Hello fellow child psychiatrists. My name is Charmi Patel Rao and I am honored to serve as your president for the local SDACAP chapter for the next two years. I grew up all over the United States but have been in San Diego since 2003 and completed my residency and fellowship at UCSD. I have developed an expertise in Early Childhood Mental Health and co-occurrence between developmental delays and mental health. In pursuit of these interests, I have had 11 years of direct clinical care in our county’s System of Care. I then became the Supervising Psychiatrist for Juvenile Forensics within the San Diego County Behavioral Health Services, Children Youth and Families for two years and was in that role during the pandemic. About one year ago, driven by a desire and opportunity to focus on my clinical area of interest, I became the Director of Psychiatric Services at Positive Development, a national transdisciplinary organization that provides developmental, relationship-based intervention for autism.  I am also a Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor for UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry and enjoy teaching medical students and psychiatry trainees. I am married to an adult psychiatrist who many of you know, Sanjai Rao. We have two boys, ages 9 and 12, who are smart and curious and keep us on our toes! Thank you again for this honor. I look forward to working with our amazing SDACAP Executive Committee and the local child psychiatry community over the next two years on important issues related to youth mental health and our profession as well as on goals that we establish collectively for our local professional community. I hope to see you at an upcoming monthly SDACAP meeting.

With Gratitude
Charmi Patel Rao, MD