The mission of Academic Psychiatry is to advance innovative educational scholarship in psychiatry, to foster the professional development of academic psychiatrists, and to support the leadership abilities of psychiatrists in academic medicine and in society. Accordingly, our journal team comprises individuals with expertise drawn from across academic psychiatry, and our collective efforts are dedicated to serving our colleagues in all of their roles at all stages of their careers.

Over the past few years, we have endeavored to reach out to the field of academic psychiatry by including new sponsoring organizations, growing our panel of editors, expanding our editorial board, and establishing a new international advisory board for the journal. The journal has been strengthened through these efforts, as reflected for example by the number, quality, and diversity of submissions we receive and by the widespread geographical locations of our staff and advisers, as well as the depth and breadth of scientific and academic backgrounds and interests. It is with pleasure that we find that the level of commitment to Academic Psychiatry as a unique specialty journal dedicated to education, professional development, and leadership has grown.

When the Editor-in-Chief role for the journal was reappointed in 2002, we had one editor, one deputy editor, one column editor, and one assistant to the editor, and our editorial board numbered 13. The average number of submissions for the prior few years was 58 annually. As of July of this year, we will have added two deputy editors and three associate editors, along with an editorial board of 34 and an international advisory board of 14, and we average 185 submissions annually. Things have changed! Our readers may not know that none of the formal editorial roles are paid positions; Academic Psychiatry is something of a “labor of love” and our field is benefited by the generosity of colleagues who give so much of their time and intellectual focus to our journal. What follows is a description of the full constellation of editors for the journal, effective July 1, 2009. We hope that this “introduction” to our crew will help readers to know us better, to learn about our interests, and to serve as a springboard to further conversation about ways of contributing to the journal in the coming years.

Editor-in-Chief

Laura Roberts, M.D., M.A., (Figure 1) first began working with Academic Psychiatry in 1996 when the Editor-in-Chief, Jonathan Borus, M.D., gave her the opportunity to develop (with Teresita McCarty, M.D.) the first special theme issue (“Education of Psychiatry Residents in Ethics,” Volume 20, Number 3) published by the journal. Dr. Roberts served as the Assistant to the Editors before being selected as the Editor-in-Chief in 2002 through a national competitive search process. Since her appointment, two new professional societies (the Association of Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry and the American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry) have joined the original professional societies (the Association for Academic Psychiatry and the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training) to sponsor the journal. Dr. Roberts has evaluated more than 1,500 manuscripts for publication in the journal, given dozens of writers’ workshops at national meetings, and mentored many early career authors to help support their academic success. Dr. Roberts serves as Chairman and Charles E. Kubly Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. A National Institutes of Health Career Scientist, she is a nationally recognized scholar and leader in ethics, psychiatry, medicine, and medical education and has undertaken many roles across academic medicine.

Deputy Editors

John Coverdale MB.ChB., M.D., M.Ed., FRANZCP, (Figure 1) has served as Deputy Editor for Academic Psychiatry since 2003. He has published in the journal 30 times, first in 1991, under the New Ideas feature, with “A Residents’ Program for Educating Adolescents About Mental Health Issues” (1). Dr. Coverdale is Professor of Psychiatry and Medical Ethics at the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and the Center for Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine. He has published extensively in the areas of medical education, media depictions of mental illness, psychiatry in obstetrics and gynecology, and ethics and professionalism.

Richard Balon, M.D., D.F.A.P.A., F.A.C. Psych., (Figure 1) has been named as our new Deputy Editor after a competitive national search process, transitioning into the role from an Associate Editor position which he assumed in 2007. He was first published in the journal with two letters to the editor, “Recruitment for Psychiatric Residency” in 1993 (2) and “The Moral Myopia of Academia and ‘The Big Chill’ of Managed Care” in 1994 (3). His first research paper in the journal, “Characteristics of Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry” (4), appeared in 1998. He has actively served as a reviewer for the journal, with 68 manuscripts reviewed since 2003. In 2007, in light of the initiative to enhance the international status of the journal, Dr. Balon joined the editorial staff as Associate Editor, in which role he has edited the International Education column and chaired the International Advisory Board. Dr. Balon also is Professor of Psychiatry, Associate Residency Training Director, and former Director of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine, in Detroit. He has published widely in the area of psychiatric education, human sexuality, clinical psychopharmacology, and anxiety disorders. He serves on editorial boards of several journals and the PRITE Editorial Board. He also served on the USMLE Part 2 Psychiatry Committee.

Associate Editors

Alan Louie, M.D., (Figure 2) joined the editorial staff in 2003, along with Dr. Coverdale, as the result of a nationwide search. In that capacity, he has helped make publication decisions for more than 1,500 papers. In addition, he has written 26 papers for the journal. Dr. Louie serves as Director of Psychiatry Residency Training for the San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCSF, where he has been Director of the Anxiety and Affective Disorders Consultation Program, Acting Associate Director of Medical Student Education (Psychiatry), and Co-Director of the Brain, Mind, and Behavior course. He is also Adjunct Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, at Stanford University School of Medicine. His research interests have included neuropsychopharmacology, anxiety and affective disorders, and medical education. We are very grateful for Dr. Louie’s years of dedicated, thoughtful service, and we are especially glad that he will continue to serve the journal, focusing on the Educational Resource column and technology in education.

Gene Beresin, M.D., M.A., (Figure 2) has served as the media column editor since 1999, and he joined the editorial staff as an Associate Editor in 2006. His 2006 paper with Dr. Jennifer Derenne, “Body Image, Media, and Eating Disorders” (5), has remained the most-read paper online for the journal since that information has been collected. He is a prolific reviewer for the journal, having reviewed 68 papers since 2003. He guest edited the special theme issue “Innovation and Inspiration in Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Education” in 2007. Dr. Beresin is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and has been a psychiatry training director for 27 years. He is currently Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency Training at the Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital and Co-Director of the MGH Center for Mental Health and Media. He is former Editor-in-Chief of the Psychiatry Residency In-Training Examination and past president of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training. He has won numerous awards in medical education, including the APA/NIMH Vestermark Award and the ACGME Courage to Teach Award. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and has published numerous articles and chapters on medical education, mental health and media, eating disorders, and the patient-doctor relationship.

James Bourgeois, O.D., M.D., (Figure 2) a member of the Academic Psychiatry editorial board since 2007, will replace Dr. Balon as Associate Editor and chairman of the International Advisory Board and will focus on stimulating international submissions for the journal. He first published in the journal in 1997, as a coauthor for the paper “Incentives for Teaching Psychiatry” (6) and for the perspective piece “A Day in the Life of a Psychiatry Resident: A Pilot Qualitative Analysis” (7). He is the senior author on “The Doctoring Curriculum at University of California, Davis School of Medicine: Leadership and Participant Roles for Psychiatry Faculty” (8) and “Clinical Habits and the Psychiatrist—An Adult Developmental Model Focusing on the Academic Psychiatrist” (9). Most recently, he has contributed 55-word poems, “Three Ds and Three More Ds” (10), “Generations” (11), and “Smoke and Fire” (12). Dr. Bourgeois served as Alan Stoudemire Professor of Psychosomatic Medicine; Director, Psychosomatic Medicine Division; and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, at the University of California, Davis Medical Center from 2000 to 2009. In August 2009, Dr. Bourgeois assumed the role of Professor and Vice Chair of Education, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications and 10 books or book chapters, most pertaining to general adult psychiatry, psychopharmacology, and/or psychosomatic medicine. His academic interests are in the integration of medical and psychiatric illness, psychopharmacology, education, models of service delivery in psychosomatic medicine, and neuropsychiatry.

Assistant to the Editors

Carol Tsao, M.D., J.D., (Figure 2) is joining the staff as Assistant to the Editors. Dr. Tsao has coauthored three papers for the journal: “Stigma in Mental Health Care” (13), “Authorship in Scholarly Manuscripts: Practical Considerations for Resident and Early Career Physicians” (14), and “Three-Session Psychiatric Malpractice Curriculum for Senior Psychiatry Residents” (15). Dr. Tsao is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine and Director of Medical Student Education at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Her academic interests include hospital psychiatry, ECT, and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Actively engaged in teaching medical students, resident physicians, and fellows, Dr. Tsao has won teaching awards and published articles on medical education.

Editorial Board

David A. Baron, M.S.Ed., D.O., Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia

Robert J. Boland, M.D., Brown University, Providence, RI

Adam M. Brenner, M.D., University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas

Gregory W. Briscoe, M.D., Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA

Jason P. Caplan, M.D., St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, Tucson, AZ

Mitchell J.M. Cohen, M.D., Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia

R. Gregg Dwyer, M.D., Ed.D., University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, SC

Randall Espinoza, M.D., M.P.H., University of California, Los Angeles

Robert E. Feinstein, M.D., Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO

Carl B. Greiner, M.D., University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha

Anthony P. S. Guerrero, M.D., University of Hawai’i John A. Burns School of Medicine, Honolulu

Michael D. Jibson, M.D., Ph.D., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Ruth M. Lamdan, M.D., Temple University, School of Medicine, Philadelphia

John Lauriello, M.D., University of Missouri, Columbia, MO

Francis G. Lu, M.D., University of California, San Francisco

John Luo, M.D., University of California, Los Angeles, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles

Teresita A. McCarty, M.D., University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

Dennis P. McNeilly, S.J., Psy.D., University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha

Philip R. Muskin, M.D., Columbia University Medical Center, New York

Thomas S. Newmark, M.D., Cooper University Hospital, Camden, NJ

Guy K. Palmes, M.D., Wake Forest University Health Sciences, Winston-Salem, NC

Michele T. Pato, M.D., University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles

Dilip Ramchandani, M.D., Drexel University, Philadelphia

Robert Rohrbaugh, M.D., Yale University, West Haven, CT

Brenda J.B. Roman, M.D., Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University, Dayton, OH

Sy Atezaz Saeed, M.D., M.S., East Carolina University, Greenville, NC

Steven C. Schlozman, M.D., Harvard Medical School, Boston

Jerome J. Schultz, Ph.D., Cambridge Health Alliance, Medford, MA

Jess P. Shatkin, M.D., M.P.H., New York University, New York

Melton Strozier, Ph.D., Mercer University, Macon, GA

Paul Summergrad, M.D., Tufts Medical Center, Boston

Nutan Vaidya, M.D., Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, Chicago

Art Walaszek, M.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

Sidney Zisook, M.D., University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA

International Advisory Board

Mary Ann Cohen, M.D., Mount Sinai, New York

Pedro Delgado, M.D., University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX

Linda Gask, M.D., University of Manchester, UK

Stephen M. Goldfinger, M.D., SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY

Waguih William Ishak, M.D., University of California, Los Angeles

Russell Lim, M.D., University of California, Davis, Sacramento, CA

Jed Magen, D.O., M.S., Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI

Derek Puddester, M.D., F.R.C.P.(C.), Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, Canada

Michelle Riba, M.D., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Pedro Ruiz, M.D., University of Texas, Houston

Sandra B. Sexson, M.D., Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA

Frederick S. Sierles, M.D., Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, Chicago

Thomas W. Uhde, M.D., Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC

Richard C. Veith, M.D., University of Washington, Seattle

Disclosures of Academic Psychiatry editors are published in each January issue.