Dr. Susan McElroy’s work in establishing the effectiveness of a new medication for people with bipolar disorder led to the recent approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its use in this serious, lifelong illness. She has also been a pioneer in establishing the link between mood disorders (depression, manic-depressive illness) and impulse control disorders. Dr. McElroy’s scientific achievements have affected the lives of thousands of people throughout the world.

Susan McElroy attended Cornell University Medical School, and following her residency in internal medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York, she completed a residency in psychiatry at Harvard’s prestigious McLean Hospital in Melmont, Massachusetts, and was a clinical fellow in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. McElroy served as director of psychopharmacological services at McLean Hospital from 1988-1991 and was assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

In 1991, Dr. McElroy became associate professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, where she directs the biological psychiatry center and co-directs the biological psychiatry program. She has published extensively and lectured both nationally and internationally.

Her Irish ancestry stems from Dingle, Co. Kerry and Co. Monaghan. The McElroys emigrated to New York during the Famine. Her maternal grandmother, Mary Bresnihan, came to New York as an orphan at the turn of the century.