Prakash N. Desai, M.D.

Dr. Desai was born in India and earned his medical degree from the University of Baroda in 1962. He completed his psychiatry residency at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago in 1967. He spent 26 years at the West Side Veterans Health Care facility (now Jesse Brown VA), serving as chief of psychiatry for 16 years and then as chief of staff overseeing all medical and surgical services for the next 10. He also held a faculty position at the University of Illinois Chicago, where he spent his final five professional years full-time, including serving as director of education at the University of Illinois Hospital. His academic interests included cross-cultural psychiatry, Hinduism, and the philosophy of Gandhi.

A Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), Dr. Desai held several leadership roles, including chair of the Caucus of International Medical Graduates, chair of the Committee on Veterans Affairs, Area 4 Representative to the Assembly, and Speaker of the Assembly (2003–2004). He was honored with several APA awards, including the Oskar Pfister Award in 1995 and the George Tarjan Award in 2003.