ISBD Board of Directors
Our Executive Committee
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Holly Swartz
PresidentUSAHolly Swartz
Dr. Holly A. Swartz is professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She completed her psychiatric residency training at New York Hospital / Cornell University School of Medicine. She is currently the Secretary/Treasurer of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD), Immediate Past-President of the International Society for Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IsIPT), Scientific Program Chair for the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Psychopharmacology (ASCP), and Editor of the American Journal of Psychotherapy.
Dr. Swartz's research focuses on understanding and optimizing psychosocial and pharmacologic interventions for mood disorders. She is well known for her work in evaluating Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) and Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy (IPSRT) as treatments for depression and bioplar disorder. Her research focuses on the role of IPSRT and pharmacotherapy in the management of bipolar II depression and IPT in the management of maternal depression, both in the perinatal period and in the context of high-risk families with psychiatrically ill offspring. Currently, she is developing and testing an online version of IPSRT for treating bipolar disorder in primary care. She is also working on a project to develop a novel computational framework to model dyadic interpersonal behaviors in relation to psychotherapy (IPT and CBT) process and outcomes.
Dr. Swartz has received grant support from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the Depression and Bipolar Alternative Treatment Foundation, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD). She is the author or co-author of over 100 peer reviewed or invited publications and is the recipient of numerous awards including a New Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit (NCDEU) New Investigator Award from NIMH and the Gerald L. Klerman Young Investigator Award from the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. Her publication on brief psychotherapy for maternal depression was cited among the Top 10 NARSAD Advancements of Breakthroughs for 2016.
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Jair Soares
TreasurerUSAJair Soares
Dr. Jair C. Soares joined UTHealth Houston in 2009 as Professor and Chair of the department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and the Pat Rutherford Chair is Psychiatry at the McGovern Medical School, as well as the Executive Director of UTHealth Harris County Psychiatric Center. Since 2022, he also serves as the Executive Director of the UTHealth John S. Dunn Behavioral Health Sciences Center, as well as the Vice-President for Behavioral Health Sciences at UTHealth Houston. A Board-certified psychiatrist, he oversees the Psychiatric Services at Memorial Herrmann Hospital and LBJ Hospital. The sites provide patient care and are clinical training and research facilities for the UTHeath medical students, psychiatry residents and psychiatry fellows.
Dr. Soares directs the UTHealth Center of Excellence on Mood Disorders which focuses on the search for causes and the development of new treatments for mood disorders. The Center is comprised of an active research team that specializes in clinical neurosciences (neuroimaging, neurophysiology, cognitive neurosciences, and genetics) and clinical psychopharmocology and interventions research.
Dr. Soares received his medical degree from the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) and completed a general psychiatric residency at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh. Subsequently, Dr. Soares completed a brain imaging fellowship at the Yale University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry. He obtained a PhD in medical sciences at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil).
Prior to joining UTHealth, Dr. Soares served at the Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Center of Excellence for Research and Treatment of Bipolar Disorders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and as Deputy Chair for Research and Division Chief for Mood and Anxiety Disorders with the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Dr. Soares has published more than 350 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in the psychiatric literature and has held editorial positions on a number of national and international medical journals. His research has been funded over the years by multiple grants from NIH, VA, private foundations and the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Soares is a past President for the American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry, and the International Society on Affective Disorders. He currently serves as Vice-President for the National Network of Depression Centers (NNDC). Since April 2015, he has been the co-editor in chief for the Jounral of Affective Disorders Reports, which was launched in 2020. He serves in the executive council, finance committee and in the travel award committee for the International Society for Clinical Trials Methodology (ISCTM).
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Ayal Schaffer
Vice President of ResearchCanadaAyal Schaffer
Dr. Schaffer is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, Head of Mood & Anxiety Disorders Program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, in addition to serving as Deputy Psychiatrist-in-Chief and Research Lead in the Department of Psychiatry. He has been a Staff Psychiatrist since 2002, with a clinical practice focused on the treatment of bipolar disorder in both outpatient and inpatient settings.
In addition to his core academic and clinical roles, he serves as the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, as an Editorial Board Member of Bipolar Disorders Journal, as VP Outreach of the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT), and on a number of grant review boards, including the Canadian Institute of Health Research Health Services Evaluation and Interventions Research Committee, and as Co-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the University of British Columbia Institute of Mental Health.
Dr. Schaffer's main areas of interest within psychiatry have been the epidemiology and management of bipolar disorder, and evaluating suicide risk assessment and prevention strategies in bipolar disorder and the general population. He has published widely in these areas (over 160 peer-reviewed publications), and has recieved numerous awards and acknowledgements for research and teaching on these topics, including a keynote presentation on suicide prevention at the ISBD conference in Chicago where he received the 2023 Mogens Schou Award for Education and Teaching.
He has been involved in a leardership capacity with many local, national and international organizations. These have spanned the range of academic hospital based departmental senior administrative roles, leadership of hospital-wide quality improvement projects, being principle investigator of many research projects in bipolar disorder and suicide, memberships on the Board of national research networks, international advocacy groups, and several non-for-profits.
Dr. Schaffer previously served as ISBD Vice President Education (2016-2018), during which time he worked closely with ISBD President Dr. Manuel Sanchez de Carmona to develop the ISBD Education brand and content, focusing on a revitalized website with patient and clinician educational materials in multiple languages, video vignettes with updates from leaders in the field, and the inauguration of several one-day ISBD educational events in Latin America. Dr. Schaffer was Chair of the ISBD Task Force on Suicide which successfully published 3 key papers in the field. He is also a member of the Cognition Task Force and has been a member of numerous ISBD Committees.
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Erika Saunders
Vice President of GovernanceUSErika Saunders
When I began my research career nearly 20 years ago, there was a consensus in the field that patients with schizophrenia had significant cognitive impairment and that these symptoms had a direct impact upon quality of life and psychosocial functioning. At the same time, it was largely held that patients with bipolar disorder did not suffer from such impairments and if cognitive deficits presented, they were merely secondary to acute affective pathology remitting when the manic and depressive symptoms were controlled.
My very early focus on cognition in bipolar disorder set me apart from many neuropsychologists in psychiatry and set the stage for subsequent progress in understanding neurocognition in mood disorders. My dissertation was based upon an early observation that patients with bipolar disorder reported ongoing cognitive problems despite affective remission. While there was little empirical evidence of this at that time, the field has grown exponentially in the past 15 years to reach a point of fully acknowledging cognitive dysfunction as 1) present; 2) functionally relevant; and 3) a treatment target in bipolar disorder.
While my work has been supplemented by many other investigators, I was one of the first to focus my career on this problem and have in many ways been a leader in this area. I co-edited the first book published on this topic in 2008. There is much still to accomplish in understanding cognition in bipolar patients but the past decade has seen considerable advances and we continue to move to an even broader goal of studying these disabling symptoms across the full range of major mental illnesses including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and more recently major depressive disorder.
The clinical relevance of this work is clear; cognitive impairment is among the most consistent predictors of community function and quality of life. Prevention and intervention efforts are critical for full recovery.
My interest in participating on the ISBD Board of Directors stems from a genuine passion for research and academic endeavor. I was drawn to the study of bipolar illness as soon as I was exposed to the field; a focus that has endured and strengthened over time. My career goal is to promote research in this area on every level and I believe I have the leadership skills necessary to help guide ISBD in this manner.
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Ralph Kupka
Vice-President of EducationThe NetherlandsRalph Kupka
Ralph Kupka, M.D., PhD, received his medical and psychiatric training at the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and was a university teacher at the same medical faculty from 1990 to1995. As a clinical psychiatrist, he started a mood disorders clinic in the department of psychiatry. Subsequently, he worked as a clinical and research psychiatrist at the University Medical Center of Utrecht, the Netherlands, and was director of the Psychiatric Residency Training Program and the Bipolar Disorders Program at the Altrecht Institute for Mental Health Care in Utrecht, until 2010.
In 2010 he was appointed as professor of psychiatry, especially bipolar disorders, at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam. Next to his research and teaching activities, he is currently working as a consultant psychiatrist at the bipolar disorders outpatient programs of two large mental health care institutions: GGZinGeest in Amsterdam, and Altrecht Institute for Mental Health Care in Utrecht.
Ralph Kupka has always had a special interest in nature, longitudinal course, and pharmacological and psychological treatment of major mood disorders. He was one of 2 principal investigators of the Stanley Foundation Bipolar Network, a collaboration of seven academic centres in the United States, the Netherlands and Germany from 1995 to 2002. He received his PhD-graduation on a series of clinical and immunological studies of rapid cycling bipolar disorder. He authored and co-authored numerous articles and book chapters on mood disorders. He was editor-in-chief of the first Dutch Handbook of Bipolar Disorders, published in 2008, and currently chairman of the Dutch Guideline Committee for Bipolar Disorders. Working closely together with patients and their families throughout his career, in 2010 he became an honorary member of the Dutch Patient Association for Bipolar Disorder (plusminus).
Since 2004, he is co-founder and president of the Dutch Foundation of Bipolar Disorders (www.kenbis.nl), a network of clinical and academic institutes throughout the Netherlands devoted to treatment and research of bipolar disorder, and since 2013 the official Chapter of ISBD in the Netherlands. He been an active ISBD-member since 2001 and has been part of various committees (membership & chapter committee; educational committee) and task forces. He is currently co-chairing the Staging Taskforce. His current affiliation, VU University in Amsterdam, hosted the successful ISBD-ISAD international conference in 2016.
Since 2014 he is member of the International Group for the Study of Lithium-treated patients (IGSLi) (www.igsli.org), organizing their yearly international conference in Amsterdam in 2019. Next to his various activities in the field of mood disorders, he is a board member and vice-president of the Dutch Institute for Quality of Mental Health Care (www.akwaggz.nl).
Throughout his career, Ralph Kupka has had a strong affinity with education, starting during his medical studies as a teacher in practical anatomy, during his psychiatric residency in the coaching of medical students, and after being licensed as a clinical psychiatrist in the education of students in medicine and psychology. He was director of psychiatric residency training in Utrecht, The Netherlands, from 2004 to 2010, and was appointed professor in 2010 in Amsterdam. As such, he is responsible for the introductory courses in psychiatry for first-year medical students and participates in the psychiatric curriculum of subsequent years. One of the main aims of the Dutch Foundation of Bipolar Disorders is spreading state-of-the-art knowledge among practising clinicians to improve the standard of care.
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Erin Michalak
Vice President of Global OutreachCanadaErin Michalak
Dr. Michalak’s research has been well supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, and other funders. She is the founder and leader of the ‘Collaborative RESearch Team for the study of psychosocial issues in Bipolar Disorder’ (CREST.BD), a CIHR-funded Canadian network dedicated to collaborative research and knowledge exchange in bipolar disorder. She has published over 100 scientific articles and several books and book chapters.
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Gin Malhi
Immediate Past PresidentAustraliaGin Malhi
Gin S. Malhi is Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine at The University of Sydney in Australia. He Heads the Academic Department of Psychiatry at Royal North Shore Hospital where he is Director of the CADE Clinic, a specialist mood disorders clinic, and works full time as a clinician in a large, busy, teaching hospital. In addition to his medical qualifications he holds a degree in pharmacology and is a Fellow of both the Australian and British Royal Colleges of Psychiatry.
Dr. Malhi has held leadership positions for national and international professional organisations including serving as President of the Australasian chapter of the International Society of Bipolar Disorders and is currently editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry and Bipolar Disorders, (the official journal of the ISBD). In the past he has also served as the Editor-in-chief of Acta Neuropsychiatrica. In addition to these leadership roles, he also sits on the editorial boards of a number of prestigious journals including, for example, the British Journal of Psychiatry, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica and the Journal of Affective Disorders.
In 2018, Dr. Malhi was listed in the Clarivate Analytics reports as one of the most highly cited researchers (publications with top 1% of citations) in psychiatry in the world - based on research publications. In his research, Dr Malhi has employed neuroimaging, neurocognitive testing and genetics, and his major areas of research interest include investigating the phenomenology and neurobiology of bipolar disorder and major depression, and the identification of treatments for these illnesses. Dr. Malhi’s work has been funded primarily by peer reviewed funding agencies such as the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, the Australian Rotary Health research fund, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the Australian Research Council.
Dr. Malhi has a Google Scholar h-index of 81 and he has published over 500 papers in peer reviewed international journals including high impact journals such as The Lancet, The Lancet Psychiatry, Molecular Psychiatry, American Journal of Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, and British Journal of Psychiatry. He has edited over a dozen books and written more than 20 book chapters, contributing most recently to the Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry on the prevention of mood disorders. In 2017, in conjunction with two co-editors, he published a comprehensive textbook on the use of lithium in mood disorders and is currently revising a successful pocketbook on bipolar disorders for clinicians. In addition to editing journal supplements and publishing books on bipolar disorder, in 2015 he chaired the development of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) guidelines for the treatment of mood disorders.
Dr. Malhi is a sought-after speaker and has presented his research and clinical work at numerous international conferences. As a consequence, he has received a number of awards during his career including the RANZCP Senior Academic Researcher Prize, the RANZCP College Citation, the ISBD Mogen Schou Award for Education and Teaching, and The University of Sydney Distinguished Professorial Achievement Award. He has also been recognised locally for his contributions to the community with state-wide awards.
Dr. Malhi is a Board member of the RANZCP Foundation and also sits on the council of several consumer organisations e.g. the advisory committees of the International Bipolar Foundation and Bipolar Australia – so as to promote wellbeing of those with mental illness.
Board of Directors
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Annemiek Dols
Board MemberEuropeAnnemiek Dols
Dr. Dols is a psychiatrist and senior researcher at the VU Medical Center in Amsterdam. She oversees an evidence-based out-patient clinic for older patients with bipolar disorder, which provides specialized care for complext patients from all over the Netherlands. She has established and is following a cohort of over 200 patients with bipolar disorder to examine medical comorbidities, cognition, and social functioning across the lifespan. Building on her training in immunology, she has set up a biobank to examine neurobiological markers of illness. She has published widely on these topics, authoring or co-authoring over 100 publications.
She is well known to the ISBD community, serving as co-chair of the ISBD Task Force for Older Age Bipolar Disorder and serving as a member of the ISBD Taskforce on Cognition. With co-investigators Martha Sajatovic, Lisa Eyler and Soham Rej, Dr. Dols is a 2018 recipient of the inaugural ISBD Bowden Massey Award which is funding the project entitled "Global Aging and Geriatic Experiments in Bipolar Disorder Database."
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Beny Lafer
Board MemberLatin AmericaBeny Lafer
r. Lafer has dedicated his career to investigating pathophysiology and new treatments for bipolar disorder and improving care for those that suffer from this condition. He coordinates center of excellence in clinical care and research in bipolar disorder in Sao Paulo, Brazil. H has made many important contributions to advancing the vision and mission of the ISBD and some of his accomplishments are outlined below.
Dr. Lafer’s leadership was fundamental to creating the Brazilian Chapter of ISBD in 2004, the second international chapter. He was elected its first President and since then, has been a key player in maintaining its full mission with delivering lectures and seminars in almost all the activities of this national society. Under his influence, the ISBD created an award for young researchers in bipolar disorder, the Valentim Gentil Award, which has been a significant stimulus for the research in BD and for ISBD itself, attracting young scientists and psychiatrists to a prolific environment. At the end of his 2-year term, the chapter had 118 members, created a national research network in bipolar disorders and its own website to serve researchers, clinicians and advocate groups.
Dr. Lafer has been a member of the ISBD since its launch and supported the activities of the Society in diverse leadership roles. He had a key leadership role for the success of the ISDB meeting in São Paulo in 2010, with more than 1,100 registered delegates. Moreover, he was elected for the Board of Councillors on two separate occasions, participated in several Scientific Program Committees of the ISBD Conferences (São Paulo, Seoul, Toronto), ISBD Committees (Membership, Education Initiative, Chapter Development), and Taskforces (Diagnostic Guidelines, Mixed States, Antidepressant Use, Clinical Trials and Cognition). Finally, Dr. Lafer has been a member of Bipolar Disorders Journal Editorial Board since 2008.
Dr. Lafer established the first research program in Bipolar Disorders in Brazil in 1995 at the University of São Paulo Medical School. Under his influence, many other academic centers established research and clinical programs and the field of bipolar disorder research became one of the most productive in research in Psychiatry in Brazil. Thanks to this, the Brazilian scientific output and citations in BD is much higher compared with other major psychiatric disorders. Moreover, the teaching and dissemination of knowledge about Bipolar Disorder for Medical undergraduate students, residents, postdocs and clinicians have increased substantially. Finally, Dr. Lafer collaborated with families, caregivers and patients to start the first advocacy program in Brazil (ABRATA).
His talent and leadership in the field of education and training can be appreciated with his consistent mentoring of young and talented researchers, influencing a generation of psychiatrists and researchers not only in the development of skills for research, but also in the adoption of a highly cooperative and ethical behaviour. His skills and talent as a mentor surpassed national barriers and expanded to several international collaborations, especially by sending young researchers, PhD students and Post-Docs to programs at Harvard, Yale, Columbia University, University of Toronto and University of British Columbia. Due to a pioneer medical and PhD students exchange program established by the Brazilian and Canadian governments, Dr. Lafer was appointed in 2013 as a Visiting Adjunct Professor at University of Toronto, Canada.
His influence also could be noted in his participation in the development of evidence-based guidelines for the treatment of bipolar disorder, such as the Brazilian Guidelines for the Treatment of Bipolar Disorder and the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT-ISBD Guidelines).
For his dedication to ISBD, Dr. Beny Lafer was awarded with the 2018 ISBD Mogens Schou Award in Education. This was a way of ISBD to acknowledge his extraordinary dedication to education and his ability to inspire young researchers and society in the pursuit of better quality of life for those who suffer from bipolar disorder.
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Katherine Burdick
Board MemberNorth America -
Koji Matsuo
Board MemberAsia -
Tamsyn Van Rheenen
Board MemberOceania -
Trisha Suppes
Past PresidentNorth AmericaTrisha Suppes
Trisha Suppes, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stanford University School of Medicine, and Director of the Bipolar and Depression Research Program at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System in Palo Alto, California. Her areas of expertise and research include long-term treatment strategies for bipolar disorder and treatment of bipolar and major depression. She also has interest in the use of complementary medicine for the management of mood disorders. Among her research on mood disorders, Dr. Suppes’ work on lithium discontinuation in the early 1990s changed the way psychiatrists approach the treatment of bipolar disorder leading to the recommendation for patients with bipolar I disorder ongoing treatment is appropriate. More recent work on mixed hypomania contributed to the changes in DSM-5 on mixed states.
Dr. Suppes currently serves as the President for the International Society for Bipolar Disorders. She previously served two terms as the Secretary and Treasurere of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders. Dr. Suppes was a member of Mood Disorders workgroup and chair of the Bipolar Disorders subcommittee of the APA Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders 5 (DSM-5). She also served as co-chair of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs/Department of Defense work group on treatment guidelines for bipolar disorder. Additionally, she is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance and several editorial boards. She has authored or co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Suppes was named by Thomson Reuters in 2014, as one of “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds”. This distinction is given by publishing the largest number of articles that rank among those most frequently cited by researchers globally in 21 broad fields of science and social science during the previous decade.
Before moving to Stanford in June 2008, Dr. Suppes was the Director of the Bipolar Disorders Research Program at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Dr. Suppes earned her BA in human biology at Stanford University in Stanford, California, her Ph.D. in anatomy/physiology at the University of California at Los Angeles, and her M.D. at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire. After graduating, she completed her residency in adult psychiatry at McLean Hospital at Harvard Medical School in Belmont, Massachusetts. Her postdoctoral fellowship in neurology was conducted at Stanford University School of Medicine, and her clinical fellowship in psychiatry was conducted at McLean Hospital at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. She also completed a fellowship in neuroscience at Harvard Medical School. -
Manuel Sanchez de Carmona
Past PresidentLatin America -
Sara Schley
At-Large DirectorNorth AmericaSara Schley
I have lived with Bipolar II for over forty years. My first episode was at age 21 while I was a senior at Brown University who seemed to have it all. In what felt like a flip of a switch, it was as if an alien had abducted by brain. It was a tailspin into a living hell, and I was terrified. In the decades that followed, I suffered from a debilitating brain disorder. Like Persephone in the underworld, I was caught in the grip of a brutal force, a prisoner of the the darkness. I kept this mostly secret for forty years. I finally chose to tell my story - in a memoir, at ISBD, in a TEDx, and now a Documentary Film -- to do three things: save lives, end the stigma, and maximize healing for all.
Despite the vicissitudes of living with undiagnosed BD - it took 25 years to get my diagnosis of BD II -- I have somewhat miraculously had a successful career of over 30 years as an international business sustainability consultant. I switched my focus in 2021 to become a full-time mental health advocate. My personal and professional mission now is to end the stigma, save lives and optimize healing for people living with bipolar. In addition to loving my family and taking maximum care of myself, this is now my full-time commitment. Towards this end, I have published a memoir, BrainsStorm: From Broken to Blessed on the Bipolar Spectrum in 2022. Dr. Holly Swartz, who had not yet met me at the time, called this the "Kay Jamison for BDII." How did she know that was my aspiration.
Along with my partner, Director Bonnie Waltch and a fabulous team of collaborators (Holly Swartz, Jim Phelps, Gregg Martin, Devika Bhushan to name a few), I am presently making an educational documentary called Brainstorm, that is inspired by my memoir of the same name. Through the privilege of conducting research for Brainstorm, we have interviewed over 30 scientists, many of the ISBD members, with a goal of transmitting cutting-edge bipolar science and breakthrough treatments to our audience. In addition to a full-lengh broadcast, Brainstorm will include several short films designed for specific target audiences by interest group (Parent, PCPs, etc.) as well as by content area (Circadian Rhythyms, Metabolic Psychiatry, etc.). I mention this because through the process, I have gained an overview of what is current in the field, what's working, what's not, and what's on the horizon. Bottom line: there is hope!
ISBD was and is my first professional affiliation in the world of bipolar disorders. I first told my story publically at the ISBD conference in 2021 when Dr. Holly Swartz and Dr. Trisha Suppes invited me to join them as an "Expert by Experience" in one of their sessions. The ISBD term "Expert by Experience" was and is healing in itself as was the opportunity to be witnessed and so well received in sharing both the pain and the hope in my story.
In addition to ISBD, I presently work closely with CREST.BD (Dr. Erin Michalak) and BAN (Bipolar Action Network, Dr. Andy Nierenberg) and have positive working relationships with DBSA, IBPF, and Bipolar UK. I love to build partnerships and work in service of our common mission.
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Andrea Vassilev
At-Large DirectorNorth AmericaAndrea Vassilev
Andrea Vassilev is a doctor of psychology with nearly 30 years' experience living with bipolar. As a clinician/academic with lived experience, Dr. Vassilev brings a special perspective to both her professional and advocacy work. As a PWLE (person with lived experience), an outspoken advocate, and a psychology post-doctoral therapist specializing in bipolar, Dr. Vassilev is uniquely positioned to represent her community, bridge the gap between PWLE and professionals, and bring fresh ideas to the table for the betterment of the Society.
In 2023, Dr. Vassilev joined the ISBD Psychological Interventions task force, was a contributing author on their position paper, and served on the ExE planning committee. She went on to co-chair the 2024 and 2025 ExE committees, working tirelessly to coordinate proposals, presenters, and international lived experience speakers. In 2023, Dr. Vassilev proposed a lived experience board position to engage this perspective in the Society in original and innovative ways. Her experience empowers her to understand the profound challenges faced by her community while her clinical knowledge equips her to translate those experiences into actionable insights for the Society.
Dr. Vassilev, an award-winning mental health advocate, has long been committed to outreach work. She has been in Slate Magazine, bpHope, the LA Times, the International Bipolar Foundation, Bipolar UK, and many other outlets. She is also deeply committed to the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, having served on the Advisory Board and as Education Chair for the DBSA California and co-founding a peer support group for mental health clinicians with mood disorders. Dr. Vassilev serves on the Executive Committee for the WISE Initiative for Stigma Elimination. Her primary passion is the fight to eradicate stigma regarding mental health conditions and heal self-stigma in individuals living with these conditions.
Dr. Vassilev created an original program to address self-stigma specifically in bipolar called Overcoming Self-Stigma in Bipolar Disorder (www.ossibd.com). The program, the first of its kind, is being deployed in clinics across the world and translated into multiple foreign languages. The first mixed methods RCT shows significant and enduring improvement across a range of outcomes including self-stigma and self-esteem.
Dr. Vassilev is a therapist (registered psychological associate) in private practice in California, specializing in the psychological treatment of bipolar disorder. You can learn more about Dr. Vassilev at www.andreavassilev.com and keep up with her on her bipolar educational Instagram account @best.life.bipolar.
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Rebekah Huber
At-Large DirectorNorth AmericaRebekah Huber
I am an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University, and I recently joined the Center for Mental Health Innovation to launch my research program focused on advancing evidence-based care and suicide prevention for youth with mood disorders. My interest in joining the Board stems from a desire to advocate for early and midcareer (EMC) voices and perspectives and to further ISBD's vision of supporting the next generation of clinicians and researchers specializing in bipolar disorders. Serving on the ISBD Early and Mid-Career Committee (EMCC) has been a privilege; I am grateful for the opportunity to have been involved since its inception and was selected to co-lead during my second term.
During my initial term on the EMCC, I led the needs survey initiative aimed at identifying professional and career development needs for EMC clinicians and researchers in the field of bipolar disorders. Through this initiative, I chaired the EMCC Needs Survey Workgroup and led the development of a survey to assess the barriers to and facilitators of career development experienced by EMC individuals. The survey was disseminated internationally in five languages and completed by 300 individuals across 6 continents. We published two papers to summarize the activities of the EMCC (Huber et al., 2022) and the needs survey results (Sperry et al., 2023) and presented a symposium at the 2023 ISBD Conference (Huber et al., 2023). Findings from the needs survey have laid the foundation for our Manifesto (Douglas et al., 2024), outlining future initiatives and activities to support EMCs (Jiménez-Pavón et al., 2024; Fries et al., 2024).
I have also played a substantial role in the education and training initiative serving on the EMCC Conference Events Workgroup. We organized a mentoring workshop for the 2022 ISBD Conference featuring mentoring advice from Robert Post. The needs survey uncovered that EMCs faced challenges to the scientific writing and publishing, so we designed a workshop for the 2023 Conference that addressed components of publishing with insights from Professors Gin Malhi and Jair Soares. At the 2024 Conference, we hosted a grant writing workshop, which showcased experienced grant writers, reviewers, and representatives of funding agencies supporting bipolar disorder research. I am eager to continue expanding the education initiative by creating workshops, webinars, and resources to meet the training and education needs of EMC researchers and clinicians.
My vision for the EMCC aligns seamlessly with the strategic objectives of the ISBD Board, aiming to enhance the organization's capacity to support EMC researchers and clinicians. As a member of the ISBD Board of Directors, I will champion initiatives to broaden the reach and impact of these efforts including advocating for increased global representation to engage and support a diverse range of EMCs. I will continue to elicit feedback as a Board member to ensure that we are meeting the needs of EMCs in the field. I am eager to continue collaborating with EMCC members and stakeholders to drive forward our shared mission.
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ISBD is the leading international mood disorders conference focusing on bipolar disorders and other co-morbid psychiatric conditions. It is a world class platform for clinicians, scientists, and those with lived experience to come together to present and discuss the most up-to-date information on bipolar disorders.