Kevin Sanders, M.D., assistant professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, has been named medical director for the Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD).
In partnership with the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, TRIAD is dedicated to improving assessment and treatment services for children with autism and their families through research, training and clinical programs.
As part of his duties as TRIAD medical director, Sanders will serve as a co-primary investigator of the Autism Speaks — Vanderbilt Autism Treatment Network site. He will support innovative pharmacological and medical intervention trials across the university and facilitate training and services for individuals with autism spectrum disorder across a variety of clinical programs.
“It takes exceptional individuals in order to meet the exceptional behavioral and psychiatric needs of our patient population,” said Zachary Warren, Ph.D., associate professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Special Education and director of TRIAD and Autism Clinical Services.
“We are extremely fortunate that Kevin has accepted this role and will provide leadership and direction to much needed programs of service and inquiry.”
Sanders came to Vanderbilt in 2009 to focus on clinical service and teaching programs and develop and study innovative pharmacological and medical interventions.
Prior to joining the Vanderbilt faculty, he spent nearly a decade in private practice following a general psychiatry residency at the University of North Carolina and clinical training in child and adolescent psychiatry at Duke University.
Sanders has served as a lead investigator across a variety of clinical trials during his time at Vanderbilt with the aim of developing safe and efficacious treatments for individuals with ASD across the lifespan.
He also has served as an attending psychiatrist within the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital’s Child and Adolescent Unit and served on the consultation service at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
Sanders succeeds Jeremy Veenstra-Vander Weele, M.D., associate professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Pharmacology and director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, who recently left Vanderbilt for the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
— by Elizabeth Turner
