After attending Harvard University as an undergraduate and obtaining his M.D. from Rush Medical College in Chicago, Dr. Misch completed residency training in both internal medicine (Rush Medical Center) and psychiatry (Northwestern University). He then practiced both general internal medicine and general adult psychiatry in the Chicago metropolitan area.
Although a psychiatrist who prescribes medication, Dr. Misch was, and is, intensely committed to psychotherapy as a key element in helping patients develop long-lasting, positive change in their lives. For that reason, he accepted a faculty appointment from 1992 to 2003 in the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at the Medical College of Georgia. There he served as the Director of Psychotherapy Education and Psychiatry Residency Training Director for psychiatry residents as well as the Phase I Behavioral Science Course Director and Psychiatry Clerkship Director for medical students. In addition to his many teaching roles focusing on psychotherapy and clinical psychiatry, Dr. Misch published academic papers on psychotherapy, suicide, physician professionalism, empathy, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Dr. Misch was honored to be selected as a Carnegie Scholar in 2001-2002 (the only physician ever to be chosen for this national program of higher education faculty dedicated to the art and science of teaching and learning) and a Co-Director of the Georgia Governors’ Teaching Fellows Program from 2001-2003.
In 2003 Dr. Misch returned to his hometown of Chicago in the role of Executive Director of the Northwestern University Health Service where much of his work focused on alcohol and other drug (AOD) abuse and on sexual assault (including a very well-received undergraduate course on “Sexual Assault in America”).
After years of enduring Chicago winters, in 2010 Dr. Misch moved to the University of Colorado Boulder, serving as the Senior Assistant Vice Chancellor for Health and Wellness and Executive Director of the Wardenburg Health Center where, again, alcohol and other drug abuse and health promotion/wellness were central to his work. Dr. Misch was charged with overall responsibility for CU-Boulder’s alcohol and other drug programs, served as a Co-Chair of the campus-community coalition AACT (Addressing Alcohol Concerns Together), and worked with the City of Boulder on a variety of task forces related to alcohol and marijuana issues. He is particularly proud of his role in establishing the CU Collegiate Recovery Center, an on-campus program dedicated to helping college students, high school students, and others live a successful and productive sober lifestyle after a history of alcohol and/or drug abuse.
After retiring from the University of Colorado, Dr. Misch returned to the private practice of psychiatry and also worked at the Colorado Physician Health Program as an Associate Medical Director. Dr. Misch has also served as Vice President of the Boulder County Board of Health.
Dr. Misch has formally presented to a variety of diverse audiences locally and nationally on issues of alcohol and other drug abuse (including, in particular, the health effects of marijuana as well as psychostimulant abuse), and he continues to publish academic papers on these topics in addition to issues related to medical education and medical professionalism.