After earning his BS in biology at Stanford University, John Chamberlain entered medical school at the UC San Diego in 1991.  After graduating with his MD in 1995, Dr. Chamberlain completed three years of general surgery residency at the University of Michigan Medical Center.  In 1998, he transferred to the UC San Francisco residency in adult psychiatry. After his residency, Dr. Chamberlain completed a fellowship in forensic psychiatry at UC San Francisco.  During his fellowship, Dr. Chamberlain evaluated defendants for both federal and state courts, performed evaluations at San Quentin, spent time at the medical examiner’s office examining cases of suicide, and completed a research project on attitudes toward physician-assisted suicide.  

Following his fellowship, Dr. Chamberlain joined the faculty of the UC San Francisco Department of Psychiatry.  He has worked on the inpatient unit, the consultation-liaison service, and the partial hospital program as well as in the outpatient clinics of the Department as a faculty member.  Dr. Chamberlain served as Director of the UC San Francisco Adult Consultation Liaison Service.  He left this position in July 2004 to become the Assistant Director of the UC San Francisco Program in Psychiatry and the Law.  He is responsible for the criminal curriculum for the trainees in this program and also lectures on testamentary capacity, psychological autopsies, and the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Dr. Chamberlain continues to perform forensic evaluations related to criminal and civil proceedings.  

Beginning in 2010, Dr. Chamberlain worked at UCSF’s Deaf Community Counseling Services Clinic as an adult psychiatrist. In 2011 he became the medical director of this clinic. He remained in this position until 2012. He maintains an outpatient practice in clinical psychiatry providing consultation liaison services, medication management services, and psychotherapy services. Dr. Chamberlain helped to develop the risk assessment training program for the UC San Francisco Department of Psychiatry.  He has been a part of this program since its inception.