Robyn Jordan, MD – President
Dr. Jordan is a Board-Certified Psychiatrist and Addiction Medicine Specialist and is an Associate Professor in the UNC School of Medicine. She is the medical director of the UNC Addiction Medicine Program and serves as the Program Director for the UNC Addiction Medicine Fellowship. Dr. Jordan has led initiatives such as suboxone initiation in the UNC emergency department and developed an inpatient consult service for patients hospitalized with infection from IV drug use, reducing hospital readmissions for this population by 50%. She is now leading the NC STAR network, a statewide Hub and Spoke model for connecting addiction treatment providers across NC. Dr. Jordan remains committed to finding innovative ways to bring addiction treatment to the citizens of North Carolina.

Michael Baca-Atlas, MD – Secretary/Treasurer
Dr. Michael Baca-Atlas completed his undergraduate work at the University of Maryland, College Park and medical school at University of Maryland in Baltimore. He completed his Family Medicine residency at UNC as well as an Addiction Medicine fellowship at UNC in the department of psychiatry. He serves as the associate medical director for the Tobacco Treatment Program as well as a medical consultant for UNC Horizons, a program that serves women, including those who are pregnant or parenting with substance use disorders. His clinical duties include seeing patients at UNC WakeBrook Primary Care with serious mental illness and substance use disorders as well as working on UNC WakeBrook’s Alcohol and Drug Detoxification Unit (ADU). Also, he serves as an attending on the inpatient family medicine service at UNC Hospitals Hillsborough Campus. He teaches addiction medicine fellows, family medicine/psychiatry/nurse practitioner residents, as well as medical and nurse practitioner students in various clinical settings. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his partner, eating breakfast for dinner, and traveling.

Ashwin Patkar, MD, MRCPsych, DFASAM, DFAPA – Immediate Past President
Dr. Ashwin A. Patkar is Chief of Avance Psychiatry, Raleigh, NC and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago. He was formerly Professor of Psychiatry and Community and Family Medicine at Duke University Medical Center, NC and Associate Professor and Associate Medical Director of Substance Abuse Programs at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia. PA. Dr. Patkar has over 25 years of clinical and scientific experience in addiction, dual diagnoses, and pain and addiction. He is Certified in Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatry, Addiction Medicine and Pain Medicine. Dr. Patkar has been listed in the Best Doctors in America continuously since 2009-2020. He holds unrestricted license to practice medicine in North Carolina and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Dr. Patkar has published over 250 scientific articles, 6 book chapters and has given over 400 presentations and invited lectures at national and international meetings. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatry Association (APA), President of North Carolina Chapter of ASAM, the Past President of the Indo-American Psychiatric Association, and member of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, American Academy of Pain Medicine, Indian Psychiatric Society, Royal College of Psychiatrists and World Psychiatric Association. Dr. Patkar is married with 2 children and enjoys fishing, yoga, squash, and cricket.

“These are important times for NCSAM. Our hope is to gain insight, opinion and share educational opportunities with our NC based medical colleagues to increase NCSAM membership in the process.”