Harvard Psychiatric Leader Appointed to Posts at Baylor College of Medicine and The Menninger Clinic

Baylor College of Medicine and The Menninger Clinic jointly announce the hiring of Robert J. Boland, MD, as vice chairman of the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine and chief of staff at The Menninger Clinic. Boland will join the organizations on January 4, 2021, after transitioning from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Boland is currently vice chair of education and director of the psychiatry residency program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is also an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and is board certified in psychiatry with expertise in medical education, psychosomatic medicine and geriatric psychiatry. He is an alumnus of Georgetown University where he earned his undergraduate and medical degrees. 

Prior to joining Brigham and Women’s Hospital five years ago, Boland had an 18-year tenure at the Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University, Providence, R.I. He developed a special interest in depression resulting from medical illness and, with Brown and the Centers for Disease Control, he examined the influence of depression on the course of HIV in women. Boland later participated in the National Institute of Mental Health-sponsored Collaborative Depression Study. That project remains one of the longest studies of depression to date, for which Dr. Boland has written widely on the influence of depression on medical illness. Currently, he is an associate editor of Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science.

“Dr. Boland brings exceptional leadership experience and skills to The Menninger Clinic and to Baylor College of Medicine. His focus on innovation and the application of technology in our field of medicine is important to patients of the Texas Medical Center,” says Wayne Goodman, MD, Chair and the D.C. and Irene Ellwood Chair in Psychiatry in the Baylor College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science.

As one of Baylor’s teaching hospitals for psychiatrists and psychologists, The Menninger Clinic values Boland’s mentoring of early-career psychiatrists and other mental health clinicians. In addition, his work in geriatric psychiatry and consultation-liaison psychiatry required the ability to treat complex patients, which Menninger has specialized in treating for 95 years.

“Dr. Boland is an innovator in the way patient care is delivered to meet the needs of communities today,” said Armando E. Colombo, president and CEO of The Menninger Clinic. “We share a common belief about the opportunity of psychiatry to improve the productivity and health of individuals, families and communities.”

For more than 30 years, he has been an active member of the American Psychiatric Association and its Council on Psychosomatic Medicine. Reflecting his distinguished reputation among peers nationally, Boland was chosen earlier this year to serve as an editor for one of the largest selling psychiatry textbook series. In addition, Boland served as the chair for the Psychiatry Residency Review Committee for the Accreditation Council and is a former president of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training. 

“Identifying the next chief of staff with both academic and clinical relationships nationally was important to our joint search committee,” Colombo added. As one of the Texas Medical Center’s nationally ranked hospitals, The Menninger Clinic serves Houston and all of Texas and is also a trusted assessment and treatment provider for people across the country.

Boland succeeds John M. Oldham, MD, MS, who retired September 4, 2020, as the chief of staff at the Menninger Clinic. 

Boland and his wife, Susan, have two adult children. Susan serves as the Director of Telemetry at the Landmark Medical Center in Rhode Island.