Jeff Katzman, MD
Executive Board Member
Dr. Katzman is Director of Silver Hill Academy for Research and Education. His lifelong work has been to help patients overcome the isolation that informs so many modern lives. He studied human relationships at Stanford University as an undergraduate and went on to medical school at UC San Diego before completing psychiatry residency training at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. Dr. Katzman’s study of contemporary psychodynamic theory has included certification in the Adult Attachment Interview, the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis Psychotherapy program, Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy and Mentalization Based Therapy.
Dr. Katzman has extensive experience in hospital administration. He served as the Chief of Psychiatry and Director of the Behavioral Health Care line at the New Mexico VA Healthcare System for many years. He subsequently served as the Vice Chair for Education for the Department of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico following many years as the Vice Chair of Clinical Services. He currently serves as the medical director of the Resilience and Connection program through Project ECHO.
Dr. Katzman also has a longstanding interest in communication. Much of this comes from his thirty-year background in improvisational theater. He has worked with psychiatry residents and medical students using improvisation to develop the capacity for collaboration and spontaneity so important to the therapeutic alliance. He has worked with interdisciplinary groups of providers in various hospital settings and with medical leadership teams to foster a sense of teamwork and joy in working together.
In addition to his scholarly, peer-reviewed research, Dr. Katzman has also published two popular works. His study and love for improvisation is captured in his books, Life Unscripted and Ensemble, co-authored with his improvisation mentor Dan O’Connor. His 2012 novel, The Storymaker, was recognized as a Semi-Finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel competition of 10,000 submissions.
