WASHINGTON, D.C., April 29, 2020 – Jeffrey Geller, M.D., M.P.H., began his one-year term as President of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) at the conclusion of the APA Virtual Highlights Meeting. At the same time Vivian Pender, M.D., began her term as APA President-elect.

Geller is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is a staff psychiatrist at the Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital after seven years as its medical director. He has served in numerous APA leadership positions, including as Area 1 Trustee and Vice President of the APA Board of Trustees; member of the Committee on Psychiatric Diagnosis and Assessment, the Council on Advocacy and Public Policy and the APA Foundation Library and Archives Advisory Committee; and Book Review Editor and Column Editor for Psychiatric Services.

Geller also serves on the SAMHSA National Advisory Council and the boards of the Treatment Advocacy Center and Clubhouse International.

“I plan on spurring the national conversation on improving access to mental health care through long-needed remedies, such as an adequate number of psychiatric beds and broader use of innovation like virtual follow-up appointments,” Geller said. “We also need to seriously address the prejudice and discrimination facing our patients with mental illness, which create harmful barriers to treatment. The need for better mental health services was substantial prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is now even more so. Together we shall work on the challenges facing psychiatry in an era when nothing is as it was, and nothing is as it will be.”

Other successful APA leadership candidates who took office at the close of the APA Annual Meeting include:

American Psychiatric Association

The American Psychiatric Association, founded in 1844, is the oldest medical association in the country. The APA is also the largest psychiatric association in the world with more than 38,800 physician members specializing in the diagnosis, treatment, prevention and research of mental illnesses. APA’s vision is to ensure access to quality psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. For more information please visit www.psychiatry.org.