xxAACP Newsletter, Volume 16, Number 4, Fall 2002
AACP elections were held in April 2002. The candidates for office provided a diverse ballot with psychiatrists from all over the United States, working in many different venues, and representing the diversity of AACP membership. Four new members joined the Board, taking office at the annual meeting in May 2002. They will participate in their first meeting as official Board members at the IPS meeting in Chicago October 2002.
Also in May 2002 four board members retired their positions after years of service and dedication to the AACP. These included: Benjamin Crocker, David Giles, Robert Goisman, and Barbara Rohland (see article page 2). Six Board members were re-elected including: Jacqueline Feldman, President; Annelle Primm, Vice President; Andres Pumariega, Area V Representative; David Pollack, Representative-at-Large; Ken Minkoff, Representative-at-Large; Russell Lim, Representative Member at Large. Two Board members were newly elected to executive committee positions: Hunter McQuistion, Treasurer and Jack Haggerty, Secretary.
Thank you to those members who are stepping down from office, to each of the returning members, and to all those who ran for office. Welcome and congratulations to the four new Board members. The new members include:
Satya Chandragiri, Representative at Large: Dr. Chandragiri completed his psychiatric residency in 1990 at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore India. He then took a faculty position in India early in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in India and started an interdisciplinary HIV counseling program in Bangalore. In 1994 he relocated to the island of St. Lucia in the West Indies where he helped to design and open the first general hospital psychiatric unit and to develop a community mental health program. After immigrating to the United States he completed his second residency at Temple University. While a resident he was selected as an APA/Bristol Myers Squibb Fellow and was very active in the APA. Following residency he received an APIRE/Janssen Early Career Psychiatrist Leadership fellowship for the year 2000-2001. Currently he works as Chief Medical Officer of a state hospital in Pendleton, Oregon In that capacity he works actively in the areas of state hospital/community liaison, continuity of care, rural psychiatry, psychiatric-forensic interface, and recruitment and retention of trained workforce. Through the AACP he hopes to advocate for continuity of care, rural psychiatry-including recruitment and retention issues, and to be more involved in initiatives on the mentally ill in the criminal justice system. He also hopes to help the AACP better represent international medical graduates.
Paulette Gillig, Area IV Representative: Dr. Gillig’s entire career has been devoted to the care of seriously mentally disabled adults and children in the region of Area IV. Prior to attending medical school she completed a PhD in social psychology. Her areas of interest were minorities, cognitive processes and attitude change. After completion of her psychiatric training she worked as medical director of a mental health center and has been on staff at several state hospitals. She previously worked in a busy urban psychiatric emergency department and also served on the planning committee for an urban crisis center in Dayton Ohio. Currently she directs the Rural Psychiatry program at Wright State University in Dayton Ohio where she is a Professor of Psychiatry. She works in a rural clinic and has recruited residents to rural settings by having them rotate with her in her clinic. She is also the Chief Clinical Officer of a two county rural mental health and substance abuse board. In addition she chairs the Ohio Psychiatric Association Committee on Minorities and Underrepresented Groups, and is a member of the APA Committee on Poverty, Homelessness and Mental Illness. On a personal note, she also shares that she is related on her mother’s side to the Micmac tribe (Algonquian Indians).
Anthony Ng, Area I Representative: Dr. Ng was born in Hong Kong and moved to New York at the age of 10. He graduated from the City College of New York and attended medical school at the State University of Buffalo School of Medicine. He completed his psychiatry residency at St. Vincent’s Hospital. He served as a board member of the New York Coalition for Asian American Mental Health, a group that advocates for better mental health care for Asian Americans in New York. During his residency he received a number of fellowships including the APA-Mead Johnson, AMA Glaxo Wellcome and NIMH Outstanding Resident Award. After residency he completed the Public Psychiatry Fellowship at Columbia University. During the fellowship he was selected to be on the Multicultural Advisory Committee, a committee that advises the Commission of Mental Health for New York State Office of Mental Health on cultural issues pertaining to the delivery of mental health care in New York. He served as the director of the psychiatry-primary care consultation liaison service at Gouverneur Hospital for three years. He then worked for three years as an Associate Medical Director for Project Renewal, a social service agency that serves people who are homeless with mental illness and substance abuse. He is currently the medical director of Disaster Psychiatry Outreach, a nonprofit organization of volunteer psychiatrists who respond to disasters, which was very involved in the mental health response to the September 11th disaster at the World Trade Center.
Pamela Weinberg, Representative at Large: Dr. Weinberg came to psychiatry in a round-about way after initially training as a classical musician. After a decision to make a career change, she attended the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati and completed residency at the Mt. Sinai
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