Allan Tasman is Emeritus Professor, Chairman (Chairman 1991-2015) of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Louisville and Schwab Endowed Chair in Social and Community Psychiatry. He completed psychiatric residency at the University of Cincinnati following medical school and first year of residency at the University of Kentucky. He also is a graduate of the Western New England Psychoanalytic Institute and was a faculty member in the Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute for many years.
He is internationally known for his advocacy for innovation in psychiatric education and clinical services and for an evidence based integrative bio-psycho-social model of treatment within a comprehensive and collaborative system of care. His national reputation in psychiatric education began when he was a faculty member at the University of Connecticut Medical School during the late 1970’s, and he continues to be a highly regarded teacher and educational leader both nationally and internationally.
Through his national and international work over the last three decades, he also has been involved in a broad range of strategic planning and mental health policy issues, particularly in the areas of impact of managed care on historically disadvantaged populations, mental health parity, mental health workforce, addressing the societal and economic disparities in health and mental health, and the impact of the Affordable Care Act on access to mental health services. He is a 2018 appointee to the National Advisory Council of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Known as a collaborative and transformational leader, he led the psychiatry department in Louisville to a sustained period of growth and expansion of its academic, community outreach, and clinical programs including growing its NIH rankings for research to the highest level in the department’s history, and the expansion or development of several new subspecialty education/training programs. In addition, he conceptualized and led the development of and the approval process for two multidisciplinary university designated centers of excellence, the University of Louisville Depression Center, and the University of Louisville Autism Center