After serving as Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Seattle Children’s Hospital and Director of the Seattle Children’s Autism Center for the past 11 years, Bryan King is heading to San Francisco to direct child mental health for the UCSF Health System, including the Benioff Children’s Hospitals in Oakland and San Francisco.

Under Bryan’s leadership, our department has become an academic and clinical powerhouse in child and adolescent mental health care with one of the best Child Psychiatry Training programs in the world. Bryan has helped grow our Child Psychiatry program to over 50 faculty, staff psychologists and psychiatrists, substantially expanded clinical services, led the recruitment of exceptional trainees, and built one of the largest Autism Centers in the world. Mental Health is one of the top priorities in the upcoming Strategic Plan for Seattle Children’s Hospital, and we are well positioned for the future. It was only natural that others would notice what Bryan is capable of – and our tremendous loss is UCSF and the Bay Area’s gain.

Bryan will remain in his role through the end of June. Over the next few weeks, Dr. Mark Del Beccaro, Chief Medical Officer at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and Dr. Jürgen Unützer, Chair of the UW Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, will work together to identify a strong interim leadership team and to launch a national search for a permanent Division Director. Bryan is leaving big shoes to fill, and we are committed to making sure that the programs and the reputation he has worked so hard to build continue to thrive. We will also work hard to get input from faculty and staff as we embark on this leadership transition.