Binder Chosen

David Hathcox

APA’s voting members have selected Reneé Binder, M.D., of San Francisco to become APA’s next president-elect. She is a professor and director of the Psychiatry and Law Program and associate dean for academic affairs at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. At APA, she is chair of the APA Committee on Advocacy and Litigation Funding and a former trustee-at-large and Area 6 representative.

Binder outpolled James Nininger, M.D., of New York City and Mark Hyman Rapaport, M.D., of Atlanta.

“I am honored by the opportunity to represent psychiatry on a national level and to advocate for the best possible treatment of our patients,” Binder told Psychiatric News upon learning of her election. “I look forward to working with an outstanding team of current and past APA leaders, our CEO and medical director, and the APA staff. The field of psychiatry faces many challenges in the coming years.”

Commenting on her goals as president, she said, “My plan is to work to combat stigma and discrimination, to ensure reasonable payment for psychiatric services, to maintain federal funding for graduate medical education and research, and to encourage increased APA involvement of our younger members. I also want to increase the friendliness and accessibility of APA to our members. This includes increasing communication with our members and helping our members with the ABPN requirements for Maintenance of Certification/Lifelong Learning and with other aspects of psychiatric practice.”

Nininger is a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Weill/Cornell Medical College and in private practice with a subspecialty in geriatrics. He is APA’s outgoing Area 2 Trustee, a director on the American Psychiatric Foundation Board, vice chair of the APA Steering Committee on Practice Guidelines, a past speaker of the Assembly and served on the DSM-5 Clinical and Public Health Committee. Rapaport is the Reunette W. Harris Chair of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine and chief of psychiatric services for Emory Healthcare System. He is the founding co-editor in chief of the APA journal Focus: The Journal of Lifelong Learning in Psychiatry and a member of the Council on Medical Education and Lifelong Learning.

In the race for treasurer, Frank Brown, M.D., of Stone Mountain, Ga., emerged the winner over James Greene, M.D., of Memphis.

For trustee-at-large, incumbent Anita Everett, M.D., of Glenwood, Md., outpolled Stephen McLeod-Bryant, M.D., of Old Hickory, Tenn.

This year, two APA Areas elected trustees—Areas 2 and 5. The new Area 2 trustee is Vivian Bender, M.D., of New York City. Her opponent was Jack Drescher, M.D., also of New York City. In Area 5, R. Scott Benson, M.D., of Pensacola, Fla., defeated Gary Weinstein, M.D., of Prospect, Ky.

Each year the Association’s resident members elect a resident-fellow member trustee-elect, who the following year rotates into the position of resident-fellow member trustee. Ravi Shah, M.D., a resident at Columbia University–New York State Psychiatric Institute, won this year’s race against Vittoria DeLucia, M.D., a resident at the University of Maryland/Sheppard Pratt Program, and Heather Liebherr, D.O., a resident at the University of Pittsburgh Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic.

Election results were approved by the Tellers Committee in February, and the results became official after the Board of Trustees reviewed them at its meeting early this month. All of the winning candidates will assume their positions on the Board at the close of the annual meeting in May. ■