Tasman to Be APA's Next President-Elect

Allan Tasman, M.D., of Louisville, Ky., has emerged victorious by a wide margin in the race to be APA's next president-elect. Winning 62.4 percent of the vote, he defeated Robert Michels, M.D., the Walsh McDermott University Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at Cornell University.

Tasman, an APA vice president, is professor and chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of the Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He is also president of the American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry.

Tasman spoke with Psychiatric News shortly after learning he had won the election for president-elect.

"I am very pleased and honored to have received a broad mandate from our members for the priorities I have advocated-to redirect APA resources to member support programs, especially at the district branch level; to work to return psychiatrist leadership in mental health systems and clinical decision making; to expand our initiatives to overcome the abuses of the present managed care systems; and to continue our strong advocacy for the highest quality psychiatric services, educational programs, and research."

Tasman's Web site provides additional information about his priorities when he assumes office. His Web site can be accessed on the Internet via the APA homepage at or .

In the race for vice president, Richard K. Harding, M.D., received 67 percent of the vote to defeat Samuel B. Guze, M.D. Harding is a private practitioner and clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. He is vice chair of APA's Joint Commission on Government Relations and a former speaker of the Assembly. He is also a member of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, an advisory committee on medical record confidentiality to the Department of Health and Human Services. Guze is vice president and the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The race for treasurer was one of two three-way races this year. Maria T. Lymberis, M.D., defeated Carol A. Bernstein, M.D., and Ronnie S. Stangler, M.D., in the second round of counting using APA's preferential voting system. In the first round of counting, Bernstein had the most votes and Stangler had the fewest. Thus, Stangler was out of the running, and the second-choice votes marked on ballots cast for her were distributed among the two remaining candidates. When the total of first- and second-choice votes were tallied, Lymberis beat out Bernstein by a slender margin of 50.2 percent to 49.8 percent.

Lymberis is a private practitioner and director of the psychotherapy program at the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. Bernstein is an associate professor of clinical psychiatry and director of residency training in the department of psychiatry at New York University Medical Center. Stangler is a private practitioner and clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington.

Richard S. Epstein, M.D., won the election for trustee-at-large with 57.6 percent of the vote. Epstein, a private practitioner in Washington, D.C., defeated John M. Oldham, M.D., director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute and a private practitioner.

The second three-way race was for member-in-training trustee-elect. Julie K. Schulman, M.D., emerged victorious with 56.2 percent of the vote. She had the most votes in both the first and second rounds of counting, beating out Satyanarana Chandragiri, M.D., and Peter M. Steiner, M.D.

Schulman is a resident in the New York University Medical Center/Bellevue Psychiatry Residency Program. Chandragiri is a resident at Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia. Steiner is chief resident and a research therapist at the University of Louisville.

Areas 3 and 6 elected trustees this year. Incumbent Edward J. Leonard Jr., M.D., defeated Jorge Pereira-Ogan, M.D., with 74.8 percent of the vote. Leonard is a private practitioner in Philadelphia, and Pereira-Ogan is a private practitioner in Wilmington, Del.

In Area 6, Maurice Rappaport, M.D., won with 55.6 percent of the vote over Thomas K. Ciesla, M.D. Rappaport is a private practitioner in San Jose, Calif., and Ciesla is a private practitioner in Santa Monica, Calif.

APA members were also asked to vote on amendments to APA's Constitution and Bylaws, which passed by an overwhelming majority of 93.6 percent. The amendments establish a new category of international member and fellow, replacing corresponding member and corresponding fellow (see story on page 1).

A table giving more details of the election results appears on page 16. -C.F.B.