Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Kenneth Silk, MD went to Brandeis University and then to Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. He did a pediatric internship at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx and a residency in Psychiatry at Yale. He has been teaching at University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry since 1975 and became a Professor Emeritus on Jan 1 this year.

Dr. Silk was an inpatient psychiatrist for 20 years, 10 with the VA and 10 at University Hospital. He then did primarily outpatient psychiatry and administration for his last 20 years with the department. He considers himself a general psychiatrist but specializes in personality disorders where his primary interest is in the clinical treatment, both pharmacologic as well as psychosocial, of personality disorders, primarily borderline personality disorder.

Dr. Silk has published more than 100 articles and book chapters, has co-written one book and edited or co-edited 3 books including the Cambridge University Press Textbook of Effective Treatments in Psychiatry. He is one of 3 Co-Editors in Chief of Personality and Mental Health, a Wiley-Blackwell journal. For the last 12 years he has been on the Scientific Planning Committee of the American Psychiatric Association’s Annual Meeting where he chaired that committee for the 2012 Annual Meeting. He was Secretary-Treasurer of the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders for 8 years ending in 2013.

At the University, Dr. Silk was the second chair of the Faculty Group Practice Executive Board. He was alo Associate Chair of Clinical and Administrative Affairs for 10 years, directed the Personality Disorders Program for 30 years and chaired the Department’s Appointments and Promotions Committee from 2003 through 2014. In 2013 he received the Dean’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in Clinical Care from the University of Michigan Medical School and the Senior Award from the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders.