BOARD MEMBERS
JAMES RACHAL, MD
President
James C. Rachal, MD, is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Academic Chair for the Department of Psychiatry at Atrium Health and also serves as the medical director for the Behavioral Health Charlotte campus. He is a board-certified Psychiatrist and Family Physician who has over 15 years of clinical experience and administrative experience. Dr. Rachal graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelors of Arts from Miami University. He then graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and trained in both Family Medicine and Psychiatry in the United States Air Force at the National Capital Consortium in Washington DC. Dr. Rachal is a Veteran of the Operation Iraqi Freedom and was deployed to Kuwait. He spent 7 years at the University of Pittsburgh Medical center and developed the states only inpatient trauma program. He was awarded Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic’s physician of the year in 2014 for this work. At Atrium Health Dr. Rachal helped lead the team, that created the community psychiatry residency program that mixes state of the art technology with an emphasis on scholarly work. Dr. Rachal is married and has 3 children.
Luming Li, MD
President-Elect
Luming Li, M.D. is an Assistant Professor at the Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, and also currently serves as the Associate Medical Director of Quality Improvement of the Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital. Her clinical focus is on patients with severe psychiatric conditions which require complex systems of care.
She works clinically as an inpatient psychiatrist at the transitional age and dual-diagnosis psychiatric/substance disorder units at the Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital, and also serves as a consultant psychiatrist in the Nathan Smith Clinic for patients with HIV. She has research and educational interests in healthcare policy, hospital management, clinical redesign, leadership development, operational efficiency, and quality improvement.
Dr. Li completed a 7-year B.A./M.D. program at Rutgers/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and residency training at the Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. She has also served on national committees within the American Psychiatric Association (APA), including the Health Systems and Financing Committee (2017-2018), and was an APA Public Psychiatry Fellowship recipient. She is a 2019-2020 Health and Aging Policy Fellow, and American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow.
Layla Soliman, MD
Secretary-Treasurer
Dr. Soliman is board certified in general and forensic psychiatry. She focuses on inpatient psychiatry.She received her medical degree at the Medical College of Ohio. She completed residency in psychiatry and a fellowship in forensic psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh.Dr. Soliman served as an attending psychiatrist in several settings while employed by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. These included a forensic assertive community treatment (FACT) team, a long-term secure residential facility, the Torrance State Hospital forensic unit, the Western Psychiatric Institute’s general adult psychiatric inpatient unit and the Re:Solve Crisis Center. She served as a crisis intervention team (CIT) trainer for the Pittsburgh Police Department.Dr. Soliman moved to Charlotte in 2017 to join Atrium Health, where she works as a forensic psychiatrist and an adult inpatient psychiatrist. Additionally, she has led quality improvement projects related to risk assessment and mitigation. She serves on several hospital committees as well as on the Mecklenburg County Collaborative Involuntary Commitment Committee, which consists of physicians and psychologists from local and state hospitals, attorneys, magistrates, judges and law enforcement leadership.She is active in teaching medical students and residents. Dr. Soliman is a clinical assistant professor at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Atrium Health. In addition, she has been an invited speaker at several other residency programs and has presented at several national conferences.Dr. Soliman routinely provides consultation in civil and criminal matters. Her areas of expertise include competence to stand trial (capacity to proceed), mitigating factors in criminal cases, psychic harm (psychological damages) and psychiatric malpractice.Dr. Soliman will provide a timely, thorough review of each case and be available throughout the process to assist clients in understanding and bringing forth the relevant psychiatric issues.
TOBIAS WASSER, MD
Immediate Past President and Chair of Nominating Committee:
Tobias Wasser, MD attended college at Wesleyan University, medical school at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and completed his psychiatry training at the Yale School of Medicine, including serving as chief resident and completing fellowships in forensic and public psychiatry. After completing his training, he joined the Yale psychiatry department as faculty. During his time at Yale he held academic leadership roles in the public psychiatry and residency training programs and clinical leadership roles in the state forensic mental health system, Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Yale Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Wasser is a clinician-educator whose scholarship focuses on novel educational pedagogies and research in forensic and administrative psychiatry. He has been recognized as a regional and national leader in forensic psychiatry and medical education, has held multiple leadership roles for various national organizations, and has received multiple awards both locally and nationally in the areas of medical education, mentorship, and psychiatric ethics. He is also past president of the Connecticut Psychiatric Society and the American Association of Psychiatric Administration and Leadership. Dr. Wasser currently serves jointly as the Chair of Psychiatry for Quinnipiac University’s Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine and as the Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health for Hartford Healthcare’s Fairfield Region.
Victor Buwalda, MD, PhD
Councilor
Dr Victor J.A. Buwalda was educated in Amsterdam at the Academic University Medical Center Former Vrije Univeriteit) and became psychiatrist in 2002. As psychiatrist his interest always has been Psychiatric Administration and leadership what resulted into his That resulted in his PhD-research in the field of psychiatric administration and leadership: The HORVAN Study Part I on the use of measurement instruments in daily clinical practice in the outpatient clinic (2002-2004) and HORVAN Study Part II were he investigated the use and implementation of feedback reports during treatment and the attitude of the therapist and patient (2006-2011). Together with prof. Jan Vissers (Institute of Health Policy & Management (iBMG), Rotterdam) he also published the organizational challenges that he met during his research.
WAYNE CREELMAN, MD
Councilor
Boarded Physician Executive in both medical management and psychiatry with over 25 years of progressively responsible medical management experience in the behavioral/medical care arena. Demonstrated strengths in strategic planning, leadership, financial decision-making, communication, quality assurance and risk management, physician recruitment, credentialing, training and supervision of staff physicians, regulatory and accrediting agency survey preparation, budgeting, technology assessment, marketing, clinical pathway and research development, utilization management, and patient satisfaction.
Erin Dainer, MD
Councilor
Dr. Dainer serves as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Mather Hospital Northwell. Prior to joining Mather Hospital Dr. Dainer served as Regional Medical Director of Mental Health for Teladoc Health with the mission to integrate psychiatry in all aspects of medicine and to provide services to all regardless of their geographical locations. Prior to her employment at Teladoc Health, she directed the Adult Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic, Telepsychiatry, and Integration at Stony Brook University Hospital. While serving at Stony Brook she expanded ambulatory services from one outpatient clinic to three, and conceived and implemented its Telepsychiatry program. She further expanded psychiatric and behavioral health integration services to encompass adult primary care clinics as well as subspecialty and pediatric clinics. Within the Family Medicine clinics, she implemented collaborative care services.Dr. Dainer earned her Bachelor of Sciences degree in Biology with highest honors from Georgia Institute of Technology and her MD from the Medical College of Georgia. She trained in Internal Medicine and Psychiatry at Tulane University, which led to board certification in both specialties.
William Narrow, MD
Councilor
William Narrow, MD
Councilor
William Narrow, MD
Councilor
Councilor
Manish Sapra, MD
APA Assembly Representative
Manish Sapra, MD, is executive director of the behavioral health service line at Northwell Health. He oversees strategic clinical program development and physician management for all mental health and substance use disorder programs at Northwell. He interacts with site leaders to drive quality improvement and standardize care.
Dr. Sapra joined Northwell in 2017 and previously served in a dual role as director of strategic initiatives for the behavioral health service line and medical director of practice-based care management at Northwell Health Solutions. He oversaw several population health programs, including behavioral health integration in primary care practices. Dr. Sapra has been instrumental in efforts to modernize behavioral health services by developing new ambulatory tele-psychiatry applications, implementing advanced use of data analytics and exploring value-based purchasing arrangements.
Throughout his career, Dr. Sapra has progressively advanced into leadership roles. Prior to joining Northwell, he was associate chief of clinical services for behavioral health and senior director of community psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), where he directed physician management and business development for its ambulatory and acute-care services and medical education programs related to community psychiatry. His passion for improving mental health care started early in his career, immersing himself in working with Pennsylvania’s underserved communities.
Dr. Sapra is the immediate past president of the American Association for Psychiatric Administration and Leadership, a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and an active member of the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry, a leading psychiatric think tank. He graduated from Seth G. S. Medical College, University of Mumbai. He completed his residency in psychiatry at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Boston and has a Masters in Medical Management from Carnegie Mellon University.
William Narrow, MD
Councilor
Abidemi Onabadejo, MD
Councilor
Dhanviney (Vinay) Verma, MD
Councilor
Dr. Verma is a board-certified adult psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital with a faculty appointment at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Verma finished my undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, and medical school at the University of Vermont. Subsequently, he completed residency and public psychiatry fellowship at Boston University Medical Center. These experiences exposed j to a variety of clinical conditions, diverse populations, and care delivery settings including a safety net hospital, for-profit hospital, DMH facilities, the VA system, and various community health centers.
Ivy Song, MD
MIT Representative
John Wilkaitis, MD, MBA, DFAPA
Councilor
Dr. John Elgin Wilkaitis completed medical school at The University of Mississippi Medical Center and residency in general psychiatry in 2003. He completed a fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in 2005. Following this, he served as chief medical officer of Brentwood Behavioral Healthcare, a private 105 bed hospital system, for 10 years. During this time, he founded a successful group private practice, Children’s Psychiatric Solutions, which operated for 11 years prior to sale to another group. He is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in child and adolescent psychiatry, general psychiatry, and consult-liaison psychiatry. He is a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He is also board certified in addiction medicine by the American Board of Addiction Medicine and a fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. He has been active in multiple societies related to physician leadership, including presidency of the American Association of Psychiatric Administrators, The Mississippi Psychiatric Association, and The Mississippi Council of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists. He is a Vanguard Member of the American Association of Physician Leadership. He has received multiple awards in the past, including America’s Top Physicians, by the Consumer Research Council, in 2018.
SY SAEED, MD
Emeritus Councilor
Since 2004 Dr. Saeed has been serving as the Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University. He also serves as the Director of the Center for Telepsychiatry at ECU and as the Founding Executive Director of the North Carolina Statewide Telepsychiatry Program (NC-STeP), a state funded program covering over 65 hospitals and community-based sites in North Carolina. Prior to his appointment at East Carolina University, Dr. Saeed served as Professor and Chairman, Department of the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria (1995-2004) where he was also the Clinical Director for the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Service NetWork of North Central Illinois, a state-operated Network serving people with serious and persistent mental illness in 23 counties and covering 1.5 million lives in north central Illinois.
Dr. Saeed is a diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He is also certified in Psychiatric Administration and Management by the American Psychiatric Association and holds a MS degree in Counseling and Psychotherapy.
Dr. Saeed was the founding Editor of the American Association of Psychiatric Administrator's Journal, Psychiatrist Administrator (2000-2010). He then served as the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Psychiatric Administration and Management (JPAM) from 2011 to 2020. He serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals. He is a fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Health, London. He also serves on the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP), a think-tank for psychiatry dedicated to shaping psychiatric thinking, public programs, and clinical practice in mental health. In 2018 he was elected to the Governing Board of GAP. In 2014 Governor McCrory appointed him to the Governing Board of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine. In 2016, he was reappointed to the board for a 4-year term by the governor.
Dr. Saeed has published extensively in the areas of evidence-based practices; anxiety and mood disorders; telepsychiatry; psychiatric administration and leadership; and psychiatric treatment integration. He has been involved in funded research both as a principal investigator and co-investigator, with over $16,000,000 in external funding since 2004. He has lectured and presented nationwide and internationally, including being an invited speaker at a White House Convening on telehealth in 2016. In 2019 he was the recipient of the prestigious Gov. Oliver Max Gardner Award, the highest UNC award, selected by the UNC Board of Governors, to recognize UNC system faculty who have “made the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race.”
FRANCES BELL
Central Office
Contact Information:
Frances Bell
PO Box 570218
Dallas, TX 75357-0218
972-613-5532
FAX: 972-613-5532
Email: frda1@airmail.net
Web address: www.psychiatricadministrators.org
Sebastian Acevedo, M.P.H
Medical Student Representative
Sebastian Acevedo is a current fourth year MD student at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and a graduated the Rutgers School of Public Health with his M.P.H with a concentration in Urban Public Health. He received a Bachelors of Arts from Rutgers University, New Brunswick in 2020 where he majored in Biological Sciences. Sebastian is a first generation Latino college graduate, and interested in pursuing a career in academic psychiatry with a focus on addiction medicine.