‘Good things happen to good people’: Ladner rises to department chair

Published on Tuesday, September 5, 2023

By: Gary Pettus, gpettus@umc.edu

Photos By: Joe Ellis/UMMC Photography

Dr. Mark Ladner, who was born in the U.S. Air Force Academy Hospital, had wanted to be a fighter pilot.

The feeling lasted about as long as a vapor trail.

His future did not loom in the wild blue yonder, but lay instead in a black leather bag he played with as a child and which belonged to his dad, Dr. George Ladner, a respected psychiatrist.

“Being a psychiatrist is like being paid to be someone’s best friend,” said Ladner who pondered for years the rewards of his father’s career before making it his own.

And now, his career has come to this: As of August 7, Ladner became the new chair of the UMMC Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior. In terms of his calling, the would-be pilot is now sky-high.

“As chair, I want to be the kind of person people respect and admire – as I respected and admired department chairs when I was a student at the Medical Center,” said Ladner, a 1992 graduate of the School of Medicine.

“And, after their training, I hope to convince many of the students here to stay at UMMC. This place has a lot of meaning for me.”

As does Jackson, the city where Ladner actually grew up; as does the state where his late father was born. A D’Iberville native, George Ladner spent time in the U.S. Air Force, a circumstance that helped propel his son’s imagination toward fighter jets.

But Mark Ladner was six weeks old when the family took leave of their home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, near the Air Force Academy and moved to Mississippi.

“I still remember the names of psychiatrists my dad worked with when I was growing up,” Ladner said. “It was a very collegial group and they seemed to enjoy their work.”

For a long time, he knew he wanted to be like them: a doctor. He was not sure if he wanted to be a psychiatrist. But he did know where wanted to attend medical school and do his residency: UMMC. Just like his father, a member of the medical school class of 1962.

In the summer before medical school, Ladner got a glimpse of in-patient psychiatry in action working as an aide in in a local psychiatric hospital. But it wasn’t until his psychiatry rotation in medical school that knew this was what he was meant to do.

“In psychiatry, you get to know people on a deeper level than they may have with anyone else,” he said. “There are patients who can tell me things they can’t tell anyone else, who are able to share things that they believe no one else can understand.

“And it’s nice to hear someone say, ‘thank you, you really helped me.’”

Once he finished his residency, Ladner set about helping patients outside the Medical Center, but did so in the Jackson area and, at one time, operated a private practice. Then, he arrived at one of the most gratifying times of his career, one that was perhaps, a homage to his fighter-pilot dream.

“I love working with veterans,” said Ladner, who joined the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 2004. He stayed there 12 years, rising to president of the medical staff and acting chief of psychiatry.

Over the years, with veterans and non-veterans alike, he has seen people so depressed they couldn’t work, he said.

“Depression is the most common problem I see in my patients. And it affects so many people around them. It hits the family hard: ‘We’ve lost our dad. We’ve lost our husband.’

“There was an older patient who was close to retirement. He had depression and suicidal thoughts. We were able to get him out of that condition and back to his family. So, it’s truly saving a life.”

Seven years ago, he was told his skills were needed at UMMC. That came from Dr. Scott Rodgers, now the associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, who was chair of psychiatry and human behavior at the time.

Rodgers was sold on Ladner’s hard work, competence and vision, and as someone “who feels a particular sense of concern and care for all things UMMC and for the citizens of our state,” he said.

In fact, at about the same time, Rodgers recruited one of Ladner’s colleagues at the VA: Dr. Sara Gleason, who would be the department’s interim chair one day.

Parting from a place they both loved was a big leap. “We kind of felt like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” Ladner said: “‘Hold hands and jump off the cliff.’”

Leave it to Ladner to make a reference to a Western. “He loves movies,” said Gleason, a 2004 medical school alum, professor of psychiatry and human behavior, and assistant vice chancellor for clinical affairs. “I can’t think of one he doesn’t know.”

Still, the allusion works, she said. The move to UMMC was “a big deal. But it was the right time for us to explore another opportunity.

“Now, it’s nice that we are working together as leaders. As a leader, Mark can bring people together. As for psychiatry, it’s the family business for him.

“At the VA, I saw how compassionate he was with veterans who had PTSD. There’s no stigma, as far as he’s concerned, about anything. He meets people where they are.”

Ladner’s selection as chair, Rodgers added, “confirms that good things happen to good people. His time as chair will be marked by the highest possible level of devotion and dedication to our mission.”

To help fulfill that mission, Ladner will lead a department of faculty, staff, residents and interns numbering more than 100 and which embraces several divisions, including the Division of Psychology.

His goals for them, and for the patients they serve, are to put more quality mental health providers out in the community, he said, “and to maintain the high standards we have in the department for excellence and achievement.”

He also wants to maintain the strong record of the department’s Division of Neurobiology and Behavior Research while tending as well to education and to the “indispensable” patient service that is telehealth.

In other words, in keeping with his personality, there should be few surprises. “I believe I’m very straightforward; you see what you get,” he said. “And I’m very much a family-oriented guy.”

A University of Mississippi graduate, Ladner has three daughters – triplets – all attending Ole Miss, with two in pre-med. His wife, Angela Ladner, is the executive director of an organization he serves, the Mississippi Psychiatric Association.

“Family means more to me than anything else,” he said. “It’s why I trained here, and why I stayed here in Jackson.”

Gleason is glad that he did. “He’s consistent and well-grounded, but also open-minded. He values legacy, but also knows when it’s time to look to the future.

“Dr. Rodgers and others before him laid such a strong foundation for the department, but there will be needs in the future, and Mark will be author of this new chapter.”