Michael A. Norko, MD, associate professor of psychiatry, has assumed the office of President of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL).
Norko was elected President-elect at the academy’s semi-annual meeting in May, and assumed the presidency in October at the 47th annual meeting in Portland, Ore.
AAPL is an organization of psychiatrists dedicated to excellence in practice, teaching, and research in forensic psychiatry. It promotes scientific and educational activities in forensic psychiatry by facilitating the exchange of ideas and practical clinical experience through publications and regularly scheduled national and regional meetings.
Norko will preside over the President’s meeting in February, when budget and planning decisions will be made. He will then run the meetings of AAPL’s executive council in May and October.
Among his many responsibilities, Norko will make member appointments to the academy’s 31 committees, and will respond to any challenges or opportunities that present themselves to the membership.
He has tapped Reena Kapoor, MD, associate professor of psychiatry at Yale and associate program director of Yale’s Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship, to be Program Chair for AAPL’s 2017 annual meeting in Denver. The theme for the meeting will be “The Search for Truth.”
I hope we will be adding new ranks to our membership through this initiative and that new ideas, relationships, and activities will develop out of this expansion in the coming years.
Michael A. Norko, MD, associate professor of psychiatry
Norko said his priority is to encourage more front-line correctional psychiatrists to join AAPL and attend the Denver meeting through what he is calling the “Corrections Initiative.”
“We will be adding a special track of corrections relevant presentations on the Saturday program” at the Denver meeting, Norko said in a statement. “I hope to convey the idea that the work done by correctional psychiatrists is largely the same work done by community and hospital psychiatrists – this is the contemporary public sector practice. We need to connect with each other so that no one feels isolated or that they have to cope with the challenges of this practice alone.”
Norko also wants to use various forms of communication, including social media, to help AAPL members network.
“I hope we will be adding new ranks to our membership through this initiative and that new ideas, relationships, and activities will develop out of this expansion in the coming years,” he said.
Norko is at least the fourth Yale Department of Psychiatry affiliate to be President of AAPL. He follows Howard Zonana, Ezra Griffith and Robert Phillips in that role.