Adolescent Medicine Leadership

Dr. Vaughn Rickert was recruited to join the IUSM faculty as Section Director of Adolescent Medicine in 2009.

He received his Masters and Specialist in School Psychological Services and Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Central Michigan University and completed his internship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine at The Kennedy Krieger Institute.   Prior to joining IUSM, Dr. Rickert was a Professor of Clinical Population and Family Health and the director of this department’s academic program at Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

Dr. Rickert has an extensive history of research in the area of adolescent health including contraceptive practices of young women and relationship violence among adolescents.  Currently, he has special interest in examining adolescents’ and young adults’ adaption to bariatric surgery.  He and his colleagues are investigating the biological and behavioral indices of how adherence to dietary and physical activity recommendation impact on metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors.

He is a nationally known leader in adolescent health. He was the first psychologist to serve as president of the Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine and just completed serving a 2 year term as the first non-physician program chair for the 2010 and 2011 annual scientific meetings. He is also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Adolescent Health.