Theresa M. Miskimen Rivera, M.D., DLFAPA, is American Psychiatric Association's new president

Abstract

At the conclusion of the American Psychiatric Association's Annual Meeting in Los Angeles last month, Theresa M. Miskimen Rivera, M.D., DLFAPA, began her one-year tenure as the organization's new president. With more than 30 years of public sector clinical practice, Miskimen Rivera intends to focus her presidential year on empowering and advancing the needs of the psychiatric workforce. Miskimen Rivera was most recently chair and medical director of the Department of Psychiatry at Hunterdon Medical Center in Flemington, New Jersey, and clinical professor of psychiatry at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She has focused on improving access and delivery of psychiatric care to bilingual and bicultural communities and developing and implementing intercultural clinical programs. Miskimen Rivera has served in community-facing initiatives and held appointed positions under three past governors of the state of New Jersey to address mental health issues spanning the intersection of technology and the delivery of psychiatric care, mental health in university settings, and youth suicide prevention.