Assembly Leaders, Past and Present, Celebrate the 100th Meeting of APA Assembly

“The Assembly is the voice of the members of APA,” said incoming APA President-elect and past Assembly Speaker Theresa Miskimen Rivera, M.D., during a session at APA’s Annual Meeting marking the 100th meeting of Assembly. “Being a member of the Assembly is like being a part of a family.”

The session brought together past and present Assembly leaders to discuss the growth in size and influence of the governing body that today includes 256 Assembly members from 71 district branches in seven Areas (Area 1 — Northeast; Area 2 — NY; Area 3 — Mid-Atlantic; Area 4 — Midwest; Area 5 — South; Area 6 — California; Area 7 — West.)

Current Speaker Vasilis Pozios, M.D., announced the collaboration of Assembly leaders with the Melvin Sabshin, M.D. Library and Archives to create an oral history of the Assembly. To date 10 past speakers have recorded their memories of participation in the Assembly: Jenny Boyer, M.D., Ann Sullivan, M.D., Gary Weinstein, M.D., Robert Benson, M.D., Robert Pasnau, M.D., Jeffrey Akaka, M.D., Lawrence Hartmann, M.D., Fred Gottlieb, M.D., Glenn Martin, M.D., and Daniel Anzia, M.D.

Deena Gorland, Ms.LIS., APA librarian and associate director of APA’s Archives, said the oral project will be online in the coming months.

“There are some revealing moments in these interviews, especially when people are talking about their personal experiences in the Assembly,” Pozios said. “It’s a living, breathing archive that will be an essential part of the Association’s history.”

Past Speaker Adam Nelson, M.D., shared a history of the Assembly. In 1925, APA President William A. White, M.D., urged the formation of national “sections” and “district societies,” which also included non-APA members. In 1936, the sections were abolished and changed to “affiliate societies,” requiring APA membership.

In 1952, the APA by-laws were amended to create the Assembly of District Branches (DBs), and affiliate societies were encouraged to become DBs to gain influence in governing the direction of APA. The first meeting of the Assembly of District Branches was held May 5, 1953, in Los Angeles; the first Assembly speaker was Joseph Abramson of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Leaders who gathered for the history session shared stories about their time in the Assembly. Incoming Area 4 Trustee Dionne Hart, M.D., who will step down as an Assembly representative from Minnesota after 13 years when she assumes her trustee position, said the composition of the governing body has grown significantly more diverse. And John McIntyre, M.D., recalled that the movement to create practice guidelines, which originally encountered resistance from some quarters, was born in the Assembly.

Past Speaker Donna Norris, M.D., spoke to the patient-centered spirit of Assembly members. “I was in the Assembly for more than 40 years,” she said. “When I was speaker, we invited people who were very instrumental in our careers to come to the Assembly and speak,” she recalled. “One of them was former U.S. Surgeon General Julius Richmond, M.D. I had timidly approached him about coming to the Assembly as my guest, and he immediately said ‘yes.’ One of the things he said to us that I never forgot was ‘Make sure you keep patients first.’

“We were having a lot of trouble with managed care at the time, but what he said stood out,” she continued. “That is what I tried to keep in mind and that is the spirit in which the Assembly has always worked.” ■