Alcanza Clinical Research

Dr. Perkins obtained her undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Philosophy from the Commonwealth Honors College at the University of Massachusetts Amherst as a John and Abigail Adams Scholar. She attended medical school at SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York. She completed residency training in psychiatry at the University of Miami, Florida, where she was awarded the Balloveras Intern of the Year Award and later served as Chief Resident.

She continues her relationship with the University of Miami by giving an annual lecture to their resident psychiatrists. Following residency, she accepted a position as a staff psychiatrist at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in Miami, where she supervised resident psychiatrists.

In 2022, she transferred to the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston South Carolina where she worked exclusively with patients struggling with addiction. She served as an Associate Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina and supervised residents rotating in the VA Substance Treatment and Recovery Clinic. While at the VA, she won a $50,000 grant from the U.S. government to fund a harm reduction program, which was recognized by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs as one of the most successful in the United States and used as a model for other VA Medical Centers.

She is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Her writing has been published by Springer Nature and Oxford University Press.