Board of Directors

Dr. Wills is passionate about collaboration and innovation in order to deliver patient-centered, high quality, equitable, efficient and affordable care. Most recently, Dr. Wills served as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Johns Hopkins Health Plans (JHHP). In her role, Dr. Wills helped JHHP optimize clinical and quality outcomes for health plan members while driving efforts to efficiently manage costs of care. She oversaw the Pharmacy, Utilization Management, Care Management, and Quality Improvement departments, as well as other areas of JHHP’s Health Services division. She also helped set and enforce medical policies and standards for health care services provided to plan members.

Dr. Wills has worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company; was the director of physician affairs at The Medical Center campus of Memorial Hermann Hospital System, where she oversaw the Medical Staff Office and physician recruitment, contracting and onboarding; and served as senior medical director for WellCare Health Plans, leading the population health clinical strategy team responsible for optimizing clinical and quality outcomes for patients as well as the NCQA accreditation team.

Dr. Wills earned her medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and completed a residency in adult psychiatry at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean Hospital program, serving as chief resident in her last year. She also has a master’s in business administration from The Wharton School at Penn.

She enjoys working out, traveling, the arts, and engaging in community services. An avid meditator, she recently became a certified yoga teacher.

Dr. Taylor-Desir serves as a community psychiatrist for the Olmsted County Assertive Community Treatment Team and as the co-chair for the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology. Prior to joining Mayo Clinic Dr. Taylor-Desir served as a community psychiatrist for tribal communities for 16 years. Dr. Taylor-Desir graduated from the University Of Cincinnati College Of Medicine. After completing her psychiatry residency and a fellowship in community psychiatry at Emory University, Dr. Taylor-Desir began her career with the Winslow Indian Health Care Center in Winslow, AZ working with a predominantly Navajo population. This work was through her commitment to the National Health Service Corps as a Scholarship recipient. Dr. Taylor-Desir then moved to Phoenix, Arizona to serve the Salt River PimaMaricopa Indian Community for eight years. She was the first tribally hired psychiatrist and provided outpatient psychiatric care to community members, worked with the crisis team, the Salt River Department of Corrections and the community residential treatment center. She also worked to secure psychiatric care between state and tribal jurisdictions. Dr. Taylor-Desir then moved to New Town, North Dakota to serve the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation for three years as their Chief Medical Officer and psychiatrist for the Elbowoods Memorial Health Care Center. She was instrumental in securing SAMHSA grants addressing mental health and substance use in tribal communities. One of her proudest honors is receiving the American Psychiatric Association 2019 Award for Excellence in Service and Advocacy from the Women of the Assembly. Dr. Taylor-Desir also serves as a member of the National Advisory Committee to the National Health Service Corps where she continues advocacy for and service to tribal and rural communities.

She is from Pakistan and settled in the United States in the year 2000 with her three daughters. In January of 2009, Dr. Abbasi received the American Psychiatric Association SAMSHA Minority Fellowship to create awareness about cultural competency, to redefine it as not just tolerance but acceptance.

Her areas of interest are cultural psychiatry and teaching medical students culturally appropriate care to Muslim patients. She works directly with Muslim American community to encourage integration rather than isolation from mainstream society.

She is the founding director of the Annual Muslim Mental Health Conference. In 2018 the tenth conference was held at the United State Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. In addition, she launched a Global Muslim Mental Health Conference in Malaysia and Jordan. She is also the managing editor of the Journal of Muslim Mental Health and Director of the Muslim Mental Health Consortium, Michigan State University.

Dr. Abbasi has received numerous awards for her service to the community and promoting mental health. Dr. Abbasi was received the Women on the Frontlines Award presented by Health & Human Service Secretary Xavier Becerra in Washington, D.C., was an Honoree of the National Alliance of Mentally Ill, and American Psychiatric Association Foundation Award for Promoting Minority Mental Health.

She has served on many boards and committees including Council on Minority Mental Health and Health Disparities, American Psychiatric Association. She currently chairs the Mental Health Task Force for the Mayor of Lansing, Michigan.

She works relentlessly and tirelessly towards one goal: Learning to coexist and go beyond our differences to reach the common point of peace and prosperity.

• As a passionate storyteller and director, she continues to create projects that reshape how mental health is portrayed in entertainment.
• Mädchen is a dedicated mental health advocate who uses her global platform on Capitol Hill, the United Nations and other featured platforms to advocate for mental health care reform.
• Because of Mädchen and her family’s firsthand experience with a child diagnosed with Bipolar 1 disorder.
• The family founded the non-profit direct-impact Don’t MiND Me Foundation, focusing on making mental health care accessible for all.
• Panelist at 2025 APA Annual Meeting.

Her work has focused on supporting students, faculty, staff, and trainees which includes resident physicians, fellow physicians, and postdoctoral researchers; implementing programs that increase culturally responsive care; and delivering diversity and inclusion educational and enrichment programs and conferences. Her research and health policy efforts have helped to reduce disparities, especially mental health disparities, that prevent underserved populations from receiving needed health services by eliminating the barriers of stigma, enhancing education, and improving access. Since her General Psychiatry Residency and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at the University of Iowa (2009-2014), she has been involved in mentoring activities with pre-health and medical students across the country. Dr. Del Castillo is a former APA/APAF SAMHSA Minority Fellow.

Dr. Del Castillo received her B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Illinois and her M.D. from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. She also completed a M.P.H. from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Minority Health Policy at Harvard University.

She is a Senior Fellow of Child, Adolescent and Family Health at the Meadow Mental Health Policy Institute. Previously, Dr. Durham was the Vice Chair of Education at Boston Medical Center (BMC) Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Pediatrics at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine where she continues to hold her adjunct faculty appointment. She is also a voluntary Clinical Associate Professor of Clinical Sciences at the University of Houston Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine. Dr. Durham has worked in large public hospital serving individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use issues. She has experience working in acute psychiatric emergency room settings, outpatient mental health treatment settings as well as providing consultation to primary care doctors and nonmedical agencies around mental health and substance use issues. She has practiced in public and private settings serving both children and adults. Dr. Durham’s federally and privately funded research focused on workforce development that reflects groups historically excluded from medicine, training, and education for both the pediatric workforce and mental health professionals as well as trauma informed clinical services for youth and families. She has expertise in pediatric integrated care, trauma in communities of color, and training and education for the both the pediatric workforce and mental health professionals and has presented nationally and internationally on these topics. She is involved at the state and national level with the American Psychiatric Association and American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry to improve the standard of care for adults, children, and adolescents. She has testified for the U.S. Senate HELP and Finance Committees to advocate for increase funding, access and parity in mental health and substance use treatment.

He is also a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at University of California Los Angeles. He previously served as Executive Vice Chair, Associate Chair for Clinical Affairs, and Director of Residency Training Program of the Department of Psychiatry at different medical schools in the U.S. Dr. Pi is certified in the specialty Board of Psychiatry (1980- ) and Psychosomatic Medicine (2008-2018). Dr. Pi is former Medical Director of the Department of Mental Health (DMH), State of California. Professor Pi is an accomplished researcher in the fields of clinical psychiatry and psychopharmacology, particularly ethnic and cross-cultural aspects.

Dr. Pi is a Distinguished Life Fellow of American Psychiatric Association (APA). He has been very active on both the national and international scenes in organized psychiatry in the past 30 years, including President of the Association of Chinese American Psychiatrists, Vice President and Treasurer of the Pacific Rim College of Psychiatrists, Chairperson of the Committee of Asian American Psychiatrists, Chair of the Minority and Underrepresented (M/UR) Groups, and Member of the Executive Committee of the APA Assembly. Also, Dr. Pi served on the Scientific Program Committee (SPC) of the APA during the past 20 year, including Vice Chair of the SPC of APA's 2019 and 2020 Annual Meetings. He received the SPC Overachiever Award, APA Annual Meeting, 2019. Dr. Pi is an Honorary Fellow of WPA. He served as the Representative for Zone 2 – USA within the WPA Board (2014-2020), most recently, elected to the WPA Executive Board as the Secretary for Scientific Meetings (2020- ). Among his many honors, Dr. PI is the recipient of APA's 2009 Kun-po Soo Award and 2021 George Tarjan Award. Dr. Pi is listed among the Best Doctors in America (Psychiatry) and America’s Top Doctors (Psychiatry).

• Advocate for reducing the stigma associated with mental health and substance use disorders, Dr. Pozios consulted with governmental agencies, media outlets, and non-profit organizations on the relationship between mental illness, violence, and popular culture and its impact on stigma.
• Former APA Spurlock Congressional, he worked with the Chair of the United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary on the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Reauthorization and Improvement Act of 2008, the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, and "Medicare for All" legislation.
• Professional interests = violence risk assessment, mental health and the media, mental illness stigma, and ethics.

• Nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the ninth deputy secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2021.
• Before his appointment to VA, he was a chief operating officer and chief legal officer at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), where he oversaw all strategic planning, operations, budget management, and legal affairs for America’s Higher Education athletics activity.
• Prior government positions, he served as deputy assistant attorney general, Department of Justice; assistant to the general counsel, U.S. Army; detailee, Office of the Secretary of Defense; and law clerk, 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In the private sector, he was an executive vice president, chief compliance officer, and deputy general counsel at Fannie Mae. In his legal career, he practiced at the international law firm of O’Melveny &; Myers handling complex class action litigation, and served as partner and global practice group chair in the Law Firm of Latham & Watkins.

• APA Presidential Taskforces (for Drs. Schwartz, Geller, and Brendel) and Chair of the Future of Psychiatry Task Force. Routinely engaged as a spokesperson for the APA on a variety of topics.
• Member of the Committee on Psychiatric Dimensions of Disasters on COVID-19 (2020-2021).
• Lectured and consulted nationally and internationally, authored/coauthored over 180 peer reviewed articles, book chapters, and commentaries.Senior editor of the Oxford Textbook of Correctional Psychiatry, which received the 2016 Guttmacher Award.
• Past Chair and current board member of the American Hospital Association’s Committee. Secretary/Treasurer of the American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry.
• Serves on the Board of the Bradley Free Clinic in Roanoke VA and is Chair of its Behavioral Health Committee. Sits on the Western Virginia Division of the US District Drug Court as the Expert Medical Consultant.
• Professional interests = mental health services research and the treatment of people with severe mood and personality disorders.

She completed her training in the Harvard Medical School programs, first as a resident at Cambridge Hospital and then at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital as chief resident, followed by a two-year clinical and research fellowship in Women’s Psychiatry. As a part of her role on the President’s Special Advisory Council on Women at Harvard, she founded and directed the Harvard University Center for Parenting.

Dr. Van Niel’s clinical work has been in general psychiatry and all aspects of women’s psychiatry, including as a member of the Brigham staff; as director of psychiatry at a community health center and a day treatment trauma program; and as chief psychiatric consultant to the Diocese of Massachusetts.

Dr. Van Niel was elected president of the APA Women’s Caucus where she served from 2016 through 2021. In 2016 Dr. Van Niel was the first psychiatrist appointed to the Multidisciplinary Steering Committee of the U.S. Dept of HHS Women’s Preventive Services Initiative (WPSI). During 2020, Dr. Van Niel was elected chair of the APA Minority and Underrepresented (M/UR) Committee, where she and her colleagues have developed materials to address racial discrimination in all areas of medicine. Dr. Van Niel also has been passionate about the work of the APA Foundation, serving as an ambassador and contributor from 2016 through 2020. Dr. Van Niel also is a prolific writer whose peer-reviewed articles have appeared in media outlets throughout the country.

• APAF Co-Chair for the Judges and Psychiatrists Leadership Initiative.
• Professor and Chair of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Morehouse School of Medicine. Honored as Psychiatry and Faculty of the Year (2015). Adjunct Faculty at Emory University School of Medicine.
• Past President of the Georgia Council on Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Treasurer of the Georgia Psychiatric Physicians Association.
• Speaker at national conferences including the APA Annual Meeting, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Annual Meeting, and The National Urban League Annual Meeting. Received numerous awards in recognition of her service and leadership including the University of Florida College of Medicine Outstanding Young Alumna Award and the APA Jeanne Spurlock Minority Fellowship Alumna Achievement Award.
• Professional interests = adult, child & adolescent, and forensic psychiatry.

Zobrist had a successful career at Olivet Nazarene for his first three collegiate years and transferred to Dallas Baptist University for his senior year where he graduated with a degree in Communications. Zobrist has established himself as one of the most versatile players in the league, having started at every position on the field except for pitcher and catcher.

Career highlights:

• 2016 World Series MVP with the Chicago Cubs
• Back-to-back World Series champion (2016, 2015)
• Drove in game-winning run in the 10th inning during Game 7 of the 2016 World Series
• Led the Cubs in hits (10) during 2016 World Series
• Ranked first in 2015 MLB post-season for runs (15)
• Ranked third in the 2015 AL post season for batting average (.303)
• Three-time All-Star (2016. 2013, 2009)
• Selected to play for Team USA in the 2013 World Baseball Classic H
• Ranked top 10 in the American League for doubles during the 2011 and 2012 seasons
• Awarded Player of the Week in May 2011
• Baseball Writers Association of America (Tampa Bay Chapter) named Zobrist as the 2009 MVP of the Rays
• Rays honored Zobrist with the Heart and Hustle award in 2011 and 2012
• Played in his first World Series with the Rays in 2008
• Received INT Player of the Week in August 2008
• Drafted in the 6th round in the 2004 MLB draft by the Houston Astros and was traded to the Rays in July of 2006

Given that Ben Zobrist’s resume reflects his career as a professional baseball player, he also provided this personal statement about his background and interest in mental health awareness:

“Hello, my name is Ben Zobrist. I’m 38 yrs. of age with a wife and three young children and currently unemployed thankfully by choice! I’m known to most people as a former Major League Baseball player, 3x All-Star, 2x World Series Champion, And World Series MVP for the Chicago Cubs in 2016. In the baseball world, people know me as one of the first Super-utility players in the game.

Those who know me personally know that I’m just a small town midwestern kid who had a passion for sports and blue-collar work ethic combined with competitive focus that has driven me to succeed at the highest levels of professional sport. Throughout my playing career, I actively pursued public speaking engagements to youth and faith communities. I have always loved to inspire people toward change in areas of personal and community health, healing and growth. More recently, mental and emotional health have become a research passion of mine due to my own personal struggles with a high-profile career filled with daily performance pressure.

In the last few years of my playing career, I launched a charitable non-profit called Patriot Forward that existed to help young minor league baseball families navigate the pressure of the performance life. We have been helping mentor around 25 young players and their families through a very transitional time of life.

I am entering into my first official year of retirement from baseball since I was 5 years old so I’m in quite the transition myself right now, but so far I’m excited about what’s next! I look forward to becoming more educated in the areas of mental, emotional, and relational health in the near future and I plan to use that education to continue speaking for the purpose of inspiring generations of people toward a more healthy and balanced life! In my downtime, I enjoy working out, reading, listening to podcasts, deep conversations, jumping on the trampoline with my kids, flying my drone, and generally re-organizing my life after being on the road for the last 15 years.”

Twitter: @benzobrist18

Instagram: @benzobrist18

She is the Founding Chair of the APA Caucus on Lifestyle Psychiatry, Chair of the 2025 APA Workgroup on Lifestyle Psychiatry, and a member of the APA Scientific Program Committee, and was honored with the APA Presidential Commendation Award in 2025. With a longstanding dedication to advancing the APA’s mission, Merlo has worked to both expand the concepts of medical professionalism and integrate evidence-based lifestyle approaches into psychiatry/nursing/medicine. Her work in the field of medical professionalism encompasses concepts such as spirituality, physician well-being, communication, and organizational issues, including the challenges faced by aging physicians. In lifestyle interventions, her work focuses on the bidirectional relationship between physical and mental health, the role of social determinants, and the application of behavioral medicine principles in psychiatric practice.

Merlo is an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM). She is the past Chair of ACLM’s Mental and Behavioral Health Member Interest Group and has contributed to both the 3rd and 4th editions of ACLM’s Board Review Course. In 2025, she received ACLM’s Health System/Agency Special Recognition Award.

She is the author of four academic books, including Lifestyle Psychiatry: Through the Lens of Behavioral Medicine(2023), which redefines the field by incorporating social and psychological dimensions of care. Her most recent work, Restack: A New Approach to Dismantle the Blocks Holding You Back, translates these ideas for a broader audience, promoting psychological flexibility and self-compassion.

Merlo brings to the APA Board nearly 30 years of experience in medical education, professional development, and clinician mental health. She has served on multiple nonprofit boards and remains deeply committed to advancing psychiatric leadership, innovation, and care through service to the APA.

As a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Merlo sees patients at NYU Langone Health’s Faculty Group Practice. She has nearly 30 years of experience in medical education, professional development, and clinician mental health. She has served on multiple nonprofit boards and especially enjoys helping to mentor the next generation of psychiatrists.

She is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (APA); active at both regional and national levels in leadership positions including President of the New Jersey Psychiatric Association (2009-2010) and Speaker of the APA Assembly (2017-2018), serving as a member of the APA Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees (2017-2018) and Vice-Chair of the Joint Reference Committee (2016-2017). She chaired the APA Board of Trustees Ad Hoc Workgroup (WG) on Insurance (2019) and contributed to APA Workgroups including the Spanish Language Communications WG (2021), Psychiatrist Well-being and Burnout WG (2017) and lnterprofessional Collaboration WG (2019). She is a member of the American College of Psychiatrists and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Dr. Miskimen centered her public sector clinical practice on improving access and delivery of psychiatric care to bilingual and bicultural communities, developing and implementing intercultural clinical programs, and, most recently, deploying a hybrid model of care during the COVID-pandemic. Her clinical work has informed her research endeavors, resulting in numerous articles and lectures concerning diagnostic challenges and symptom phenomenology when treating racial and ethnically diverse populations, ethical issues affecting psychopharmacological research among ethnic populations, and cultural aspects of patient symptomatology.

Dr. Miskimen has served in numerous community-facing initiatives and appointed positions under three past Governors of the State of New Jersey addressing mental health issues spanning the intersection of technology and the delivery of psychiatric care, mental health in university settings, and youth suicide prevention.

She is a past Secretary General of the American Society of Hispanic Psychiatry and was an advisor and presenter to the internationally recognized "Changing Minds, Advancing Mental Health for Hispanics" project. She serves as a Delegate of the APA to the American Medical Association Section Council on Psychiatry and is a member of the Steering Committee to the American Academy of Pediatrics Wellness through Equity and Leadership (WEL) program, tasked to develop a training curriculum and leadership experience for woman physicians, mentor participants, and establish principles on equitable work environments.

For over 30 years, Dr. Miskimen has brought forth her passion and expertise to critical roles including psychiatric clinical care, patient advocacy, community outreach, academic endeavors, and organizational leadership, and is committed to continuing her contributions in years to come.

For more than three decades, he has worked to ensure that psychiatry is seen not only as a medical discipline but as a field that shapes public life. His path has taken him from inpatient wards where the most ill patients were treated, to courtrooms where questions of responsibility were argued, to classrooms where the next generation of physicians were trained, and to national associations debating psychiatry’s future. At every stage, he has engaged with issues of equity, violence, and accountability, which remain central to his professional identity.

In his role as Assistant Dean for Community Engagement, Dr. Bailey builds connections between psychiatry and the communities that depend on it. In 2024, he became Academic Medical and Psychiatric Director of the New Orleans Correctional Justice Center’s Mental Health Services Unit, where he directs efforts to provide care in a setting that tests both clinical skill and institutional resolve.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Bailey practiced and taught in Houston. He led a schizophrenia inpatient service, supervised clinical trials in psychopharmacology, and developed a forensic practice that included both criminal and civil evaluations. Competency assessments, capital cases, and testimony on sexual offender laws were regular parts of his work. These experiences confirmed that psychiatry is not only a therapeutic profession but also a voice in law and policy.

In later years, his focus shifted toward leadership in academic medicine. He has chaired three departments of psychiatry during critical periods of growth and renewal. At Meharry Medical College, he strengthened psychiatric education within a historically Black medical school, where representation and training carried both scientific and cultural significance. At Wake Forest University, he created an Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship in 2017 at the height of the opioid epidemic, meeting an urgent need for specialists. At Louisiana State University, where he has served as chair since 2021, he has rebuilt programs, expanded faculty, and guided the department to Aesculapian Awards for teaching in 2024. Each appointment carried distinct challenges, but the aim was constant: to leave behind stronger programs than the ones he inherited.

Alongside his leadership responsibilities, Dr. Bailey has sustained a commitment to scholarship. He has authored 68 peer-reviewed academic articles in over 20 journals, addressing psychotic illness, mood disorders, forensic psychiatry, confidentiality, risk management, and the psychiatric consequences of incarceration. He has also written on conditions affecting vulnerable groups, including ADHD in minority youth and postpartum depression. His books—Health Disparities (2013), Gun Violence: A Psychiatrist’s Perspective (2018), and Intimate Partner Violence: A Forensic Review (2020)—extend psychiatry into debates about inequity and violence. They reflect a career-long view that these problems are not peripheral to psychiatry but central to its mission.

• Virginia Commonwealth University Health System | Richmond, VA
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship 2nd year | PGY-4
• Professional interests: My professional interests are broad but currently include child and adolescent psychiatry, with specific interests in feeding and eating disorders, as well as public psychiatry, life-style psychiatry, and first break psychosis/mania. I am also interested in academia and medical education.
• Future goals: I dream to start a multi-disciplinary practice and care for patients with eating disorders. I also hope to advance our understanding of eating disorders through research and academia.
• Fun fact: I discovered a love for endurance running after moving to Virginia and ran 4 marathons.