List of presidents of the American Psychiatric Association

This is a list of presidents of the American Psychiatric Association.

Name	Year	Notes
Samuel B. Woodward	1844–1848	First president, founded as the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane.
William Awl	1848–1851
Luther Bell	1851–1855
Isaac Ray	1855–1859
Andrew McFarland	1859–1862
Thomas Story Kirkbride	1862–1870
John S. Butler	1870–1873
Charles Nichols	1873–1879
Clement Walker	1879–1882
J.H. Callender	1882–1883
John P. Gray	1883–1884
Pliny Earle	1884–1885
Orpheus Everts	1885–1886
H.A. Buttolph	1886–1887
Eugene Grissom	1887–1888
John B. Chapin	1888–1889
W. W. Godding	1889–1890
H. P. Stearns	1890–1891	Organization name changed to American Medico-Psychological Association
Daniel Clark	1891–1892
J. B. Andrews	1892–1893
John Curwen	1893–1894
Edward Cowles	1894–1895
Richard Dewey	1895–1896
Theophilus O. Powell	1896–1897
Richard M. Bucke	1897–1898
Henry M. Hurd	1898–1899
Joseph G. Rogers	1899–1900
Peter M. Wise	1900–1901
Robert J. Preston	1901–1902
A. B. Richardson	1902–1903	Died before taking office.
G. Adler Bloomer	1902–1903
A. E. Macdonald	1903–1904
T. J. W. Burgess	1904–1905
C. B. Burr	1905–1906
Charles G. Hill	1906–1907
Charles P. Bancroft	1907–1908
Arthur F. Kilbourne	1908–1909
William F. Drewry	1909–1910
Charles W. Pilgrim	1910–1911
Hubert Work	1911–1912
James T. Searcy	1912–1913
Carlos Frederick MacDonald	1913–1914
Samuel E. Smith	1914–1915
Edward N. Brush	1915–1916
Charles G. Wagner	1916–1917
James V. Anglin	1917–1918
Elmer E. Southard	1918–1919
Henry C. Eyman	1919–1920
Owen Copp	1920–1921
Albert Moore Barrett	1921–1922
Henry W. Mitchell	1922–1923
Thomas W. Salmon	1923–1924	Mental hygiene advocate and chief consultant psychiatrist to the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I.
William Alanson White	1924–1925
C. Floyd Haviland	1925–1926
George M. Kline	1926–1927
Adolf Meyer	1927–1928
Samuel T. Orton	1928–1929
Earl D. Bond	1929–1930
Walter M. English	1930–1931
William L. Russell	1931–1932
James Vance May	1932–1933
George H. Kirby	1933–1934
C. Fred Williams	1934–1935
Clarence O. Cheney	1935–1936
C. Macfie Campbell	1936–1937
Ross McClure Chapman	1937–1938
Richard H. Hutchings	1938–1939
William C. Sandy	1939–1940
George H. Stevenson	1940–1941
H. Douglas Singer	1941–1942	Died before taking office.
James King Hall	1941–1942
Arthur H. Ruggles	1942–1943
Edward Strecker	1943–1944	Graduated from Jefferson University in 1911. Professor of Mental and Nervous Diseases (1925-1931).
Karl M. Bowman	1944–1946
Samuel W. Hamilton	1946–1947
Winfred Overholser Sr.	1947–1948
William C. Menninger	1948–1949
George S. Stevenson	1949–1950
John C. Whitehorn	1950–1951	Psychiatrist in Chief from 1941-1960 at Johns Hopkins University and the Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry.
Leo H. Bartemeier	1951–1952
Donald Ewen Cameron	1952–1953
Kenneth E. Appel	1953–1954
Arthur Percy Noyes	1954–1955
R. Finley Gayle Jr.	1955–1956
Francis J. Braceland	1956–1957
Harry C. Solomon	1957–1958
Francis J. Gerty	1958–1959
William Malamud	1959–1960
Robert H. Felix	1960–1961
Walter E. Barton	1961–1962
C. H. Hardin Branch	1962–1963
Jack R. Ewalt	1963–1964
Daniel Blain	1964–1965	First medical director of the American Psychiatric Association and founder of the newsletter that became the journal Mental Hospitals (1951–1965), later Hospital & Community Psychiatry (1966–1994) and Psychiatric Services (1995–present).
Howard P. Rome	1965–1966
Harvey J. Tompkins	1966–1967
Henry W. Brosin	1967–1968
Lawrence C. Kolb	1968–1969
Raymond W. Waggoner	1969–1970
Robert S. Garber	1970–1971
Ewald W. Busse	1971–1972
Perry Clement Talkingten	1972–1973
Alfred M. Freedman	1973–1974	Led the effort to de-classify homosexuality as a mental illness.
John Patrick Spiegel	1974–1975	103rd president
Judd Marmor	1975–1976
Robert W. Gibson	1976–1977
Jack Weinberg	1977–1978
Jules H. Masserman	1978–1979
Alan A. Stone	1979–1980
Donald G. Langsley	1980–1981
Daniel X. Freedman	1981–1982
H. Keith H. Brodie	1982–1983
George Tarjan	1983–1984
John A. Talbott	1984–1985	113th president
Carol Nadelson	1985–1986	First female president of the American Psychiatric Association. First female editor-in-chief of the American Psychiatric Association Press (1986). First director of Partners Office for Women's Careers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (1998).
Robert O. Pasnau	1986–1987
George H. Pollock	1987–1988
Paul J. Fink	1988–1989
Herbert Pardes	1989–1990
Elissa P. Benedek	1990–1991
Lawrence Hartmann	1991–1992
Joseph T. English	1992–1993
John S. McIntyre	1993–1994
Jerry M. Wiener	1994–1995
Mary Jane England	1995–1996
Harold Eist	1996–1997
Herbert S. Sacks	1997–1998
Rodrigo A. Muñoz	1998–1999
Allan Tasman	1999–2000
Daniel B. Borenstein	2000–2001
Richard K. Harding	2001–2002
Paul S. Appelbaum	2002–2003
Marcia Kraft Goin	2003–2004
Michelle Riba	2004–2005
Steven Sharfstein	2005–2006
Pedro Ruiz	2006–2007
Carolyn Robinowitz	2007–2008
Nada Logan Stotland	2008–2009
Alan F. Schatzberg	2009–2010
Carol A. Bernstein	2010–2011
John M. Oldham	2011–2012
Dilip V. Jeste	2012–2013	First Asian-American President of the APA.
Jeffrey Lieberman	2013–2014	Chair of Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, principal investigator for the NIMH CATIE study.
Paul Summergrad	2014–2015	Dr. Frances S. Arkin Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Tufts University School of Medicine, Psychiatrist-in-Chief of the Tufts Medical Center.
Renée Binder	2015–2016	Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Director, UCSF Department of Psychiatry.
Maria A. Oquendo	2016–2017	She was the first Latina president of the APA. Professor and Chairman of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.
Anita Everett	2017–2018	Chief Medical Officer, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and Director of the Office of Chief Medical Officers (OCMO).
Altha Stewart	2018–2019	First African-American elected to lead the APA. Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director, Center for Health in Justice Involved Youth, University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
Bruce J. Schwartz	2019–2020	Deputy Chair and Clinical Director of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Montefiore and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. President of the Montefiore Behavioral Care IPA. Medical Director and founding member of University Behavioral Associates.
Jeffery Geller	2020–2021	Prior Director of Public Sector Psychiatry and current Professor of Psychiatry at University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS). Previous medical director (served 7 years) and current staff psychiatrist, Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital.
Vivian Pender	2021–2022	Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College. Training psychoanalyst, Columbia University. Founder of Healthcare Against Trafficking, Inc. Consultant psychiatrist and psychoanalyst to the United Nations.
Rebecca W. Brendel	2022–2023	Director of the Master of Bioethics Program, Associate Director of the Center for Bioethics, and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is also a Director of Law and Ethics at the Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Petros Levounis	2023–2024	Serves as professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and associate dean for professional development at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He is also the chief of service at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey. Dr. Levounis came to Rutgers from Columbia University where he served as director of the Addiction Institute of New York from 2002 to 2013.
Ramaswamy Viswanathan	2024–2025	Current President
Theresa Miskimen	2025–2026	President-elect