William M. McDonald, MD, has accepted the position to serve as Interim Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine. McDonald is Professor and the JB Fuqua Chair for Late-Life Depression and also serves as Vice-Chair of Psychiatry Education.  

McDonald graduated from Duke University Medical School and was a member of the Duke faculty before joining Emory in 1993.  In 1999, with a gift from the JB Fuqua Foundation, McDonald led the establishment of the Fuqua Center for Late-Life Depression where he currently serves as director. The Fuqua Center mission is to provide education and improve community access in the treatment of geriatric depression.

McDonald’s clinical work and research has focused on understanding the neuroanatomy, clinical features and treatment of mood disorders such as mania and depression, particularly when these disorders occur late in life.  His research efforts have been supported by funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke, the J.B. Fuqua Foundation, Brain and Behavior Research Foundation and a number of private funding agencies. 

McDonald is a Distinguished Life Fellow in the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and serves on national committees including the APA’s Council on Research, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the National Network of Depression Centers and the National Advisory Board for Skyland Trail. He was awarded the Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award in 2009 and has received multiple national education awards, including the 2018 American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry’s Teacher of the Year Award.