Meet the Directors

Geriatric Psychiatry Program directors Donovan Maust, M.D. and Susan Maixner, M.D.

 

Susan M. Maixner, M.D.

Director, Geriatric Psychiatry Program
Director, Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship

Susan Maixner, M.D., the Willard C. Blackney Jr. and Geraldine LaTendresse Blackney Clinician-Educator Professor in Geriatric Psychiatry, is triple boarded in geriatric psychiatry, general psychiatry, and hospice and palliative medicine. A champion of humanism in medicine and respect for aging adults, she is nationally known as an expert geriatric psychiatry educator, receiving the 2006 American Psychiatric Society’s Nancy C.A. Roeske Medical Student Teaching Award.

Her expertise in geriatric mental health, neurodegenerative behavior changes, and improving dementia care benefits her patients at Michigan Medicine’s Geriatrics Center and the Huron Valley Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. She is the site principal investigator of the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center’s NIH grant on patient and caregiver experiences in advanced Dementia with Lewy Bodies and directs Michigan Medicine’s Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship and Program.

Dr. Maixner, a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, served on the first ACGME Milestones fellowship outcomes working group, and is secretary-treasurer-elect of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry.

Dr. Maixner received her medical degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and completed her general psychiatry residency and geriatric psychiatry fellowship at the University of Michigan.

 

Donovan Maust, M.D.

Associate Director, Geriatric Psychiatry Program

Donovan T. Maust, M.D., M.S., the Willard C. Blackney Jr. and Geraldine LaTendresse Blackney Research Professor in Geriatric Psychiatry, is a geriatric psychiatrist at University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Health System.

His research examining psychotropic prescribing to older adults began during residency at the University of Pennsylvania and has led to projects funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institute on Drug Abuse, and Department of Veterans Affairs.

His work has expanded to focus on the health-care workforce, particularly those caring for persons with dementia. With colleagues at the University of California San Francisco, the U-M Survey Research Center, and elsewhere, Dr. Maust is co-leading the launch of the National Dementia Workforce Study, a family of surveys of the professional dementia workforce funded through an $81 million cooperative agreement with the NIA.

Since joining U-M’s faculty in 2013, Dr. Maust has been principal investigator or co-principal investigator of over $97 million in federal funding and has authored over 115 publications.

Dr. Maust earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and completed clinical training at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Directors

Susan Maixner, M.D.

Willard C. Blackney Jr. and Geraldine LaTendresse Blackney Clinician-Educator Professor in Geriatric Psychiatry
Clinical Professor
Director, Geriatric Psychiatry Program
Director, Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship

Donovan Maust, M.D.

Willard C. Blackney Jr. and Geraldine LaTendresse Blackney Research Professor in Geriatric Psychiatry
Professor
Associate Director, Geriatric Psychiatry Program
Research Scientist, Ann Arbor VA Center for Clinical Management Research