Welcome from Program Director
Welcome to the Psychiatric Residency Program at Ozark Center!
Deciding where to train is the most important decision of your career in psychiatry. When contemplating which residency program best suits you, you may consider the benefits of having varied clinical experience when rotating through Ozark Center’s addiction, child and adolescent, geriatric and consult services – all while receiving guidance from our supportive faculty.
During your time here, you will be able to grow as a resident while working with a collaborative team to provide care to patients of varied socioeconomic backgrounds in a rural healthcare setting in Joplin, Missouri. Joplin is located near Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas, so our patient population may commute from any of these locations.
Contribute to the well-being of the local community
Ozark Center residents become sensitive to the multifaceted needs of our patient population’s mental health, physical health and social concerns. Residents here begin to understand the role that a particular setting can have in mental health. (For example, the devastating 2011 Joplin tornado created traumatic experiences for some of our patients.)
Opportunity to train in multiple settings
- At New Directions, patients with substance use disorder, including opioid dependency, can receive counseling services and medication-assisted treatment to help them with their symptoms for a well-balanced approach.
- Our Crisis Intervention Program is available at all hours of the day and is even accessible by mobile texting to address our patients’ needs in urgent situations.
- At Bill & Virginia Leffen Center for Autism, staff use Applied Behavior Analysis in the treatment of autism.
- Will’s Place utilizes trauma-focused therapy for children and adolescents.
- Clinical experiences help stimulate areas of research
To promote wellness to our residents, we have incorporated an innovative wellness program to help residents with their own mental wellbeing. This idea stemmed from research conducted at our program. Another research project within our residency program considered the impact of a patient’s suicide on the resident treating the patient and how to provide effective support to that resident.
Opportunities to learn at every stage of training
Residents participate in book club, journal club and contribute to a research project. During protected didactic sessions, they may learn about the latest advances in psychopharmacology or the typical structure of a psychiatric interview. If there is a wellness session, they may participate in yoga or mindfulness exercises.
- First-year residents train in a variety of settings – including pediatrics, internal medicine and neurology – to broaden their understanding of general medicine intermixed with adult inpatient psychiatry rotations.
- Second-year residents gain experience with child psychiatry, emergency psychiatry, consult psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, forensic psychiatry and addiction to round out their skillset in managing psychiatric patients.
- Third-year residents learn how to manage therapy patients and refine their skills in medication management by working in the outpatient psychiatry setting.
- Fourth-year residents are exposed to ECT, TMS all while refining their supervision skills of other residents by being a junior attending.
We are eager to help our residents obtain their personal career goals, whether that means obtaining a competitive fellowship, gaining an academic position or being a well-rounded psychiatrist. We are honored that accomplished students, such as yourself, have expressed interest in our residency program. By choosing us, you will gain experience treating complex patients and provide continuity of care in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. I hope that over the course of your experience getting to know us, you come away as excited as I am about our program.
Nauman Ashraf, MD
Psychiatry Residency Program Director
Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program Director
Salary and Benefits
- Program year 1: $58,200
- Program year 2: $60,076
- Program year 3: $62,220
- Program year 4: $65,221
- Health, vision and dental benefits
- Educational and book stipend
- Paid professional membership fees, including college fees, Missouri Association of Osteopathic Physician and Surgeons and training licensure fees
- Paid time off
- Malpractice insurance and comprehensive liability insurance
- Housing allowance
Mission Statement: Provide a safe, progressive and innovative learning environment in order to produce excellent psychiatrists who practice professional and compassionate care to every patient.
Program Aims:
- Train and educate psychiatrists who will be prepared to provide excellent care in rural areas.
- Produce professional, independent practitioners who will be competent psychiatrists in the community.
- Educate psychiatrists who are prepared to contribute to the field of medicine through scholarly endeavors.
How to Apply
- Applications only accepted through Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS)
- On-site rotations encouraged but not required
- Interviews conducted mid-October through December
- Ozark Center Psychiatry Residency ACGME program number is 4002800115
- Please indicate Psychiatric Medicine Track on ERAS application
Qualifications for Program
- Minimum COMLEX Score of 420
- Minimum USMLE Score of 220
- Graduates preferred no later than 5 years
- We are not currently accepting residents here on visas
- Must be a citizen of the United states or hold a permanent green card
Start the application process between the months of October and January. The number of interviews we will hold for the positions depends on how many spots we must fill that year. An average of 3 residents are accepted into the program each year.
Currently our program is only able to accept those who have US citizenship or have a green card for the United States.
Nauman Ashraf, MD
Psychiatry Residency Program Director
Dr. Ashraf is the program director for Ozark Center Psychiatry Residency program, as well as the newwly founded Addiction Medicine Fellowship. He also serves as an adjunct clinical associate professor at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. He is board-certified in general psychiatry as well as addiction psychiatry. He graduated from Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences in Pakistan. He completed his general psychiatry residency and a fellowship in addiction psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine.
Dr. Ashraf has worked at Ozark Center since 2013 treating patients with mental illness and co-morbid substance use disorders. He started his role as Ozark Center Medical Director of Addiction Services in 2017 and established the buprenorphine program at Ozark Center that same year. He is also a medical director at the methadone program at Behavioral Health Group in Joplin.
Dr. Ashraf serves on numerous hospital and KCU-GME consortium committees, serving as a Chairman for KCU-GME Consortium wellness committee and starting a wellness study for the consortium. He also serves as a consultant for Opioid STR-TA Consortium to help fight the opioid epidemic.
Additionally, Dr. Ashraf co-authored the chapter on alcohol in Pocket Guide to Addiction Assessment and Treatment, published by American Psychiatry Association Publishing. He has published peer-reviewed articles, presented posters in conferences, provided media talks and participated in invited-speaker talks on substance use disorder and resident wellbeing. He has a passion for improving resident wellness and started a small, funded research project titled Psychiatry Residency Yoga Training Experiment in collaboration with Dr. Jeffrey Bradley.
Jeffrey Bradley, MD
Dr. Bradley is board-certified in general psychiatry and in child and adolescent psychiatry. Along with being a published poet, he has also published original research and essays. A recipient of the Lamberti Award for Excellence in Psychotherapy, he was a 2015 “Top Doctor” in psychiatry in 417 Magazine. He has extensive training and unique passion in the area of integrative medicine and yoga.
Modaser Shah, MD
Dr. Shah is a staff psychiatrist and a faculty member of KCU-Graduate Medical Education Consortium Ozark Center. He graduated from and completed his residency at Tokyo Medical & Dental University, and he completed several papers in liver pathology there, as well. He completed his psychiatric residency at Missouri Institute of Psychiatry, St. Louis, MO. Dr. Shah has worked with Ozark Center since 2001.
Dr. Shah has contributed to:
- Invited commentary: “Asabiya and Libido,” in The Bulletin of the Asian Federation of Psychiatric Associations. Summer 2017.
- Academy Forum, Spring 2014: The Case for Psychodynamic Concepts in Medication Management (co-author: Dr. Steven Goad).
- Cultural Psychopathology (in Japanese): Kokoro No Rinsho, special issue, February, 1994.
- Miyamoto Musashi and Bushido: Transactions of the International Conference of Orientalists in Japan, NO XV, 1970.
- Miyamoto Musashi in Window (“Mado”), NO1, 1971.
Allison Smith, MD
Dr. Smith is a board-certified general psychiatrist with a special interest in addiction medicine. Dr. Smith graduated from Kirksville College of osteopathic medicine and subsequently completed her psychiatric residency at Ozark Center/Freeman Heath System.
Dr. Smith currently serves as the medical director for New Directions. She primarily works with residents in the adult inpatient setting, but she also oversees our outpatient substance use treatment center, New Directions, where she works with residents during their addiction rotation.
Kara Reed, MD
Dr. Kara Reed, board certified child and adolescent psychiatrist, started at Will's Place on August 29, 2022. She graduated with honors from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine in 2012. Dr. Reed and her husband, Justin (who is a Rheumatologist at Freeman),relocated to Joplin from Columbia. Since she has joined, she has been providing supervision to our residents in the General Child and Adolescent setting.
Dawny Barnhart, DO
Dr. Dawny Barnhart is a Board-Certified Psychiatrist with over 13 years of dedicated experience in the field of mental health. Her journey in the medical world began with a profound interest in understanding the complexities of the human mind and the intricate ways in which our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors interact. She is a Doctor of Osteopathy (D.O.) and holds a degree from Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg Virginia, home of Virginia Tech. go Hokies!!!. She is originally from SE Kansas and grew up in the area. She embraces a holistic approach to medicine, one that prioritizes the interrelationship between the body, mind, and spirit in the pursuit of overall wellness.
In addition to clinical work, she is deeply involved in mentoring and educating the next generation of healthcare professionals. She is a clinical instructor and mentor to medical students and residents, sharing knowledge and insights to help shape future leaders in the field of psychiatry. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes the importance of empathy, ethical practice, and the integration of evidence based medical practices in all aspects of patient care.
She is married and has one Dog-ter, 2 kitties and 3 mini ponies.
Lakshminarayana Chekuri, MD, PhD
Psychiatry Residency Program Assistant Director
Lakshminarayana Chekuri, MD, PhD was born and raised in India. Soon after graduation from medical school in India he immigrated to the United States and pursued a Masters Program in Public Health at Western Kentucky University and subsequently received a doctoral degree in Applied Gerontology from the University of North Texas. He then completed his residency training in Psychiatry at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
He worked at Mercy hospital, Joplin, MO as a Psychiatrist for 8 years before accepting an academic clinician role at the Freeman Health System / Ozark center Joplin, MO. In his current role as an Assistant Director in the Psychiatry Residency Program, Dr. Chekuri is actively promoting scholarly research activities and evidence-based learning among the residents. Dr. Chekuri also reviews scholarly research work as an academic editor for PLOS One a peer-reviewed open access journal published by the Public Library of Science. Dr. Chekuri’s research interests are in Stigma of Mental Illness, Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, homelessness and Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Psychiatry. Dr. Chekuri also provides clinical services for patients receiving care at the Ozark center.
Download Curriculum Information
Ozark Center residents meet to take part in didactics each Tuesday from 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm at all levels of training. Residents can take part in:
- Journal club
- Business meetings
- Board review
- Lectures on psychopharmacology, behavioral psychology and psychodynamic psychiatry
- Case conferences
- Morbidity and mortality conferences
- Grand rounds
Research Experience and Accomplishments
Ozark Center recently joined a research consortium including Missouri Southern State University and Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. This consortium includes a central wet lab where a variety of commonly used bench technologies serve investigators throughout all three organizations.
Ozark Center has also recently partnered with Evolution Research Group, the premier central nervous system clinical trials management organization in the United States, allowing our organization to participate in sixteen distinct clinical trials.
Additionally, multiple attendings have active original research projects currently underway, and each resident completes a research project before graduation. Many of those projects have become publications or posters. Research interests of our faculty include:
- In situ holistic wellness programs
- Medication-assisted therapies for opioid dependence
- Delirium and encephalitises
- Resident education
Ozark Center staff have developed and copyrighted two scales, one of which is already being utilized by other researchers. Ozark Center is also developing a research program resembling that of any land grant university in the country.
Research Accomplishments
Faculty
- HHEB Project (Housing, Health and Employment Improvements with Buprenorphine): Nauman Ashraf, MD; Raquel N Reno, BSW; Lisa M. Watson, CPS, CRPR; and Allison Smith, DO.
- Impact on Residents from Teaching Medical Ethics: Cindy Schmidt, PhD; Nauman Ashraf, MD; and Kristine Stevens, EdD.
- Ashraf, S*., Kaka, M*., Shah, K., Ashraf, N. (2023, May). Psilocybin Assisted Psychotherapy for Alcohol Use Disorder. APA 2023 Annual Meeting/San Francisco, CA, USA.
- Amuk Williams, O.C*., Modaser, S., Amey-Perrin, V., Ashraf, N. (2023, May). Predictors of Cannabis Use Associated with Serious Psychological Distress in Adolescents. Kansas City University (KCU) Research Symposium, Joplin, MO, USA.
- Amuk Williams, O.C*., Reed, K., Ashraf, N. (2023, May). Cognitive, Behavioral, and Emotional Outcomes of Severe Cannabis Use in Adolescents. Kansas City University (KCU) Research Symposium, Joplin, MO, USA
- Satyasi, S*., King, M*., Mir, F*., Ashraf, N., Smith, A. Benefits of Exposure of Office Based Opioid Treatment during Medical Training. 2022 AAAP Conference in Naples, Florida, December, 2022
- Amuk Williams, O.C*., Watson, L., Sanders, R. Smith, A., Ashraf, N. (2023, May). Differentiation of Neurocognitive Functional Dysfunction in the Context of Opioid Use Disorder Attributable to Suboxone Use versus Post-COVID Syndrome. Kansas City University (KCU) Research Symposium, Joplin, MO, USA.
Residents - Survey of the Barriers to Buprenorphine/Naloxone Prescribing in Our Emergency Department: Jordan Stanton, DO; Nauman Ashraf, MD; and Ben Cesarz, DO.
- Just-In-Time: The Effect of Just-In-Time Scheduling on No-Show Rates: Barinder Singh, DO; Nauman Ashraf, MD; Megan McMurray, DO; Cindy Schmidt, PhD; Jordan Stanton, DO; Lisset Diaz, DO; and Hetvi Desai, DO.
- A Quality Improvement Project of Patients’ Attitudes Toward a New Scheduling Method in the Outpatient Setting: Barinder Singh, DO; Nauman Ashraf, MD; Megan McMurray, DO; Cindy Schmidt, PhD; Jordan Stanton, DO; Lisset Diaz, DO; and Hetvi Desai, DO.
- Jafri, S*, Ashraf, N, Krahl, M*, Shamim, A*, Alkhafaji, R*, Satyasi, S*, Odhejo, Y*, Jaramillo, J*. Impact of providing introductory educational material to patients being admitted to Stephens unit: A quality improvement project. American Psychiatric Association, New Orleans, May 23rd, 2022.
- Usmani, A*., Fatima, A*., Galdikas, F*., Lauren, L*., Ashraf, N., Eby, M., Jaramillo, J, Hunter, J. (2023, May). Impact of behavioral training on the use of chemical and physical restraints. Kansas City University (KCU) Research Symposium, Joplin, MO, USA.
- Usmani, S*., Mehendale, M., Saboor, S., Khan S*., Ashraf, N. Could OCD be a Risk Factor or Precursor for the Later Development of Dementia. APA 2023 Annual Meeting/San Francisco, CA, USA.
Filomena Galdikas, MD Chief Resident
Expected Graduation - 2025
Ayesha Fatima, MD
Expected Graduation - 2025
Areeb Usmani, MD
Expected Graduation - 2025
Larry Welder, MD
Expected Graduation - 2025
Lukas Moore, MD
Expected Graduation - 2026
Murk Kaka, MD
Expected Graduation - 2026
Sonia Khan, MD
Expected Graduation - 2026
Aneel Kumar, MD
Expected Graduation - 2026
Gloria Robertson, MD
Expected Graduation - 2026
Ozge Williams, MD
Expected Graduation - 2027
Nicholas McCarroll, DO
Expected Graduation - 2027
Alexander Hunter, DO
Expected Graduation - 2027
Jennifer Stettler, DO
Expected Graduation - 2027
Yazin Bashir, MD
Expected Graduation - 2028
Kishwar Basith, MD
Expected Graduation - 2028
Alec Ikerd, DO
Expected Graduation - 2028
Kimia Nourmahnad, MD
Expected Graduation - 2028
Diversity Statement
Ozark Center Psychiatry Residency Program is committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse and inclusive workforce of residents, faculty and staff, as well as creating an environment that fosters inclusiveness, mutual respect and appreciation of multiple perspectives. This is achieved through professional development, education, evaluation and practice.
As future physicians, residents must understand and embrace cultural diversity in order to be competent and successful in team-based healthcare delivery. In this context, we are mindful of all aspects of human differences, such as socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, spiritual practice, geography, disability, career goals and age.
We feel it is critical that our trainees reflect the diversity of the patients we serve at Ozark Center, the residents of the city of Joplin and the US population as a whole. This is achieved by nurturing the climate and culture of the program through professional development, education, policy and practice. Our objective is to create a climate that fosters belonging, respect and value for all and encourages engagement and connection throughout the institution.
Moreover, we believe that the constantly changing demographics locally and nationally make it imperative that the program creates a workforce for the future that is capable of understanding, communicating and providing care for individuals from the most varied backgrounds. In this way, diversity enhances creativity and thoughtfulness in our patient care and research and also serves as a catalyst for change, ultimately resulting in greater healthcare equity and a reduction in healthcare disparities. This eventually leads to better solutions to the healthcare needs of the populations we serve.
We are extremely proud of all aspects of diversity represented by our current residents, faculty and staff, and we are committed to both increasing that diversity in the years to come and ensuring the success of our trainees who come from backgrounds currently underrepresented in psychiatry.
Dustin Harrington, BS
Dustin has worked at Ozark Center for more than a decade. He joined our team in 2013 as a community support specialist for youth services, where he provided services at both the rehabilitation and intensive care levels. Dustin also worked with area schools and organizations to best serve clients goals that would lead them to being successful. Since 2018, Dustin has provided ongoing support to Ozark Center’s Psychiatry Residency by assisting in its expansion, continued accreditation and continued funding through the grant process. In 2023, Dustin helped further the program’s growth with the addition of the Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program, for which he also provides support for its ongoing accreditation.
Charlotte Worden
Charlotte is a recent addition to the program, bringing organizational skills and enthusiasm to support the program's efforts. With a strong background in Marketing and Customer Service, she has developed a keen attention to detail and excellent communication skills, which will enable her to provide seamless support to the program.
Contact Information
Program phone number: 417.347.7603
Program director email: nashraf@freemanhealth.com
Program coordinators email: deharrington@freemanhealth.com
ciworden@freemanhealth.com
Ozark Center Psychiatric Residency Program functions under the Kansas City University-Graduate Medical Education (KCU-GME) Consortium. Their phone number is 816.654.7000.
