Riley Machal, MD

Assistant Professor, UNMC Department of Psychiatry

Phone: 402-552-6002

Dr. Machal was born and raised in Ord, Nebraska, and is a graduate of Chadron State College in Chadron, Nebraska. She completed her medical degree at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) prior to completing her psychiatric residency training at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. During residency, she developed a passion for improving the physical and mental health of people experiencing psychosis, especially during their first-episode.

Dr. Machal joined the department of psychiatry at the University of Nebraska Medical Center/Nebraska Medicine in July 2020 as Co-Director of the Active Support for Psychosis in Recovery (ASPIRE) Clinic – a multi-disciplinary clinic providing wrap-around physical and mental health care to those in the Omaha area living with psychosis. In 2023 she started a first episode psychosis care clinic called Initial Management of Psychosis through Assertive Collaborative Treatment (IMPACT).

Dr. Machal exhibits a zeal for education exemplified by her work to educate people at all levels of medical training. She is clerkship director for the psychiatry clerkship at UNMC where she focuses on teaching future physicians about caring for people with psychiatric conditions. She also serves on the College of Medicine Student Evaluation Committee.

Dr. Machal is the Assistant Director for Medical Education with the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska (BHECN) where she directs the behavioral health policy, education, and research Enhanced Medical Education Track (EMET) which allows medical students to elect to explore policy, advocacy, and education in behavioral health in greater deal than the general medical school curriculum provides. In this role she also manages BHECN funding for 10 residents each year split between the UNMC and Creighton psychiatry residency programs. She also started BHECN Project PEACE (Psychiatric E-modules for Advancing Clinician Education), a group of E-modules on psychiatry topics which provide free continuing medical education credit to primary care clinicians. This project is expanding to include an in-person workshop in rural Nebraska in Spring of 2025.

Dr. Machal chairs the Association for Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry (ADMSEP) Faculty Development Committee where she provides and coordinates continuing education on teaching topics to an international group of psychiatric educators. She won ADMSEP’s Devneil Vaidya Junior Faculty Teaching Award in June of 2024. She is very active in ADMSEP and the Association for Academic Psychiatry (AAP) and has presented over a dozen workshops for these international organizations dedicated to education. She completed AAP’s master educator course in September 2023

Dr. Machal is an advocate for the improvement of medical education’s emphasis on the care of psychiatric patients and the physical and mental well-being of underserved Nebraskans through her role as membership chair of the Nebraska Psychiatric Society. She lives in Omaha with her two dogs. Her favorite activities include spending time with her niece and nephew, reading, traveling, and knitting.