About Dr. Riccardi-Zhu

I am a mixed-race, multicultural immigrant of Chinese and Italian ancestry. I was born abroad and grew up in New York City, engaging with people from all over the world while maintaining close ties to my home countries. I developed a deep curiosity for the life stories of all people and a profound desire to understand how others experience the world. These experiences have driven me to provide nuanced psychiatric care that affirms the many unique elements of each person’s identity and heritage.

I trained in psychiatry at the University of California, Irvine and completed additional training in grief counseling at the Center for Prolonged Grief at Columbia University. I received my medical degree at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University in New York, where I was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society. I received a Certificate in Pre-Medical Sciences at Columbia University.

Before pursuing medicine, I studied philosophy and economics at Swarthmore College. Although I am rigorously scientific in my understanding of psychiatric treatments, my background in the humanities and social sciences drives a balanced, whole-person perspective and an appreciation for different ways of knowing. It reminds me to take a step back and reflect with an open mind, recalling that all disciplines are subject to social, cultural, and political influences.

In addition to my native English and Italian, I also speak Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and French with a high degree of proficiency, and I have basic knowledge of Norwegian and Japanese.

I am licensed in California (A188527) and New York (344175).