Jessica M Pierce, MD, MSc

Jessica M. Pierce, M.D., MSc, graduated from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and received a Master of Science in medical anthropology from University College London in the UK. She completed an internship in general pediatrics at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, residency in general psychiatry at the University of Washington in Seattle, and fellowship in child/adolescent psychiatry at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC. She is board-certified in general psychiatry and in child and adolescent psychiatry.
Dr. Pierce served as an outpatient faculty child psychiatrist at Lurie Children's Hospital and the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago from 2015-2017. She subsequently worked as an inpatient child psychiatrist at Hampstead Hospital, a freestanding psychiatric facility in a rural area of New Hampshire. This time working outside of academia provided her with invaluable insight into the unique challenges of rural medicine and the ever-growing shortage of resources in pediatric mental health care, further influencing her dedication to advocacy and community engagement. Dr. Pierce joined the child psychiatry faculty at the University of Michigan in the fall of 2018 and assumed the role of Medical Director of Pediatric Consultation-Liaison (CL) Psychiatry in September 2023.
Dr. Pierce is active in medical education for trainees at all levels, serving as the Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Hospital Education Lead since 2020. She is the director of the senior medical student elective in pediatric consults, co-director of the child and adolescent psychiatry sub-internship, and coordinator of the psychiatry lecture series for general pediatric residents. Dr. Pierce has been active in pediatric mental health advocacy since 2014, working closely with guardian ad litem attorney groups in Washington, DC and Chicago to devise and deliver educational lecture series on psychiatric issues affecting system-involved youth for stakeholders in the child welfare system (including GAL attorneys, CPS social workers, and family court judges). Currently, Dr. Pierce serves as a physician evaluator for the University of Michigan Asylum Collaborative (UMAC) and is active in a nascent collaboration with other local universities and a Detroit non-profit group to provide health education for migrant populations.

Areas of Interest

- Mental health care of medically complex children
- Innovation in medical education and clinical teaching
- Mental health advocacy and community outreach
- Asylum medicine and the health of refugee and migrant children