Atlanta Area Family Psychiatry Clinic, P.C. ~ Robert M. Slayden, M.D. biographical

A native of New Orleans, Dr. Allison Nitsche completed her training in the South prior to moving out West for 10 years and returned to Atlanta in 2019. She completed undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill then medical school at Louisiana State University in New Orleans. During medical school, she worked in an emergency shelter for foster children which inspired her to pursue a career in psychiatry. After medical school, she received training in psychopharmacology and psychotherapy during residency at the Baylor College of Medicine. In August 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit her home town of New Orleans, she worked with evacuees, then became interested in disaster psychiatry and serving populations on a broader scale. In addition to pursuing child and adolescent psychiatry, she was inspired to learn more about public health, outreach, advocacy, and public policy in a community psychiatry fellowship at Emory University, where she also received a Master of Public Health degree in the area of Health Policy and Management.

After she completed her training in 2010, Dr. Nitsche met her husband and they decided to move to Utah, where she worked for 2 nationally recognized health care systems, Intermountain Healthcare and the University of Utah’s University Neuropsychiatric Institute (UNI). At Intermountain Healthcare, she provided mental health care in both inpatient and outpatient settings. She also worked with other community partners to establish a school-based clinic for at-risk youth. After 2 years, she moved to the University of Utah and became Assistant Professor in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She worked with children and their families in the hospital and day treatment at UNI as well as with the Comprehensive Assessment and Treatment (CAT) program, which serves individuals whose mental health issues have been treated unsuccessfully in the past, despite numerous attempts at treatment. As part of the CAT program, she worked to provide diagnostic clarification and recommend effective interventions. She was also a course director of the Systems-Based Practice seminar where she taught residents about the systems that interface with mental health including child welfare, juvenile justice, primary care, and education. Finally, she became Co-Director of the Utah Psychotropic Oversight Program (UPOP) with the Division of Child and Family Services.

While they loved the mountains, Dr. Nitsche and her husband had 2 kids while living in Utah and decided to move back to Atlanta to raise their children in the South where they could learn about diversity, be closer to family, and most importantly, eat Southern food. In 2019, she joined Skyland Trail, a non-profit organization offering evidence-based treatment to adults with mental health conditions. As Medical Director of Adolescent Services, she worked with the founding team to develop and launch the new adolescent program including residential, day treatment, and intensive outpatient programs. Since 2020, she joined AAFPC, serving children, adolescents, and adults in her private practice while she has also worked part-time in college mental health with schools including the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and the University of Georgia.

During her career, she has maintained board certification in both psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry and presented on various topics including trauma, resiliency, and systems of care at local, state, and national levels. She has an evidence-based approach, prescribing medication as part of a comprehensive treatment plan. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, eating Southern food, and playing outdoors.

Allison Nitsche, MD, MPH