William C. Torrey, MD, interim chair and professor of psychiatry and of health policy and clinical practice at the Geisel School of Medicine, has been appointed to the Raymond Sobel Professorship in Psychiatry for a two-year term effective June 1, 2021.
Torrey is dedicated to improving care for adults with severe mental illness and integrating psychiatric care into primary care. His research, writing, and teaching focus on supported employment, integrated services for adults with co-occurring substance use disorders and severe mental illnesses, evidence-based practice implementation, collaborative care in primary care, and shared decision making in medication management for adults with psychiatric and addictive illnesses.
“Dr. Torrey has been dedicated for many years to the research, education, and patient care missions of the school, and I'm very pleased to recognize his achievements with the appointment to the Sobel Professorship at Geisel,” says Geisel School of Medicine dean Duane Compton, PhD.
The Raymond Sobel Professorship of Psychiatry was established in 1982 with a gift from an anonymous benefactor in honor of Raymond Sobel, MD, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Dartmouth’s medical school. Sobel was a dedicated teacher, clinician, and researcher. A World War II veteran, he made fundamental contributions in areas such as combat stress in the military and family therapy.
“I am very honored to serve as the Raymond Sobel Professor of Psychiatry and grateful to the donor who endowed the professorship,” Torrey says. “For the last 40 years, the generous gift has strengthened our department’s capacity to improve lives in our community and across the globe. A thriving department matters to the many people whose lives are affected by these common, painful, sometimes deadly illnesses we treat.”
In addition to providing clinical care, Torrey teaches Geisel students, psychiatric trainees, and the general public about mental health, and leads clinical care systems that aim to offer evidence-based, measurement-informed care that supports the Department of Psychiatry’s research mission. For more than 30 years he has combined clinical leadership with research to improve care, working with research teams at the Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center and Geisel’s Center for Technology and Behavioral Health. In 2019, he was named Exemplary Psychiatrist by the National Alliance on Mental Illness—the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for those affected by mental illness.
Founded in 1797, the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth strives to improve the lives of the communities it serves through excellence in learning, discovery, and healing. The Geisel School of Medicine is renowned for its leadership in medical education, healthcare policy and delivery science, biomedical research, global health, and in creating innovations that improve lives worldwide. As one of America’s leading medical schools, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine is committed to training new generations of diverse leaders who will help solve our most vexing challenges in healthcare.
