Roger Peele, M.D., Receives Assembly Speaker’s Award

Roger Peele, M.D., Area 3 trustee and a member of APA for 55 years, received the 2017 APA Speaker’s Award at last month’s Assembly meeting in Washington, D.C.

Peele has been a member of the APA Assembly for a total of 33 years during the last four decades and served as speaker for the 1986-1987 term.

Assembly Speaker Theresa Miskimen, M.D., cited Peele for a “lifetime of leadership, mentorship, and outstanding vision in working for the benefit of our members and our patients.” She said that Peele had played an important role as her mentor since their accidental meeting on an Annual Meeting shuttlebus at the start of her career. “Roger Peele is someone who embodies what we do at the Assembly—we are here as psychiatrists to serve our patients, the profession, and our community,” she said.

Eliot Sorel, M.D., spoke on behalf of the Washington Psychiatric Society (WPS), of which Peele is a member. Sorel said Peele “has clearly been an extraordinary force” in APA and the profession of psychiatry. In comments to Psychiatric News after the meeting, Peele said WPS members have worked as a team over the years in the Assembly to “make the APA a more democratic organization” through expanding representation in the Assembly. The WPS team has also been instrumental and an early advocate for making parity a legislative priority for APA.

At the meeting, Peele, who joined APA in 1975, expressed pride in the role he has played in making APA a more democratic organization and increasing the importance and influence of the Assembly within APA. ■