Dr. Joseph Thornton is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Florida and Physician Director for Quality in the Psychiatry Department. . He was formerly the Chief of Psychiatric Services at UFHealth Shands Hospital and before that was Associate Chief of Staff for Mental Health at the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System (NF/SG VHS). Dr. Thornton completed his MD at the University of Texas Science Center Medical School at San Antonio. He did his residency in psychiatry at Stanford University Medical Center and the Palo Alto VA Medical Center. Dr. Thornton has been on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of South Florida. From 1992-1996 he served a National Health Service Corps assignment at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford Florida. For three years he served as the Medical Executive Director there and made weekly rounds to see all 300 men on death row and 150 men in solitary confinement. From 1996 to 2003, Dr. Thornton was on the faculty of the University Of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He was the Medical Director of the Inpatient Psychiatry Unit at University Hospital, founded the Safe Family Project (prevention of family violence), co-founded the University Clinical Psychopharmacology Laboratory and was Co-Director of the Center for Violence Prevention. He has over 3 dozen publications and several teaching awards.He moved to Florida in 2003 and was Clinical Director of a maximum security forensic treatment facility. In 2010 he joined the University of Florida. In 2015 he co-founded the UF-VA UNESCO Bioethics Chair (Haifa) and continues as its Unit Head now under the umbrella of the International Chair in Bioethics, a Cooperating Center of the World Medical Association. Dr. Thornton is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. His current professional interests are the reduction of suicide risk factors, and the ethical application of artificial intelligence tools to psychiatric training and practice.