Virginia Medinilla

Virginia Medinilla

Core Faculty

Virginia is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Core Faculty at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Born and raised in Argentina, Virginia received her undergraduate degree in Biotechnology and Molecular Genetics from Universidad Nacional de Quilmes in Buenos Aires. She then moved to the U.S. to attend graduate school at LSU in New Orleans, where she earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience followed by her M.D. and Adult Psychiatry Residency training.

In 2022, Virginia moved to Madison to pursue an Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. As part of her fellowship, she collaborated with researchers at the Center to develop a meditation-based intervention for veterans with opioid use disorder.

Virginia’s interests include the use of meditation and other contemplative approaches for the understanding and treatment of psychiatric illnesses, particularly substance use and other addictive disorders. As an Addiction Psychiatrist, Virginia is also passionate about ending the stigma that is associated with people who use substances, including people with substance use disorders, in both clinical and research settings.

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