Dr. Pendergast graduated from medical school at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis in 1986, and completed a psychiatry residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1990. He served as Director of the Psychiatric Consultation Service at Carolinas Medical Center (now Atrium) in Charlotte for nine years, and accepted his first North Carolina Physicians Health Program position in 1999 as Associate Medical Director of North Carolina Physicians Health Program. He was appointed as NCPHP Medical Director and CEO in 2004. He worked as a consultation-liaison psychiatrist at Rex Hospital from 2016-2022 and joined Raleigh Psychiatric Associates in December 2023.
Dr. Pendergast is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a member of the American Medical Association. He has previously served on committees for the NC Psychiatric Association, most recently the Ethics Committee. He served as President of the Federation of State Physicians Health Programs (2012-2014) and on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the FSPHP as well.