Carmen McIntyre Leon, M.D., assistant professor and associate chair of Community Affairs in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, has been appointed interim chair of the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Department of Neurosurgery.

The appointment, announced Thursday by Mark E. Schweitzer, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine and vice president of WSU Health Affairs, is effective Feb. 1.

Dr. McIntyre Leon replaces Sonia Eden, M.D., who served as interim chair of the department since February 2021. Dr. Eden has stepped won to accept a position out of state.

She will serve in the position during a national search for a permanent department chair.

A 1990 graduate of the WSU School of Medicine, Dr. McIntyre Leon joined the faculty in 2014. 

The chief medical officer of the Michigan Department of Corrections, she is a member of the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the Michigan Medical Association, the Michigan Psychiatric Society (president), the Oakland County Medical Association, the American Correctional Association and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care.

She has served as chief medical director for the Detroit Wayne Mental Health Authority, Southwest Counseling Solutions, Community Network Services, the St. Joseph Mercy Network and Boniface Human Services.

Dr. McIntyre Leon also serves as the Human Services Collaborative Committee co-chair for the Steering Committee for Wayne County Providers of Services to Children, Youth and Families.

In 2020, she received the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness. She was named a Crain’s Health Care Hero for advancements in health care, and received the Excellence in Mental Health First Aid Community Impact Award from the national Council for Behavioral Health, was named to the Class of 2015 Women of Excellence by The Michigan Chronicle and received the David J. Olen Award from the Mental Illness Research Association.

She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1985. After graduating from the Wayne State University School of Medicine, she completed a residency and National Institutes of Mental Health research fellowship at the Medical College of Pennsylvania.