APA Announces Candidates Who Will Compete in Next Election

The APA Nominating Committee announced last month that Pedro Ruiz, M.D., of Houston and Sidney H. Weissman, M.D., of Chicago will compete in APA's 2005 election for president-elect of APA.

Ruiz, APA's vice president, is professor and vice chair, department of psychiatry, University of Texas Medical School at Houston. He served as APA secretary 2001-03 and on more than 38 APA components. He is a former president of the American College of Psychiatrists and the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Weissman, APA's Area 4 Trustee, is a professor and director of residency training at Northwestern University, systems analyst VISN 12 VA, and a private practitioner. He is a former president of the Illinois Psychiatric Society, American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training.

Vying for the vice-presidential seat being vacated by Ruiz are Patricia R. Recupero, M.D., J.D., of Providence, R.I., and Nada L. Stotland, M.D., M.P.H., of Chicago. Recupero is the Rhode Island Psychiatric Society representative to the Assembly and a member of the Council on Psychiatry and Law. Stotland is currently APA secretary and treasurer of the Board of Directors of American Psychiatric Publishing Inc.

Charles L. Bensonhaver, M.D., of Johns Island, S.C., will run against incumbent David Fassler, M.D., of Burlington, Vt., in the race for trustee-at-large. Bensonhaver recently stepped down as the Ohio Psychiatric Association representative to the Assembly. Fassler is treasurer of the Vermont Psychiatric Association.

The election's only three-way race this year occurs for the position of member-in-training trustee-elect. The candidates are Robert E. Kelly Jr., M.D., of Beth Israel Medical Center; Chanley M. Martin, M.D., J.D., of the University of Louisville School of Medicine; and Lysiane A. Ribeiro, M.D., M.P.H., of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine.

Two of APA's seven Areas will elect a trustee this year. The candidates in Area 2 are Jack Drescher, M.D., of New York City and incumbent Ann Marie T. Sullivan, M.D., also of New York City.

Competing for Area 5 trustee are Mary Helen Davis, M.D., of Louisville, Ky., and Dudley M. Stewart Jr., M.D., of New Orleans.

The ballots for the 2005 election are being mailed earlier than in past elections. Instead of January 5, the ballots will be mailed on December 22. At about the same time, voting members with e-mail addresses on file with APA will receive e-mails with instructions for voting online. The Board of Trustees approved these changes at its June meeting to reduce mailing costs and encourage online voting.

The final deadline for accepting ballots—whether cast on paper or online—is 5 p.m. Eastern time on February 7, 2005.

Candidates' biographies and statements will be published in the December 3 issue of Psychiatric News. ▪