Psychiatry Department Chair
Rajesh R. Tampi, MD, MS, DFAPA, DFAAGP
Dr. Tampi is the Professor (Tenured) & Chairman, and the Inaugural Bhatia Family Endowed Chair in the Department of Psychiatry at Creighton University School of Medicine, and Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) Health Behavioral Health Services, Omaha, Nebraska. Additionally, he is the Medical Director of CHI Health Behavioral Health Services. Dr. Tampi also maintains his appointment as a Professor (Adjunct) of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
Prior to relocating to Omaha, Dr. Tampi served as the Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Cleveland Clinic Akron General in Akron, Ohio, and as the Chief of the Section for Geriatric Psychiatry at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. He also held professorships as a Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Learner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and as a Professor of Psychiatry at Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown, Ohio. Dr. Tampi is the inaugural Historian of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP). He served as President of the AAGP from 2019 to 2020 and as Co-President from 2020 to 2021. Additionally, he was Secretary and Treasurer of the AAGP from 2017 to 2018 and served as the Program Chair for the 2017 AAGP Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Tampi is also the Past President of the International Medical Graduates (IMG) Caucus at the American Psychiatric Association (APA). He is a Distinguished Fellow of both the APA and the AAGP. Furthermore, he is a member of the American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry and the American College of Psychiatrists.
Dr. Tampi is a graduate of the University of Kerala in Kerala, India. He trained in Psychiatry at the North Yorkshire Rotational Training Scheme in York, England, and at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont. During his residency training in England, Dr. Tampi also attained a Post Graduate Diploma in Clinical Psychiatry from the University of Leeds in Leeds, England. He completed his Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.
Dr. Tampi has received three ‘Outstanding Teaching Attending Awards and the ‘Chairman’s Award’ for outstanding teaching, research, and clinical work from the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. He received the ‘Teacher of the Year’ Award from the Department of Psychiatry at the Case Western Reserve University MetroHealth Program in Cleveland, Ohio in 2015, 2016 and 2018. Dr. Tampi received the ‘Golden Heart Award’ and the ‘Golden Apple Award’ from the Psychiatry Residency Program at Creighton University in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Dr. Tampi is a recipient of the Geriatric Academic Career Award (GACA) instituted by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). He was a recipient of the AAGP’s ‘Clinician of the Year Award’ in 2013. Dr. Tampi also received the AAGP’s ‘Recognition and Appreciation Certificate’ in 2018. In 2019, he received the AAGP’s ‘Educator of the Year Award’. Dr. Tampi received the ‘2019 Outstanding Academician of the Year Award’ given by the Indo-American Psychiatric Association (IAPA). He is the recipient of the 2021 ‘Jack Weinberg Award’ for Geriatric Psychiatry, given by the APA. Dr. Tampi was honored with the 2022 George Tarjan Award by the APA. In 2024, he was bestowed the ‘Diversity Award’ by the AAGP.
Dr. Tampi has over 250 publications on diverse topics in psychiatry and geriatric psychiatry. On Google Scholar, he has an H-index of 35. In addition, he is the Editor of 11 books in psychiatry published by reputed publishers including Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW), Oxford University Press (OUP), Springer International Publishing (SIP), and Cambridge University Press (CUP).
Dr. Tampi had served as the Editor-in-Chief of the World Journal of Psychiatry from 2019-2023. Currently, he is an Associate Editor for Drugs in Context (Psychiatry), and for Aging Psychiatry Section of Frontiers in Psychiatry. Dr. Tampi is the Section Editor of Geriatric Psychiatry for Psychiatric Times and for Advances in Psychiatry and Behavioral Health. He is on the Editorial Board of the Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology, The Journal of International Medical Research, International Psychogeriatrics, and Therapeutic Advances in Chronic Disease. Furthermore, Dr. Tampi serves as an ad-hoc peer reviewer for 78 journals including the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, the American Journal of Psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry, the Journal of American Geriatrics Society and the American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and other Dementias amongst others.
Dr. Tampi’s clinical and research interests are the management of psychiatric disorders in late life, ethical and legal issues in psychiatry and geriatric psychiatry, integrated geriatric-psychiatric care, advocacy, undergraduate and postgraduate education in psychiatry and geriatric psychiatry, and leadership in academic medicine.
