Dr. Renee Garcia received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from California State University, Los Angeles.  She then went onto conduct basic science research in both molecular biology and biochemistry investigating a family of enzymes, DNA glycosylases, involved in the base excision pathway responsible for the removal and replacement of damaged DNA bases.  She continued her medical journey at Loma Linda University, School of Medicine where she earned her medical degree and then onto general adult psychiatry residency at University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine.

During her time in residency, she was honored with resident achievement award for her PGY-1 and PSY-2 years and was chief resident in her PGY-4 year.  She also developed professional interests in reproductive psychiatry, repetitive traumatic brain injury, and decision making capacity assessments in the general hospital setting, as well as academic involvement in graduate medical education committee and residency selection committee.  Her passion for inpatient consultation-liaison work also bloomed during residency leading to pursuit and completion of Stanford’s Psychosomatic Medicine Fellowship. 

She subsequently transitioned to Stanford faculty with an academic focus in suicidality in the medically ill, agitation in hospitalized patients, assertive ER psychiatric management and ICU psychiatry.  In addition to her role as an assistant clinical professor at Stanford, she is also director of the Psychiatric consultation-liaison service at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, California.  Dr. Garcia has been able to extend the Stanford Psychosomatic medicine comprehensive biopsychosocial model to the community hospital setting along with providing continuing medical education symposiums to community primary care physicians, neurologists, and critical care physicians.