Meet the Team

Wayne Goodman, MD
Program Director
Klingenstein Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry

Dr. Goodman joined Mount Sinai in 2009 as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry. He is a pioneer in research on the neurobiology and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Dr. Goodman is the principal developer of the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), the gold standard for evaluating OCD, and he co-founded the Obsessive-Compulsive Foundation, serving as Chair of its Scientific Advisory Board for 10 years. Additionally, Dr. Goodman is an expert in the development and application of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for treatment-resistant OCD.

Dr. Goodman served as Director of the Division of Adult Translational Research and Treatment Development at the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Maryland. He was also Chair of the Food and Drug Administration’s Psychopharmacologic Drug Advisory Committee. Prior to joining NIMH in 2007, Dr. Goodman served as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Florida College of Medicine for eight years. Dr. Goodman was an undergraduate at Columbia University, received his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine, and completed his residency and fellowship in psychiatry at Yale University, where he remained on the faculty until 1993.

Clinical Treatment Team

Matthew Hopperstad, MD
Medical Director
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry

As a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist, Dr. Hopperstad specializes in treating psychiatric disorders across the lifespan. He currently serves as the Medical Director of the Mount Sinai OCD Center and is the Unit Chief of an inpatient psychiatric unit at The Mount Sinai Hospital.  

Dr. Hopperstad completed his undergraduate education at the University of Washington where he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. He later attended the Post Baccalaureate Premedical Program at Columbia University and worked as a researcher in the Department of Neuroscience at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, publishing in the area of membrane channel biophysics.
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A graduate of Icahn School of Medicine, Dr. Hopperstad was awarded the Dr. M. Ralph Kaufman Prize for Excellence in Psychiatry and was inducted into the Arnold P. Gold Society for Humanism in Medicine. He continued his training at Mount Sinai as a resident in the program for General Psychiatry and completed his fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at The NYU Child Study Center where he is currently on faculty as an adjunct assistant professor.

Alicia Hirsch, PsyD
Clinical Director
Instructor, Department of Psychiatry

Dr. Hirsch is a clinical psychologist with an expertise in the treatment of OCD and related disorders in adults and children. She joined the Icahn School of Medicine in 2001 as a psychologist and study therapist for the Traumatic Stress Studies Program. In 2005, Dr. Hirsch became the Director of Clinical Services for the Mount Sinai Eating and Weight Disorders Program. An expert in cognitive-behavioral therapy and its application to multiple psychiatric disorders, Dr. Hirsch uses a range of techniques to provide comprehensive care that meet the unique needs of each patient.

In addition to her role with The Mount Sinai Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders Treatment Center, Dr. Hirsch is also Co-Director of the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Program at Mount Sinai. In honor of her compassion and skill as a clinician, in 2009, Dr. Hirsch received the Gold Doc award from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.

Ariz Rojas, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychiatry

Dr. Rojas joined the Department of Psychiatry as a post-doctoral fellow in September 2011.  Her clinical interests include the evaluation and treatment of children, adolescents, and adults with obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders.  Her clinical research has focused on evidence-based treatments for pediatric OCD, parent-child interventions, and the role of acculturation in the mental health of Hispanic youth.  

She is trained in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), Habit Reversal Training (HRT), Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), and Mindfulness. Dr. Rojas has also provided clinical services in schools, community, and hospital settings, including telehealth modalities such as telephone coaching and internet-delivered treatment.

Dr. Rojas received her undergraduate degree, master’s degree and doctoral degree from the University of South Florida. She was awarded numerous scholarships and fellowships during her graduate training, including the prestigious Ford Foundation Diversity Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Academies of Science.  She also completed an American Psychological Association accredited internship in Clinical Child and Pediatric Psychology at Children’s Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School. 

Research Team

Heather Berlin, PhD, MPH  
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry

Dr. Berlin’s research focuses on understanding the neural basis of compulsivity, impulsivity, and emotion in an effort to develop more targeted treatments for patients. By conducting neuroimaging and neuropsychological and psychopharmacological testing of the brain lesion, she hopes to identify better ways to evaluate and treat patients with compulsive, impulsive, and personality disorders. In addition, Dr. Berlin is interested in exploring the neural basis of consciousness and dynamic unconscious processes.

Dr. Berlin has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including a Young Investigator Award from the American Neuropsychiatric Association, a Young Investigator Award from the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder, and the Clifford Yorke Prize from the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society.

She is a visiting scholar at the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and previously served as a visiting assistant professor at Vassar College, as a visiting lecturer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)/University of Zurich, and at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She received her master’s degree in public health from Harvard University and her doctorate from the University of Oxford.

Emily R. Stern, PhD
Assistant Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience

Dr. Stern joined the Mount Sinai faculty in 2011. Her research is focused on understanding the neurobiological substrates of aberrant appraisal and decision processes in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and other anxiety disorders. The overall goal of her research is to identify behavioral and biological markers of anxiety vulnerability and resilience that can be used as targets for treatment.

Dr. Stern received her doctoral degree in experimental psychology from Columbia University. During her postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan, she conducted research investigating neural mechanisms of altered decision-making and error hypersensitivity in OCD. Her findings have been published in the Journal of Neuroscience and Biological Psychiatry, and she has received funding from several major organizations, including an NIMH National Research Service Award and a Young Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Foundation.

Additional Key Members of Our Team

Alexandra Muratore, BA
Clinical Research Coordinator

Ms. Muratore works with Dr. Stern on projects looking at cognitive processing in OCD. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Skidmore College in 2011, and plans to pursue a  doctorate in clinical psychology.  

Samuel Zhang, BA
Clinical Research Coordinator

Mr. Zhang graduated from New York University with a degree in psychology and a focus in the premedical track. At NYU, he conducted research on the cognitive effects of fear and disgust using a distance perception paradigm. He is currently interested in looking at the neural correlates of these emotions and specifying his research interests to a clinical population with obsessive-compulsive disorder.