Psychiatr News March 17, 2006
Volume 41, Number 6, page 1
© 2006 American Psychiatric Association
Robinowitz Chosen Next President-Elect
Ken Hausman
This year three APA Areas elected a trustee to represent them on the
Board, and a record number of members took advantage of the option to cast
their vote online.
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Pedro Ruiz, M.D., becomes APA president in May, when
Carolyn Robinowitz, M.D., becomes president-elect.
Credit(top): Jack Douthitt
Credit(bottom): Alma Herndon
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APA Secretary-Treasurer Carolyn Robinowitz, M.D., chalked up a decisive
victory in the race to become APA's next president-elect, winning 76.1 percent
of the vote. Her opponent was Jack Drescher, M.D., of New York City.
"My first task," Robinowitz told Psychiatric News,
"will be to assist incoming president Pedro Ruiz achieve his goals for
universal access, comprehensive parity, and humane care—goals that mesh
with my focus on effective advocacy for our profession and our
patients—and on increasing the value of APA membership.
"I will also concentrate on communication and collaboration by
improving interactions with members and providing more just-in-time
information and materials, while enhancing members' participation in policy
development and implementation. I also want to enhance collaborations with
psychiatric subspecialty organizations to multiply our effectiveness in public
information and mental health policy, as well as developing partnerships
between scientists and clinicians to promote professionalism and quality
patient care."
Robinowitz, of Bethesda, Md., is in private practice of adult, child, and
adolescent psychiatry and has held leadership posts in organizations
representing a broad cross-section of the field. She was the founding director
of APA's Office of Education, APA senior deputy medical director and chief
operating officer, academic dean at Georgetown University School of Medicine,
and a past president of the American College of Psychiatrists and the American
Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She is also a member of the AMA Council on
Science and Public Health.
In the race to succeed Robinowitz as secretary-treasurer, Area 1 Trustee
Donna Norris, M.D., of Wellesley, Mass., outpolled Prakash Desai, M.D., of
River Forest, Ill., by 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent. Both Norris and Desai are
former speakers of the APA Assembly.
Every three years, there is an election for the early career psychiatrist
(ECP) trustee-at-large. (APA has three trustees-at-large who serve three-year
terms, with one of these positions up for election each year. One position is
designated for an ECP.) In this year's election, Amy Ursano, M.D., an
assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, defeated Richard
Granese, M.D., of Orange, Calif. Ursano received 67.4 percent of the vote to
Granese's 32.6 percent.
The contest to be the next member-in-training (MIT) trustee-elect was the
closest race this year. The winner, Abigail Donovan, M.D., a resident at
Massachusetts General and McLean hospitals, bested Anjali Nirmalani, M.D., a
resident at the University of South Florida. Of the 912 votes cast, Donovan
garnered 50.3 percent, while Nirmalani received 49.7 percent. Only MITs vote
in this race.
Three APA Areas had elections for their trustee position this year.
In Area 1 Jeffrey Geller, M.D., of Worcester, Mass., won 59.6 percent of
the vote against opponent Patricia Recupero, J.D., M.D., of Providence,
R.I.
In Area 4 two Chicagoans were competing. With 52 percent of the vote,
incumbent Sidney Weissman, M.D., defeated Tanya Anderson, M.D.
In Area 7 William Womack, M.D., of Seattle outpolled Louis Moench, M.D., of
Salt Lake City. Womack received 69.7 percent of the vote.
All of the new officers and trustees will take office in May at the end of
APA's 2006 annual meeting in Toronto. Also at that time President-elect Pedro
Ruiz, M.D., will become president, and Lysiane Ribeiro, M.D., now the MIT
trustee-elect, will become the member-in-training trustee.
Of the 30,306 APA members eligible to vote in the the 2006 election, 9,819,
or 32.4 percent, returned their ballots, generally in line with totals over
the last five years. During the 1980s and 1990s, however, the percentage of
members who voted was usually in the 40 percent range.
The option of voting online continues to gain in popularity. After last
year's big jump, which saw about 23 percent of voters submitting online
ballots, 28.3 percent chose to do so this year. In the 2004 election, only
about 9 percent of members voted online.
The Tellers Committee presented these results to the Board of Trustees on
March 5. 
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