Who We Are

Our Executive Committee

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  Gin Malhi

  President

  Australia

  Gin 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.

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  Trisha Suppes

  Immediate Past President

  US

  Trisha 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. 

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  Erika Saunders

  Vice President of Governance

  US

  Erika 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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  Andrew Nierenberg

  Vice President of Research

  US

  Andrew Nierenberg

  Dr. Andrew Nierenberg  has been at the Massachusetts General Hospital since 1992, where he holds his current positions. He is also Honorary Professor in the School of Medicine, Faculty of Health at Deakin University, Geelong Australia.

  Dr. Nierenberg has published over 500 papers and has been listed in The Best Doctors in America for the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders in every edition since 1994. In 2000, he was awarded the Gerald L. Klerman Young Investigator Award and in 2014 the Gerald L. Klerman Senior Investigator Award by the Depression Bipolar Support Alliance. In 2013, Dr. Nierenberg was awarded the prestigious Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Colvin Prize for outstanding achievement in mood disorders research. In 2014, he was awarded the Mentorship Award for Exceptional Mentorship in the Research Arena at MGH. In 2014, 2015, and 2016 he was listed among the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds by Thompson Reuters in recognition of ranking among the top 1% of researchers for most cited papers in psychiatry worldwide.

   Dr. Nierenberg’s primary interests are bipolar depression and novel treatments. He lectures extensively, teaches, supervises, and mentors junior faculty, has an active clinical practice, consults to industry, and conducts clinical trials funded by federal, foundation, industry, and philanthropic sources. He serves as a peer reviewer for over 35 psychiatric journals. Dr. Nierenberg is a member of the editorial boards of over 15 journals and is the editor of Psychiatric Annals and is a deputy editor of Depression and Anxiety.

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  Ralph Kupka

  Vice-President of Education

  The Netherlands

  Ralph 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 Outreach

  Canada

  Erin Michalak

  Dr. Michalak is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, Program Director for the APEC Digital Hub for Mental Health and the Patient Engagement Methods Clusters Lead for the BC SUPPORT Unit. Her background is in psychology, with a PhD awarded from the University of Wales College of Medicine in the United Kingdom. Her research expertise lies in eHealth/mHealth, patient engagement in research, knowledge translation, mood disorders, quality of life, and implementation science.

  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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  Holly Swartz

  Treasurer

  USA

  Holly 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.  

Board of Directors

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  Annemiek Dols

  Board Member

  Europe

  Annemiek 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 Member

  Latin America

  Beny 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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  Greg Murray

  Board Member

  Oceania

  Greg Murray

  Professor Greg Murray has an international reputation for clinical psychology research, being ranked in the top 1% of researchers worldwide in the fields of bipolar disorders, circadian rhythms, personality and affect (Expertscape).  He has published more than 200 articles, chapters and books primarily on the conceptualisation, aetiology and psychological treatment of mood disorders (Scopus h factor = 34). His research has been supported by national competitive grants from NHMRC, CIHR, philanthropic and industry funders (total career funding > $12.4 million).  After a first career in music, he took out his PhD from University of Melbourne in 2001, and has been a full Professor at Swinburne University in Melbourne since 2011.  

  Professor Murray’s work has had significant translational impact. He wrote the Australian Psychological Society guidelines for treating bipolar disorder, is an author on the influential Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists mood disorder guidelines (Malhi et al, 2015 > 450 cites), and a contributor to the bipolar disorder chapter of the forthcoming DSM-5-TR. Professor Murray is Deputy Lead of CREST.BD, an international research network studying psychosocial issues in bipolar disorder.  He has won multiple individual awards for teaching and research impact, completed 25 doctoral students, and provided professional development workshops for hundreds of psychologists and psychiatrists across Australia and overseas. He is a practicing clinical psychologist, and Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society.  Current leadership roles in Australia include Director,  Swinburne’s Centre for Mental Health and Chair, Research Review Committee of Orygen. He is Patron of Bipolar Life, an Australian community organisation providing peer support groups for people with bipolar disorder.

  Much of Professor Murray’s work has been conducted through the International Society for Bipolar Disorders, and he has been a member since 2004.  He has presented at seven ISBD conferences, and chaired symposia at four. He has published frequently in Bipolar Disorders, and has been on the journal’s senior editorial board since 2017. He has played an active role in three ISBD Task Forces (Community Engagement, Chronobiology, and Early Intervention).

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  Katherine Burdick

  Board Member

  North America
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  Koji Matsuo

  Board Member

  Asia
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  Mauricio Tohen

  Board Member

  North America
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  Michael Berk

  Board Member

  Oceania
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  Manuel Sanchez de Carmona

  Board Member

  Latin America

Our Staff

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  Mary Miller, MSW

  Program Manager

  USA

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  Chad Daversa

  Executive Director

  USA

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