Gaurava Agarwal, MD

Gaurava Agarwal, MD

Gaurava Agarwal, MD, Positive Sobriety Institute

is Associate Professor in both the Departments of Medical Education and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.  He serves as the Director of Physician Well-Being for Northwestern Medicine’s Medical Groups and Director of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Dr. Agarwal is a nationally recognized educator who has won the prestigious Association for Academic Psychiatry Junior Faculty Award, Devneil Vaidya Junior Faculty Teaching Award, White Coat Investor Financial Educator of the Year Award, Illinois Psychiatric Society Educator of the Year, and is the first psychiatrist to win the George H. Joost Award for outstanding clinical teacher from Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine.  He serves as a wellness consultant to multiple national research groups and is a certified leadership, organizational, and well-being coach.

Dr. Agarwal specializes in occupational and organizational psychiatry with an emphasis on workplace mental health.  He currently serves as the chair of the Behavioral Health Section of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Vice-President of the Academy of Organizational and Occupational Psychiatry, member of the American Hospital Association’s Committee on Clinical Leadership, Chair of the Well-Being and Professional Development Committee for the American College of Physicians Northern Illinois chapter, and is on the Advisory Council of the Center for Workplace Mental Health.  He created the Scholars of Wellness (SOW), a 2019 Illinois Psychiatric Society Innovation in Physician Wellness Award winning program designed to help address the organizational drivers of physician burnout.

• M.D., Psychiatrist, Positive Sobriety Institute.
• Inpatient Unit Director for Stone Institute of Psychiatry at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Faculty Appointments

• Instructor in both the Departments of Medical Education and Psychiatry at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
• Director of Undergraduate Medical Education in Psychiatry for the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
• Course Director for a professionalism and wellness course for medical students called “Personal Transition to the Profession.”

Board Certifications

• Psychiatry

Awards/Honors/Distinctions:

• Won the prestigious Association for Academic Psychiatry Junior Faculty Award.
• First psychiatrist to win the George H. Joost Award for outstanding clinical teacher from Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
• Served as a co-investigator on multiple clinical trials for cutting edge pharmaceuticals studying the treatment of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
• Published in peer reviewed journals and presented national workshops on issues of physician and medical student burnout, resilience, engagement, and professionalism.