Dr. Patricia Junquera has been selected to head the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health as interim chair. She had been serving as the department’s vice chair of Clinical Services and director of Multidisciplinary Education.

Junquera is a board-certified psychiatrist with over 15 years of experience in anxiety, mood disorders, substance use disorders, psychiatric emergencies, and geriatric psychiatry.  She is the lead psychiatrist at FIU Health in the implementation of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for patients diagnosed with treatment resistant depression. In addition, she is co-principal investigator on a clinical study for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease, a collaboration between Baptist Health Miami Neuroscience Institute and the FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. 

After graduating from her fellowship at the Miami VA Healthcare System, Junquera became academic director of its outpatient clinic. She later served as the medical director for the Detox Unit, and senior psychiatrist in the Emergency Department at Jackson Behavioral Health. She also served as medical director for behavioral health for Miami Dade County correctional facilities. And she was part of the consult liaison team that developed the psychiatric rotation for the medical residency program at Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami Beach.