Fellows

UW Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship

Current Fellows

Maria Leighton, MD

Position title: CAP2 Fellow, Co-Chief

Maria grew up in Wisconsin, attended the University of Wisconsin Platteville and earned a bachelors degree in biology before joining the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. While in medical school, was a RUSCH Scholar conducting research and learning about health in underserved communities. Before medical school she served as in intern for Grant County Public Health assessing the quality and performance of local health education programs. Maria joined the CAP fellowship after completing residency years 1-3 at Unity Point Broadlawns. As a CAP2 fellow, Maria serves as co-chief. Maria hopes to stay in Wisconsin after completing her CAP fellowship!

Mariah Cooper, MD

Position title: CAP2 Fellow

Medical School: University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences

Mariah joins us from the University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences. She grew up on the Lac Courte Oreille Ojibwe reservation in rural Wisconsin, and she had an early interest in becoming a physician. One of the most important lessons she states she learned growing up, involved the concept of “minobimaadiziwiin”, an Ojibwe word which describes living a purposeful life and adding positively to the community. She follows minobimaadiziwiin through education, training in Nordic skiing, and being involved with her tribal community and culture. She is interested in pursuing a fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry or Sports Psychiatry. She enjoys ballroom dancing, swing dancing, dancing at powwows, fishing and spending time on the lake, sewing ribbon skirts, curling, visiting museums and aquariums, and reading anthropology and history books.

Rigina Gallagher, MD

Position title: CAP2 Fellow

Medical School: University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

Rigina, a soon-to-be graduate from University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, was elected as Co-President of the American Medical Association’s Medical Student Section UWSMPH Chapter and served as a student volunteer with MEDiC organization. She conducted computational neuroimaging neuroscience research which investigated the utility of NODDI, a novel diffusion-weighted MRI technique, as a marker of pre-clinical Alzheimer’s Disease neurodegeneration which resulted in a Master’s thesis, a first-author publication, an oral presentation, 3 national conference poster presentations. She enjoys hosting AirBnB Experience: “Cooking Authentic Italian Dinner in WI”, co-hosting for AirBnB Travel, creative writing, running, fishing and Greyhound adoption.

Carolina Sanchez Aranda, MC

Position title: CAP2 Fellow and Chief Fellow

Dr. Sanchez Aranda completed her medical education in Mexico, where her international training shaped a broad, culturally informed perspective on mental health. Drawn to the complexity of development, she pursued Child and Adolescent Psychiatry with a strong belief in the power of early intervention and the importance of creative, flexible approaches to care. Her clinical interests include adolescent mental health—particularly emotion dysregulation and stress-related behavioral shifts—as well as advocacy through public education and mental health literacy.

Billy Moua, MD, MPH

Position title: CAP1 Fellow

Medical School: University of Minnesota Medical School

Dr. Moua earned his M.D. from the University of Minnesota Medical School. Prior to medical school, he earned his Masters of Public Health followed by working as a program coordinator at a non-profit where he partnered with adolescents from marginalized communities to foster interpersonal communication skills for success in the workplace and helped them navigate the college application process. During medical school, he continued to seek out opportunities to directly serve marginalized communities from teaching a class to inmates at the Hennepin County jail, volunteering at the student-run Phillips Neighborhood free clinic, and coordinating a research project aimed at reducing disparities of Hmong people living with diabetes. His hobbies and interests include NCAA volleyball, video games, hiking, kayaking, tennis, trying new foods, and asking pet parents to share pictures and stories of their fur babies.

Alyssandra Abrenica, MD

Position title: CAP1 Fellow

Medical School: Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine

Dr. Abrenica earned her M.D. from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and was the first recipient of the AMA Foundation’s Dream MD Equity award during her med school training. She is originally from Texas where she worked at Spectrum of Hope, a mental health clinic for children with autism and other developmental disorders. Alyssa currently serves as the Policy Co-Chair for a nonprofit organization called Filipinx/a/o Community Health Association (Fil-CHA) and works on mental health disparity research and policy advocacy for marginalized communities. She also works with Senator Durbin on immigration reform lobbying and gives talks in UW-Madison undergraduate courses on LGBTQ+ mental health and DEI concerns in the medical field. Alyssa is a classically trained soprano, and in her free time she enjoys singing, attending live music shows, and spending time with her dog.

Anna Vareberg, MD

Position title: CAP1 Fellow

Medical School: New York University Long Island School of Medicine

Fellows

UW Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship

Current Fellows

Maria Leighton, MD

Mariah Cooper, MD

Rigina Gallagher, MD

Carolina Sanchez Aranda, MC

Billy Moua, MD, MPH

Alyssandra Abrenica, MD

Anna Vareberg, MD

Recent Alumni

Gene Yang, M.D., M.B.A.

Kristin Blake, MD

Or Raizman Velasquez, MD

Mitchell Wendt, MD

Daniel Eagle, DO

Christina Roberts, M.D.