President Bill Clinton has appointed two psychiatrists to the President’s Committee on Mental Retardation. They are Jeffrey Akaka, M.D., and James C. Harris, M.D.

Akaka, who lives in Pu’unene, Hawaii, is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Hawaii, a position he has held since 1996. Since 1992 he has served as a community psychiatrist for the Diamond Head Community Mental Health Center in Honolulu. He also serves as psychiatric consultant for the Disability Determination Branch of the State of Hawaii Department of Human Services.

At APA he is a member of the Joint Commission on Government Relations; the Assembly’s representative for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Psychiatrists; and an alternate delegate to the AMA’s Section Council on Psychiatry.

Harris, a Baltimore psychiatrist, is a professor of psychiatry, pediatrics, and mental hygiene and director of developmental neuropsychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Harris is the principal investigator of an R-01 Research Grant, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, to investigate pathways from genes to cognition and complex behavior. He directed the psychiatry program at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore for 15 years and is the immediate past president of the Society of Professors of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Harris was a participant in the White House Conference on Mental Health and is the 2000 recipient of APA’s George Tarjan Award for outstanding leadership and continuous contributions in the field of mental retardation. He is the author of more than 100 research articles, book chapters, and abstracts.

The President’s Committee on Mental Retardation was established in 1996 and advises the President and the Secretary of Health and Human Services on issues relating to programs and services for people with mental retardation. Its mission is to "coordinate federal agency activities in mental retardation, highlight the need for appropriate changes, promote research, and promote the training of people who provide direct support services to persons with mental retardation." ▪