About the Founder

Kambeze B. Etemad, M.D.

Founder, Talisman Development Services

Drawing upon a wide spectrum of professional, academic and personal experience, Dr. Kambeze Etemad naturally integrates and engages his diverse background to create various types of transformative learning experiences for others. His style and approach bring depth and energy to his initiatives and collaborations.

Born and raised in the greater Philadelphia area, Dr. Etemad has from early in his life been a natural educator and integrative thinker – natively attentive to people’s capacity and purposefulness – and irresistibly inclined to empower others in their learning, advancement and fulfillment on all levels of life.

Dr. Etemad earned his B.A. and M.D. at Brown University in Providence, RI, and completed his residency in psychiatry at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. He has worked in general psychiatry, addiction treatment and psychotherapy – at various sites in the inpatient, outpatient, nursing home, school campus, rehab and urban settings. His training and clinical work in psychiatry are enhanced by experience in mental-health related research, writing, education and community outreach. In 2009, he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He continues to keep his hands in mental health care, in one degree and form or another.

He also follows an avid, deeper calling in education and development – around topics and in venues outside of mental health care. Beyond study, teaching and advising, this has involved the development and management of courses and curricula, as well as educational resources, programs and systems in many settings from the local to the national level. It has also entailed civic outreach, community education and development, public information and speaking, writing and publication, and media work. At one stage, Dr. Etemad spent three-years in Switzerland as faculty, administrator and advisor, helping to develop a newly-formed international college. He also contributed to the Children and War Project based out of the University of Alberta in Canada.

He is an ongoing student of several other subjects, and he eagerly pursues his artistry as a writer and a folk pianist/vocalist. Whenever possible, he includes these in his educational programs.