Candidate for Treasurer

About the Candidate

Fellow, 1976

http://www.jeffersonhospital.org/vergare

Candidate’s Views

If elected treasurer, I will dedicate myself as a member of the Board of Trustees to building a coalition between leadership, staff, and members to help move APA closer to its core mission of advocacy for our patients and our profession.

APA has spent much of the last decade trying to revitalize its corporate structure and management. During this same period our member numbers have continued to erode. While some of this can be attributed to economic factors, changing practice demographics, and the expansion of subspecialty organizations within psychiatry, I believe that failure to implement timely fiscal and organizational changes has accelerated APA’s problems.

While there has been a reorganization of APA’s corporate structure, the organization has been slow to check spending. Members continue to feel that accountability is lacking. Our Board must prioritize activities consistent with our strategic goals.

I bring to the role of treasurer organizational experience based in a variety of settings. Within APA I have chaired the Membership Committee, the Committee on Administrative Psychiatry, and the Ad Hoc Committee for Membership and Fiscal Planning. I have been president of the Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania psychiatric societies. During my tenure I participated in developing a linked model of membership centered on a statewide district branch with six strong chapters. This model has allowed for revenue sharing and expanded local membership participation. I have also served as a director and chair of the Board of the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Currently, I chair the Governor’s Advisory Committee for Mental Health and Mental Retardation.

Integrating clinical and academic mission with realistic budgeting has been a major part of my professional responsibilities. Currently I serve as chair of psychiatry and chief of behavioral health services for Thomas Jefferson University, Jefferson Medical College, the Jefferson Health System and Behavioral Health Network, and the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network/Belmont Behavioral Health. In these linked roles I am responsible for a complex, multihospital network. Our clinical sites include academic, general hospital, community, and freestanding psychiatric hospital settings.

Education is central to my activities. Currently, I chair the APA Committee on Medical Student Education. I have directed the Graduate Medical Education program at Albert Einstein Medical Center and serve on the Executive Council and Program Committee of the Alliance of Independent Academic Medical Centers. I also chair the Committee for Graduate Medical Education of the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

I am confident that my experience in a variety of academic and clinical leadership roles has prepared me to serve as your treasurer. APA must change its way of conducting business. Yesterday’s APA structure is no longer what members can afford.

Our membership is our strength. I feel I can be a positive force in the process of building a renewed partnership between members and APA.

Primary Loci of Work and Sources of Income

Work: 50%—Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Thomas Jefferson University, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia

50%—Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, Belmont Behavioral Health, Philadelphia

Income: 50%—Thomas Jefferson University

50%—Albert Einstein Healthcare Network