Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg Named Distinguished Life Fellow by American Psychiatric Association
Feb 24, 2017
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has bestowed its highest professional honor, Distinguished Life Fellow, on Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg, Chair of Behavioral Health at NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island.
“It’s very fulfilling and rewarding to get this recognition,” Dr. Goldberg says. “To become a Distinguished Fellow, you have to be nominated by three peers who themselves are Distinguished Fellows. So to be recognized by your peers as someone who is outstanding is a very high honor.”
“I am very passionate and dedicated to my work,” he says. “When I received this letter [telling him of the honor], it meant a lot because I invest myself fully in my work.”
Dr. Goldberg, who in addition to running the Department of Behavioral Health also teaches psychiatry and has his own private practice, says he became a psychiatrist because he is interested in human behavior.
“Being a psychiatrist, you really have a chance to use your communication and listening skills to make a connection with people,” he says. “We have new medications, new techniques and new science for what’s coming in psychiatry. But the connection you make with the patient is the determining factor to a good outcome. People want to be heard and understood. If you reach them in that way, the door opens for them to get well.”
The Distinguished Life Fellowship was established by the APA as its highest membership honor to recognize those who have made a significant contribution to their profession and to the public good. Distinguished Life Fellows are leaders in their fields whose scientific achievements and dedication to their patients set a standard of excellence for the profession of psychiatry.
The honor reflects Dr. Goldberg’s dedication to the work of the APA and signifies his allegiance to the psychiatric profession. It is a recognition by his professional colleagues that he is a member of a very select group. His new status will be officially recognized at the APA’s Annual Meeting in San Diego on May 22, 2017.
Dr. Goldberg has been Coney Island’s Chair of Behavioral Health since 2007 and is also a member of PAGNY’s Board of Directors. Previously, he was Vice Chair of Education and Psychiatry Residency Training Director at Maimonides Medical Center, where he completed his own residency training in psychiatry in 1985. He is dual board-certified in Adult and Geriatric Psychiatry. He has also been recognized as a “top doctor” in psychiatry by Castle Connolly, the healthcare publisher of medical consumer guides.
Dr. Goldberg grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, and played Little League near Coney Island Hospital, occasionally visiting the Emergency Room for his baseball injuries. He is a graduate of the 1981 Charter Class of the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine (now the New York Institute of Technology) and past District Branch President of the Brooklyn Psychiatric Society. Dr. Goldberg also models for medical trainees and staff an approach to patient care that is integrative, evidence-based and oriented to wellness and recovery.
Dr. Goldberg lives in Oceanside in Nassau County with his wife and younger son, a recent magna cum laude law school graduate; their older son is an executive at Morgan Stanley. He and his wife like to travel in their spare time and he also enjoys music, theater and tennis.