At Psychiatric Times, a Changing of the Guard

Thank you, James Knoll, and welcome, Allan Tasman and Michelle Riba!

For 4 years, Psychiatric Times has flourished under the editorial directorship of James L. Knoll IV, MD. Earlier this year, Dr Knoll was promoted to Professor of Psychiatry at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. In his new role, he has taken on a variety of additional duties-including building a model psychiatric court clinic and providing mental health training to law enforcement-all of which demand more of his time. Thus, Dr Knoll has stepped down as our Editor in Chief and has joined the ranks of Editors in Chief Emeriti, along with Drs Ronald Pies and John Schwartz. Dr Knoll will reassume his position as PT’s forensic section head and will continue to give us his counsel.

We on the editorial team are fortunate to have Dr Knoll’s continued expertise and guidance-and we extend our thanks for his many contributions, including his very powerful “The New Asylum” essays, which you can read on our Web site.

It’s my pleasure to welcome James’ successor-Allan Tasman, MD, who now assumes the role of Editor in Chief of Psychiatric Times. Dr Tasman is joined by Michelle Riba, MD, MS, who becomes the publication’s first ever Deputy Editor. In their respective roles, Drs Tasman and Riba will help guide the editorial direction of PT to make sure it continues to be a welcome sight in your mailbox each month. Starting next month, a column written by Dr Tasman on issues near and dear to the field of psychiatry will make its debut in these pages.

A bit of background about Dr Tasman, who first joined our Editorial Board in 2012. He is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Louisville. He holds the John and Ruby Schwab Chair in Social, Community, and Family Psychiatry.

Dr Tasman has served as President of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training; of the Association for Academic Psychiatry; and of the American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry. He is the only person to have served as President of each of these 3 major US academic psychiatry organizations. He is a past President of the APA and was Secretary for Education of the World Psychiatric Association.

Dr Tasman was also President of the Pacific Rim College of Psychiatrists, and established and serves as Senior Editor of the journal Asia Pacific Psychiatry, the first transnational English-language psychiatric journal for the entire Pacific Rim region. A psychoanalyst and cognitive neuroscience researcher, he has written or edited over 35 psychiatric textbooks and monographs and 200+ peer-reviewed publications, chapters, and abstracts and has given over 300 national and international presentations on psychiatric education, cognitive neuroscience research, and global mental health.

Dr Tasman is also well known for his role as senior editor of the textbook Psychiatry, called “the best current textbook of psychiatry” by The New England Journal of Medicine and the “gold standard” by The American Journal of Psychiatry.

Michelle B. Riba, MD, MS, will be joining as Deputy Editor. Dr Riba is Professor and Associate Chair for Integrated Medicine and Psychiatric Services and Associate Director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Depression Center. She is also Director of the PsychOncology Program at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and Director of the Psychosomatic Fellowship Program. Dr Riba has served on numerous editorial boards.

Like Dr Tasman, Dr Riba is also a past President of the APA, past President of the Association for Academic Psychiatry, and past President of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training. She has also served as the APA’s representative to the World Psychiatric Association and as WPA Secretary for Scientific Publications.

A recipient of the University of Michigan’s Outstanding Clinician Award, Dr Riba is the author or editor of over 200 scientific articles, books, chapters, and scientific abstracts. She has written and/or coedited a number of textbooks and series, including Competency in Combining Pharmacotherapy and Psychotherapy: Integrated and Split Treatment; Clinical Manual of Emergency Psychiatry, Psychiatry and Cardiology; The American Psychiatric Press Review of Psychiatry Series; Clinical Psycho-Oncology; Psychiatry and Heart Disease; and Psychopharmacology in Oncology and Palliative Care.

Drs Tasman and Riba now head a distinguished Editorial Board. Our Board has long played a key role in guiding the editorial direction of Psychiatric Times. Our Board members write commentaries and blogs, suggest topics, serve as peer reviewers, and give us their frank and unblinking appraisal of the contents of each and every issue we publish. On behalf of the editorial staff, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them.

Their goal-like that of our new dynamic duo-is to make sure that every article in every issue and everything we post on www.PsychiatricTimes.com is timely, thought-provoking, and authoritative . . . and that it brings you information you can really use in your daily practice. We hope you like what you’ve been reading-and we hope you’ll like what’s ahead even more.