The APA Nominating Committee last month announced the candidates who will compete in the 2009 election and, in a rare move, set up three-way candidate races for president-elect and vice president. There are also three candidates running for member-in-training trustee-elect, who are chosen through a different process.
APA Vice President Carol Bernstein, M.D., of New York, N.Y.; former Assembly Speaker Michael Blumenfield, M.D., of Woodland Hills, Calif.; and Trustee-at-Large Roger Peele, M.D., of Rockville, Md., will vie for the president-elect post.
Competing to replace Bernstein as vice president will be Jeffrey Akaka, M.D., of Honolulu; Jeffrey Geller, M.D., of Worcester, Mass.; and Sidney Weissman, M.D., of Chicago. Akaka is the immediate past speaker of the Assembly, Geller is the Area 1 representative on the Board of Trustees, and Weissman is the Board's Area 4 representative.
Each year one of the Board's three at-large trustee positions is up for election, and this year it is the one designated for an early career psychiatrist. The candidates for this post are Joyce Spurgeon, M.D., of Sellersburg, Ind., and Harsh Trevedi, M.D., of Riverside, R.I. Spurgeon is chair of the Kentucky district branch's Membership Committee and a consultant to the Scientific Program Committee. Trevedi is on the Board of Directors of APA's political action committtee, APAPAC, and a consultant to the Council on Advocacy and Public Policy.
Areas 1, 4, and 7 will each also choose a trustee in the 2009 election. The nominees for Area trustee positions are chosen by their Area councils, rather than the APA Nominating Committee.
The Area 1 Council has nominated Robert Feder, M.D, of Manchester, N.H., and Frederick Stoddard, M.D., of Boston.
Area 4's nominees are John Wernert, M.D., of Indianapolis and Sul Ross Thorward, M.D., of Columbus, Ohio.
Vying to be Area 7 trustee are Constance Powell, M.D., of Portland, Ore., and incumbent William Womack, M.D., of Seattle.
The candidates for the Board's member-in-training trustee-elect (MITTE) position are Erick Cheung, M.D., a resident at the University of California at Los Angeles; Kayla Pope, M.D., a resident at the University of Maryland/Sheppard Pratt; and Laura Kent, M.D., a resident at the New York State Psychiatric Institute/Columbia University. The winner of the MITTE election will serve one year as an ex officio Board member, and the following year will step up to the member-in-training trustee position, which is a voting position.
Paper ballots will be mailed out on December 22, the same day on which members for whom APA has an e-mail address will receive, via e-mail, instructions for voting online. Members who would like to receive an online ballot only, an option that can be selected in the Members Corner of the APA Web site, will receive an e-mail with a ballot-control number and online voting instructions. The address for indicating that choice is<
http://onlineapa.psych.org/OnlineBallot.aspx>.
The deadline for receipt of both paper and online ballots is 5 p.m. Eastern time on February 5, 2009. ▪
