Dr. Saklad was born in Los Angeles, California in 1953, and graduated from Pacific Palisades High School in 1970. He received his baccalaureate degree in Bacteriology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1974 and his Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the University of Southern California (USC) in 1978. He then completed a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) training fellowship in Psychiatric Pharmacy supervised by Jim Wilson, Pharm.D., BCPP at the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute of the University of Nebraska Medical Center at Omaha in 1979. In 1979 he joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy and the clinical staff at San Antonio State Hospital (SASH) as the first clinical pharmacist employed by the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (now Health and Specialty Care System of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission). He has lived in San Antonio, Texas since 1979. He is married and the father of triplet sons.
During his 44-year career, Dr. Saklad has provided clinical care, education, and research in a variety of settings and treatment roles at SASH. He team-teaches didactic and laboratory courses for P3 and P4 pharmacy students, and precepts and mentors pharmacy students in their advanced professional experience rotations at SASH. He received the UT Austin College of Pharmacy’s Teaching Award from the Class of 2014. He authored and successfully worked with members of the Texas Legislature on the creation of a clinical research unit at SASH, funded by the Texas Legislature and jointly governed by the UT Austin College of Pharmacy, UT Health San Antonio Department of Psychiatry, and SASH.
Dr. Saklad initiated and developed the first websites for the UT Austin College of Pharmacy in 1994, the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists (CPNP; now the American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists, AAPP) in 1997, and the CPNP Foundation (now AAPPF) in 2015. He helped to design, organize, and became a founding member of CPNP when it was incorporated in 1998 as well as the CPNP Foundation in 2012. In 2003, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the CPNP for a two-year term. He has served as a member or officer of the CPNP Communications Committee, was the Founding Senior Editor of the Mental Health Clinician, CPNP’s Open Access journal, Treasurer of the CPNP Foundation, and a member of the CPNP Business Development Committee. He has been the Director of The University of Texas Psychiatric Pharmacy Program since 2007. In 1988, he helped to create and has chaired The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy’s Psychiatric Pharmacotherapy Update since 2007.
Dr. Saklad publishes articles and presents to many groups around the country on a variety of pharmacy, pharmacotherapy, and mental health-related topics. He edited the Psychopharmacology Update newsletter from 1998-2002 and edited two editions of a compendium based upon this newsletter, Psychopharmacology Desktop Reference, published by Manisses Communications Group in 1999 and 2002. He provides updates on a variety of topic that he finds interesting on his mirrored Twitter (@pharmacopsych ) & Mastodon (@Shavano@Mastodon.social).
Dr. Saklad has been a principal or co-investigator for several studies of the efficacy and adverse effects of Phase II, III, and IV psychotropic agents in schizophrenia, mood disorders, depression, and other serious and persistent mental illness, as well as their pharmacokinetics and interactions. He was the Director of UT Health Science Center San Antonio’s Advanced Pharmacotherapy Research with research facilities located at Laurel Ridge Treatment Center and President of Alamo Superior Research, LLC. He has been affiliated with the Behavioral Wellness (“Be Well”) Center, Department of Psychiatry, UT Health San Antonio since 2009.