James Bennett Potash, MD

Description

Dr. Potash has been the Henry Phipps Professor, Director of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Psychiatrist-in-Chief, at Johns Hopkins since 2017. Before that he was Chair and Department Executive Officer of the University of Iowa Department of Psychiatry for six years. Dr. Potash graduated from Yale College. Following graduation, he served in the Peace Corps in the West African country of Senegal. He completed his master’s degree in public health at Johns Hopkins, and then went on to medical school at Hopkins, medical internship at Hopkins Bayview, and a year working as a general practitioner in another West African country, Benin. He returned to do his psychiatry residency at Hopkins. He became the Mood Disorders Center research director before moving to Iowa. Dr. Potash’s work has focused on investigation of the genetic and epigenetic basis of depression and bipolar disorder. These efforts have resulted in over 250 publications. Dr. Potash served as an officer of the International Society for Psychiatric Genetics and on the Executive Committee of the National Network of Depression Centers, and is now President-Elect for the American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry. He has been a member of the Council on Research and is currently on the Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing of the American Psychiatric Association. In this latter role, he led a 2025 paper on The Future of the Psychiatrist. Dr. Potash is an active clinician who sees patients with depression and bipolar disorder in the inpatient and outpatient setting, and also in a mood disorders consultation clinic.