical work and education, Dr. Popeo was promoted to the rank of Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and received the Excellence in Educational Scholarship from at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. He is also a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Recently, he was recruited to NewYork-Presbyterian – Weill Cornell Medicine as the Director of Neuromodulation, where he will continue his work in ECT and Ketamine.