ADAA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Membership Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Membership Committee
Job Titles:
- D. Jeffrey Newport, MD / University School of Medicine Dell Medical School
Job Titles:
- Member of the Membership Committee
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Executive Committee
- President
- President of the Board
- Matthew P. Nemeroff Professor and Chair
- President / Professor and Chair
Charles B. Nemeroff is currently the Matthew P. Nemeroff Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director, Institute for Early Life Adversity Research and Co-Director of the Center for Psychedelic Research and Therapy at the University of Texas at Austin, Dell Medical School in Austin, Texas. Previously, Dr. Nemeroff was the Leonard M. Miller Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is past president of the American College of Psychiatrists and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. His research has focused on the neurobiology of mood and anxiety disorders with a focus on the long term consequences of child abuse and neglect and how these changes increase vulnerability for psychiatric and medical disorders in adulthood. He has published more than 1100 research reports and reviews, and 17 books. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Medicine(USA). n 2023 Dr. Nemeroff was ranked #238 in the world ranking and #159 in United States by Research.com, a leading academic platform for researchers.
Dr. Nemeroff has been an ADAA member since 1999, was elected ADAA Chief Medical Officer in March, 2019 and is currently Board President.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Clinical Psychologist, NIMH
- Member of the Anxiety
Dr. Krystal M. Lewis received her Ph.D. from Virginia Tech, where she worked closely with Dr. Thomas Ollendick at the Child Study Center. She has experience providing one-session treatments to children with Specific Phobias and extensive experience assessing and treating pediatric populations with anxiety and depression. Dr. Lewis completed her pre-doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and a two-year services fellowship at the Urban Youth Trauma Center at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her clinical interests include pediatric anxiety, stress, and mood disorders. Currently, Dr. Lewis is a licensed Clinical Psychologist with the Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience (SDAN) at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
She has a small private practice and also conducts psychoeducational testing with children and adolescents. SDAN seeks to understand how information processing in the brain differs among children, adolescents, and adults with anxiety and depression across the lifespan. Dr. Lewis specializes in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and has interest in identifying the mechanisms of change in psychological treatment for pediatric anxiety, specifically CBT. Self-efficacy is an identified mechanism of therapeutic change and important target in CBT and Dr. Lewis has interest in further exploring the role of self-efficacy in exposure work with youth. In addition, she has a particular interest in minority mental health and is working towards increasing representation within research trials and clinical treatment by becoming more involved with diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at NIH. Dr. Lewis has conducted many media interviews and has given numerous community talks in an effort to highlight the important of mental health and share evidence-based practices.
Dr. Lewis has been a member of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) for over 10 years. She has participated in the Career Development Leadership Program as an awardee, mentor, and now Co-Chair and is an ADAA Clinical Fellow. She received the Emerging Leader Award from ADAA in 2019 and initially joined the board as the early career professionals representative. She has held several leadership positions with ADAA and is invested in bridging research findings and clinical practice to improve diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of individuals with anxiety and depressive disorders. With her continued tenure on the board, Dr. Lewis will focus on developing the Diversity Membership Scholarship program and has plans to start the first podcast for ADAA focused on highlighting ADAA researchers and clinicians and disseminating scientific and clinical insights for the public.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Membership Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Executive Committee
- President - Elect
- President - Elect / Columbia University
Dr. Simpson graduated summa cum laude from Yale College, completed the MD-PhD program at The Rockefeller University/Cornell University Medical College, and trained as an intern and resident in psychiatry at Columbia University/New York-Presbyterian Hospital. She joined the Anxiety Disorders Clinic in 1996 and served as its Director (2006-2016). In November 2016, she became the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University and Director of Research at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
Dr. Simpson has been a member of ADAA since 2003 and serves as President-Elect on the ADAA Board as of January 2022.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Membership Committee
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Founder
- President
Jerilyn Ross, a pioneer and visionary leader in the field of mental illness, died January 7, 2010 in Washington, D.C., of neuroendocrine cancer. She was 63. In 1979 she was among a small group of patients and doctors who founded ADAA. Ross served as its president and chief executive officer from 1986 until her death in 2010.
Ross' vision was to bring together clinicians, researchers, and patients to advance scientific knowledge, provide training, and help those who suffer from an anxiety disorder find treatment and hope. She was an ardent public advocate, traveling the country to deliver the message that anxiety disorders are real, serious, and treatable. She appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Today," "Good Morning America," and hundreds of other national television and radio shows and was quoted as an expert in several hundred newspaper and magazine articles.
Twice she testified before Congress on behalf of those suffering from anxiety disorders, and she served on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the federal government's Panic Disorder Prevention and Public Education Program.
After graduating from State University of New York, Cortland, in 1968 with a degree in education and sociology, she worked as a math teacher in a New York City elementary school. She completed a master's in psychology at the New School for Social Research in 1975.
On vacation in 1977 Ross first experienced panic attacks that interfered with nearly every aspect of her life for five years. She described feeling frightened and alone, and she was convinced that she was the only person in the world with this problem. Her path to find treatment led her to a new career as a psychotherapist and a personal commitment to help others.
It wasn't until after she completed her graduate training that she learned that other people shared her experiences with panic attacks. In the 1970s very little was known about the disorders now known as panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobias, PTSD, generalized anxiety disorder, and social anxiety disorder. The most common mental illnesses, these anxiety disorders cause suffering to 40 million adults in the United States.
Ross founded the Ross Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, a private practice, in Washington, D.C., in 1992, and served as director until her death. She was listed as one of the top therapists by Washingtonian magazine in 2009.
She authored One Less Thing to Worry About: Uncommon Wisdom for Coping with Common Anxieties with Robin Cantor-Cooke and Triumph Over Fear: A Book of Help and Hope for People with Anxiety, Panic Attacks, and Phobias. She also produced Freedom From Anxiety, a comprehensive audio and video self-help program. From 1987 to 1992, she hosted a weekly award-winning talk show on WRC Radio in Washington, D.C.
Her honors include the 2004 Patient Advocacy Award from the American Psychiatric Association, the 2001 Anxiety Disorder Initiative Award from the World Council on Anxiety and the World Psychiatric Association, a 200 Telly Award, a 1994 Distinguished Humanitarian Award from the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology, and media awards from the American Association of University Women and the Mental Health Association of Northern Virginia.
Born and raised in New York City, Ross moved to the Washington, D.C., area in 1977. She married Ron Cohen in 1997. In addition to her husband, survivors include her brother Richard Ross (Sally Carlson), her nephew Justin Ross and her niece Andrea Ross; stepchildren Sue-Ann (Eric) Seigel, Craig (Kim) Cohen, and Alan (Patricia) Cohen; and seven grandchildren: Chase, Ryan, Dayna, Daniele, Amanda, Morgan, and Derrick.
Ross' public advocacy efforts have stretched around the globe. Thanks to her tireless efforts, her dream of offering hope and access to effective treatment for every person suffering from an anxiety disorder will continue.
Job Titles:
- MGH Research Scholar 2020 - 2025 / Director, Community Psychiatry PRIDE
Job Titles:
- Chief of Psychiatry at MGH, Stanley Cobb
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Vice - President, Clinical Training / Child Mind Institute
- Vice - President, Clinical Training at the Child Mind Institute
Jill M. Emanuele, PhD is the Vice-President, Clinical Training at the Child Mind Institute, an independent non-profit organization dedicated to transforming the lives of youth struggling with mental health disorders. She has a breadth of experience in the evaluation and treatment of children, adolescents, young adults, and adults with mood disorders, as well as the spectrum of psychiatric disorders, with a special focus on complex presentations. Dr. Emanuele has significant expertise in evidence-based treatments including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), radically open DBT, family therapy and mindfulness training. She is intensively trained in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), including DBT-C for children, with over 20 years of experience in providing adherent DBT to youth and their families. Dr. Emanuele has extensive experience in supervising clinicians and trainees in multiple disciplines and serves in administrative leadership roles. She relishes developing training opportunities for clinicians and clinical programs that serve youth.
Dr. Emanuele completed her undergraduate studies with degrees in Psychology and Music from the University of Richmond, and her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from George Mason University. She completed her predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship in child and adolescent psychology at Long Island Jewish Medical Center (LIJ; now Northwell Health) in New York City, and has worked in several hospital settings including LIJ-Hillside Hospital, Montefiore Medical Center, and Bronx Children's Psychiatric Center (now New York City Children's Center). Dr. Emanuele has presented at academic medical centers, professional conferences, public and private schools, and community organizations on the topics of mindfulness, adolescent depression and suicide, adolescent self-injury, DBT, and adolescent borderline personality disorder, and co-authored book chapters on some of these important topics. She also provides education through multiple forms of media including television, radio, internet, and podcasts.
Dr. Emanuele has been a member of ADAA for the better part of a decade and has served in multiple capacities including the Chair of the Clinical Track for the Career Development Leadership Program (CDLP), the Conference Committee, and the Membership Committee.
Dr. Emanuele has been an ADAA member since 2003 and joined the ADAA Board in 2022.
"I am thrilled to be joining the ADAA board in order to continue to advance the recognition and treatment of, and access to care for individuals and families who struggle with mood and anxiety disorders, and continue to advance objectives that promote the prioritization of mental health nationally and globally."
Job Titles:
- Member of the Membership Committee
Job Titles:
- Clinical Director and Owner, the Anxiety Treatment Center
Job Titles:
- Professional Education Inquiries
- Senior Director of Strategic Business Development and Operations for the Anxiety
- Senior Director, Strategic Business Development and Operations
Katie Russo is the Senior Director of Strategic Business Development and Operations for the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), a non-profit international mental health association. She is an expert business and operations strategist with over 15 years of experience working with non-profits, health care providers, foundations, startups, and financial services companies. As the Senior Director of Strategic Business Development and Operations for ADAA, Ms. Russo will refine internal operations, expand organizational growth, and increase fundraising and business development opportunities to grow revenue for the non-profit.
Before joining ADAA, Ms. Russo held senior-level business development and operations positions at Scott Circle Communications and the Merritt Group and served as a Chief Operating Officer at an international retailer. To date, some of her achievements include increasing company revenue by over 60 percent from 2021 to 2022 and growing retail store presence from 800 to 4,000 sellers from 2017 to 2020.
Ms. Russo has also lectured on public relations at the University of Oxford's Brasenose College and won a coveted Silver Anvil for greatness in Multicultural Public Relations from the Public Relations Society of America for the "Arrest the Risk" Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Campaign. Leading strategy and execution in her professional roles, her past clients include the Walmart Foundation, Aetna, Massachusetts General Hospital, Avizia, and Inova Hospital System, among others. A former D-1 scholarship athlete for the Hokies Women's Lacrosse team, she holds a bachelor's degree from Virginia Tech.
Job Titles:
- Clinical Fellow
- Member of the Board
- Private Practice - Los Angeles, CA
Ken Goodman, LCSW, specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorders and OCD. He authored and produced The Anxiety Solution Series, a 12 hour audio program, Break Free from Anxiety, a coloring self-help book, and The Emetophobia Manual, a self-help book for those who suffer from the fear of vomit. He conducts workshops at universities and organizations including USC, UCLA, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America's annual conference and the International OCD Foundation. Ken earned his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees from UCLA and treats children, teens, and adults in his practice in Los Angeles. As a member of ADAA's Public Education committee Ken has written several articles and has been featured in webinars and videos on the ADAA website.
Ken is an ADAA Clinical Fellow and has been a member since 2009.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Membership Committee
Job Titles:
- Deputy Executive Director
Ms. Bram is a mission-driven marketing and communications professional with many years of non-profit and for-profit sector experience designing and implementing successful marketing and communication strategies.
Prior to joining ADAA, Ms. Bram worked at the Association of People Supporting Employment First (APSE) as the Marketing and Communications Director. While at APSE, Lise was responsible for enhancing and expanding marketing and communications to diversify revenue streams, grow membership, accreditation and other business models.
Ms. Bram also spent 14 years as the Chief Marketing Officer at the Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA) where she designed, developed and implemented the metro-DC nonprofit agency's internal and external marketing and communication strategies.
Ms. Bram earned her BA degree in art history from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec and her MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, England.
Job Titles:
- Immediate past President
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Immediate past President / Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
- Immediate past President / Harvard Medical School
- President / Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Job Titles:
- Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Rush University Medical Center
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Clinical Psychologist, Massachusetts General Hospital
- Scientific Director and President, Laureate Institute
Dr. Paulus graduated from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz studying medicine in 1985. From 1985 until 1986 he worked as a Research Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Mainz. He received a fellowship from the German Federation of Research to study translational animal models for mania with Dr. Karen Britton at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). Following his fellowship, he continued with Dr. Arnold Mandell working on the utility of nonlinear dynamical systems approaches to quantify human and animal behavior. In 1993 he continued his training in psychiatry as an intern at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center - Hillside Hospital in New York. He returned to San Diego to complete his residency in psychiatry in 1997, when he joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD. He also joined the Veterans Affairs San Diego Health Care System as a staff psychiatrist focusing on mood and anxiety disorders. Until his departure in 2014, Dr. Paulus treated Veterans as an outpatient psychiatrist and via telemental health in community-based outpatient clinics. During that time, he received continuous funding from both NIH and the Department of Veterans Affairs. His primary interest focused on individuals with stimulant use as well as - in collaboration with Dr. Murray Stein - patients with anxiety disorders. He used functional magnetic resonance imaging to better understand the underlying brain processes of these disorders and to use functional neuroimaging to identify novel treatment targets or prognostic biomarkers. Dr. Paulus moved from San Diego to Tulsa in 2014 to head the Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR) as its Scientific Director and President.
Dr. Paulus has a Google Scholar h-index of 107 and has published over 450 peer-reviewed manuscripts. Dr. Paulus is the Deputy Editor of JAMA Psychiatry, a Series Editor for Current Topics in Behavioral Neuroscience, and is on several editorial boards of top-tier psychiatric journals. He has served on numerous NIH and International Study Sections and is currently on the National Institute of Mental Health Board of Scientific Councilors. The goal for LIBR is to identify disease-modifying processes (DMP) based on circuits, behavior, or other levels of analysis, which - when modulated - change (1) the risk for, (2) the severity of, or (3) the recurrence of a disease such as mood, anxiety, or substance use disorder. Dr. Paulus' program of research is to delineate DMPs and provide pathways towards the development of process-specific transdiagnostic interventions that have pragmatic utility, i.e. improve a patient's condition faster with fewer side effects and fewer recurrences, and explanatory value, i.e. refine our understanding of the causal relationships between specific processes and a mental health condition.
Dr. Paulus has been an ADAA member since 2008 and was the past Chair of ADAA's Scientific Council.
A special thank you to ADAA members Carmela Alcántara, PhD and Mbemba Jabbi, PhD for serving on the ADAA board seat nominating committee. We very much appreciate their time and thoughtful participation.
The ADAA Board and staff also extend their sincere appreciation to the following board members whose terms ended December 31.
Many thanks to Beth Salcedo, MD, Scott Rauch, MD and Risa Weisberg, PhD for their board service and commitment. Read the full press release her e.
Job Titles:
- Immediate past President
- Psychiatrist
- Member of the Organization
Dr. Salcedo is a psychiatrist with expertise in diagnostic assessment and psychopharmacologic management of anxiety and mood disorders in adults. She has been the medical director of The Ross Center since 2002, and has been with the center since 1997. She has been named in Washingtonian magazine's "Top Doctors" in 2010 and 2012.
Dr. Salcedo has been an active member of the organization since 2004 and served as ADAA Board President from 2018-2019.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Membership Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Professor and Chair / Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Assistant Professor / Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences / Dell Medical School
Dr. Jabbi graduated with a combined Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree in experimental psychology and neuroanatomy from the University of Groningen, Netherlands, in 2002 and obtained a doctorate in clinical neuroscience from the University Medical Center Groningen in 2007.
Prior to joining Dell Medical School, Dr. Jabbi completed a Fogarty International Visiting Postdoctoral Fellowship at the U.S. National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, from 2007 to 2011. He then completed his research fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda in 2016. There, Dr. Jabbi lead the translational multicenter studies looking at how rare but penetrant genetic events influence affective processes.
Dr. Jabbi's current research applies deep behavioral phenotyping and multimodal brain anatomical and molecular studies that are designed to better understand the biological abnormalities associated with mood and anxiety disorders. His lab seeks to contribute to the integrative understanding of how genes affect brain circuitry mediation of basic and higher-order adaptive affective functions.
Dr. Jabbi is drawn to Albert Einstein's important words "Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."
"In line with Professor Einstein's inspiring words, I believe that becoming an early career ADAA board member is a great opportunity to gain experience on how to add value to ADAA's goals toward improving the lives of people affected by anxiety and depressive disorders. I am very excited about this opportunity and would like to sincerely thank ADAA and the Board of Directors. I look forward to serving with and learning from all of you."
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Consumer Brands
- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Consumer Brands, LLC
Michael Gleason is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Consumer Brands, LLC, an innovative technology and online media company based in Southern California. The company's subsidiary, Healthcare Brands, LLC, is the publisher of a network of healthcare websites including Anxiety.org.
Born and raised in Iowa, Michael is the son of a physician who sought to change healthcare through entrepreneurial innovation and public service including serving as President Clinton's senior health policy advisor and as Iowa's Commissioner of Public Health. Michael feels a sense of responsibility to carry his late father's mission to future generations with a goal of changing the way we access healthcare information and think about healthcare.
A scientist and successful entrepreneur, Michael created, built, and sold two technology companies before founding Consumer Brands. One served large healthcare clients such as Allergan and Bausch & Lomb; the other developed software and VoIP solutions in partnership with both Level 3 and XO Communications.
Prior to his business career, Michael worked in Washington, D.C. for Senator Tom Harkin on alternative energy initiatives and the Child Support Assurance Act and advised President Bill Clinton on educational funding issues related to science and technology.
Michael holds an M.S. in Physical Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles. His research at MIT, in collaboration with the Harvard Department of Physics, involved the fundamentals of optical computing.
Michael serves on the board of the Orange County School of the Arts Foundation which is dedicated to the financial support of the school's tuition-free artistic programs. He is also the driving force behind Work.org whose mission is to establish workforce centers on military bases to provide training and jobs for military spouses and veterans.
Michael joined the ADAA board in 2017 as an Honorary Board Member.
Job Titles:
- Communications Specialist
- Board Member of the Building Bridges Initiative
- Reporter, Journalist, Editor and Researcher
Ms. Ghuneim is a skilled advocate, savvy communicator and talented writer with experience creating and offering technical assistance, producing educational materials, and training a diverse workforce of peer support professionals.
Before joining ADAA, Ms. Ghuneim was a regional advisor with Families Together in NY State, a non-profit organization that represents families of youth and children with social, emotional, behavioral and cross-systems challenges. She worked in close partnership with the Office of Mental Health in New York City, educating the public and offering resources, helping clients access mental health services, and assisting them in navigating other social welfare agencies. Ms. Ghuneim was part of the Residential Treatment Facility (RTF) Authorization team which determined eligibility of youth for mental health assessments and treatment.
Ms. Ghuneim is a board member of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), a national organization that works to identify and promote best practice and policy for youth receiving residential mental health intervention, and to help reintegrate them into the community. She is a Certified Foster Parent Trainer, as well as a former foster parent, and she has served on various health, disability and mental health advisory committees. Ms. Ghuneim is passionate about humanitarian causes and in particular, global mental health awareness, advocacy and stigma-free treatment.
With a master's in journalism and Middle East Studies from NYU, Ms. Ghuneim has worked as a broadcast reporter, journalist, editor and researcher, as well as a managing editor of an international business marketing publication. She is a natural storyteller, currently working on a memoir about her rich cultural history and background. She speaks Arabic, French, Spanish and Italian.
Job Titles:
- and Kathryn Boger, PhD, ABPP Recently Partnered With ADAA to Host an Insightful Q
Job Titles:
- Member of the Membership Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- 1st President
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Chief Medical Officer and Secretary - ADAA Board
- Chief Medical Officer and Secretary / Harvard Medical School
- Chief Medical Officer and Secretary / Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Sanjay J. Mathew, M.D. is the Marjorie Bintliff Johnson and Raleigh White Johnson, Jr. Vice Chair for Research and Professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. He is also a staff psychiatrist at the Michael E. Debakey VA Medical Center (MEDVAMC) in Houston, Texas. He graduated from Dartmouth College and Baylor College of Medicine, and trained in psychiatry at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where he also completed a NIH-funded research fellowship in affective and anxiety disorders. Dr. Mathew began his faculty career at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai where he co-founded and directed the Mood & Anxiety Disorders Program. In 2010, Dr. Mathew was recruited back to his hometown of Houston to direct Baylor's Mood & Anxiety Disorders Program. His research program focuses on developing novel therapies for patients with treatment-resistant mood and anxiety disorders and PTSD, with a particular focus on rapid-acting glutamate-modulating agents.
Dr. Mathew's research program has been funded by NIMH, Department of Veterans Affairs, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and industry in the areas of experimental therapeutics and pathophysiology of treatment-resistant depression, suicide, and PTSD. He has authored or co-authored over 130 manuscripts and book chapters, and serves on the editorial board of several journals. In addition to his long involvement with ADAA including serving as Chair of the Program Committee (2017-2018), Dr. Mathew is a member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and board member of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology. An active clinician and teacher, Dr. Mathew has been selected by his peers as a "Best Doctor" every year since 2011, and has received awards for his teaching of psychopharmacology.
Dr. Mathew has been an ADAA member since 2000 and is currently ADAA's Chief Medical Officer and the ADAA Board Secretary.
Job Titles:
- Ass Ociate Director, Education and Membership Engagement
- Associate Director, Education
Sasha Sicard is the Associate Director, Education and Membership Engagement at the Anxiety and Depression Association (ADAA). She is a cause-driven advocate of social, mental, and environmental health and wellbeing issues.
Prior to joining ADAA, Ms. Sicard spent five years dedicated to the growth of New York City non-profit organizations as a manager of a development team at the Alley Pond Environmental Center, a social media coordinator for a supportive housing organization, and as an event planner.
Ms. Sicard has extensive experience in client-facing relations, database management, donor recruitment, and event planning, and production. She received her Bachelors of Arts in Environmental Science and Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park and her Masters in Arts in Environmental Conservation Education from New York University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Ex - Officio and Scientific Council Chair
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Journal Editor - in - Chief, Ex - Officio Board Member
- Professor and Vice Chair, Research of Psychiatry
Stephen M. Strakowski, MD, is the Professor and Vice Chair, Research of Psychiatry at Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM). He also serves as Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Vice President, Regional Mental Health at the Dell Medical School, University of Texas in Austin. Previously he served as Vice Dean for Research at Dell Medical School and the University of Cincinnati; at the latter, he also served as Senior Vice President of Strategy. He is the Treasurer for the National Network of Depression Centers, and Director of Strategy for the American Brain Coalition. Dr. Strakowski graduated summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a BSE in 1984 and alpha omega alpha from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine with an MD in 1988. He completed his residency training at McLean Hospital/Harvard University School of Medicine in 1992. Upon completing residency, he moved to the University of Cincinnati where he remained for 24 years until moving to the University of Texas, and more recently IUSM. Dr. Strakowski is an internationally recognized and trusted expert in the study and treatment of bipolar and other mood disorders. His research group has been a world leader studying the treatment, outcomes and neurobiology of these conditions. He also leads work to improve racial equity in psychiatry and the delivery of mental health services. He is recognized as a Best Doctor® and by US News and World Report® as a Top 1% Psychiatrist. He maintains an active clinical practice and research career.
"I am honored to be named the founding Editor-in-Chief of the new ADAA Journal of Mood and Anxiety Disorders. With the support of our wonderful organization, and the expertise, passion and compassion of our members, I believe we are ideally positioned to create and build a journal that will have impact not only in publications but in the lives of the people we serve. I am very much looking forward to working together as a team to achieve this vision."
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Executive Director of the Anxiety
Susan Gurley is the Executive Director of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), a non-profit international mental health association. She is a lawyer and advocate with 25 years of leadership experience working in the mental health and access to justice fields, international development and legal reform, and higher education administration.
Prior to joining ADAA, Ms. Gurley held senior-level positions in several U.S. government agencies, such as the United States Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Ms. Gurley served as both the Assistant Dean for International and Graduate Programs, at the Georgetown University School of Law and as an Adjunct Faculty Member. While at Georgetown she created the International Human Rights and National Security Law Certificate Programs. Ms. Gurley also worked as the Deputy Executive Director of Equal Justice Works, and as the Director of Legal Reform at the East West Management Institute (EWMI), where she managed several overseas offices, created EWMI's first land reform program, and expanded programming to Asia. She also ran the Association of Corporate Business Travel Executives, where she opened the association's first office in Latin America and testified before Congress on privacy issues.
Ms. Gurley has extensive non-profit Board experience. She has served on the Boards of Film Aid International, on the Board of the Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County, and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the International Executive Service Corps (IESC). She is also a member of the Board of Directors of INMED Partnerships for Children and serves on the Advisory Committee for Her Wealth, an organization promoting financial literacy for women.
Over the past five years, she has served as a technical expert volunteer on capacity building projects in Cambodia, Philippines, and Tanzania. For her volunteer work, she has been awarded the Frank Pace award by IESC as well as the 2020 Innovator of the Year award by USAID's Farmer- to- Farmer program.
Ms. Gurley is a Phi Beta Kappa and received her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. She is a member of the Virginia Bar. Ms. Gurley has worked in 30+ countries and speaks French, German, and Hungarian.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Professor
- Treasurer - ADAA Board
- Treasurer / Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral
Tanja Jovanovic, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences and the David and Patricia Barron Chair for PTSD Neurobiology at Wayne State University. From 2015 to 2018, Dr. Jovanovic was the Director of the Grady Trauma Project in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Jovanovic's research program focuses on the interaction of traumatic experiences, neurophysiology, neuroendocrinology, and genetics in stress-related disorders in adults and children in high-risk populations. Her research employs psychophysiological (e.g. fear-potentiated startle, skin conductance response, heart-rate variability) and brain imaging methods to investigate biomarkers of risk for trauma-related psychopathology, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Her laboratory developed novel human fear conditioning, fear inhibition, and extinction paradigms for PTSD patients. Dr. Jovanovic is the lead investigator on several federally funded grants from the National Institutes of Health and has an Independent Investigator Award from the Brain and Behaviour Research Foundation. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and served on national and international grant review panels.
Dr. Jovanovic, a member since 2009, is the Treasurer for the ADAA Board and a member of the ADAA PTSD and Genetics and Neuroscience Special Interest Groups.
Why I am an ADAA member
I have considered ADAA my "home" organization since I first started coming as a postdoctoral fellow. I received a travel award from ADAA in 2009 and have been very active in the meeting ever since. In fact, I had the privilege of co-chairing the program in 2015. This is the conference where I learn about the new approaches to treatment and research related to anxiety and depression from world-renowned experts, meet with my colleagues, and bring my trainees to learn and network with leaders in the field. In fact, ADAA is exceptionally "trainee-friendly": the relatively small size and high quality of the meeting makes it easy for newcomers to become integrated. Further, there is much attention paid to career development and mentorship; as a mentor in the Career Development Leadership Program I have had an opportunity to follow career trajectories of very outstanding fellows who will be the future of ADAA.
Job Titles:
- Director, Behavior Science Division, National Center for PTSD
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego
- Scientific Council Chair
Dr. Risbrough is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego and Associate Director of Neuroscience for the Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health at the VA San Diego Healthcare System. She completed her PhD in Neuroscience in 2004 from the University of California San Diego. She leads a dual preclinical/clinical research program focusing on identifying mechanisms of risk and resilience to post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as development of new pharmacological treatments for these disorders. She uses homologous physiological and circulating measures of threat response across rodents and humans to develop translational probes of anxiety responding and treatment efficacy. Her preclinical laboratory at the Consortium for Translational Research in Neuropharmacology at UCSD uses behavioral, pharmacological, genetic and molecular techniques to identify genetic and circuit mechanisms of enduring trauma responses. Her clinical work at the VA Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health includes examination of tissue-based biomarkers of PTSD risk and traumatic brain injury, examination of mechanisms underlying core disruptions of fear learning and inhibition in trauma-related disorders and development of novel pharmacological treatments targeting these mechanisms.
She joined the Scientific Council in 2013 and was an ACNP/ADAA Career Development Travel award recipient in 2005. She is also a Fellow of the American College of Neuropharmacology and is Associate Editor of the journal Neurobiology of Stress. She has received funding from NARSAD, NIDA, NIAAA, NIMH, VA, DOD, TRDRP, and Navy BUMED.
Dr. Risbrough has been an ADAA member since 2005 and is currently the Chair of ADAA's Scientific Council and an ex-officio board member.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee