Washington, D.C. — American Psychiatric Association members have selected Rahn Kennedy Bailey, M.D., as the organization’s president-elect. Bailey is a board-certified psychiatrist whose career spans clinical care, forensic practice, academic leadership, and national advocacy. He is currently Assistant Dean for Health Equity at Louisiana State University Health Science Center (LSUHSC, New Orleans) and Psychiatric Medical Director of Orleans Parish Criminal Justice Center.

For more than three decades, Bailey has worked in inpatient wards, courtrooms, classrooms and national associations to ensure that psychiatry is seen not only as a medical discipline but as a field that shapes public life. He has engaged with issues of equity, violence, and accountability, which remain central to his professional identity.

“Psychiatry is not only a therapeutic profession but also a voice in law and policy,” said Bailey. “I am grateful to my fellow APA members for electing me to this position in this very pivotal time in our world. I look forward to what we will achieve together in the coming years.”

“It will be excellent to welcome Dr. Bailey to the APA leadership,” said APA CEO and Medical Director Marketa M. Wills, M.D., M.B.A. “He has been such a stalwart over the years in his steadfast devotion to psychiatry, to advocacy, and to APA, and I’m looking forward to collaborating with him and all of our newly elected candidates as they assume their roles this May.” Early in his career, 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.

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. At Wake Forest University, he created an Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship in 2017 at the height of the opioid epidemic. At Louisiana State University, where he became chair in 2021, he has rebuilt programs, expanded faculty, and guided the department to Aesculapian Awards for teaching in 2024.

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. 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.

Bailey is a Distinguished Fellow of the APA, and, among other accolades, has also been recognized with the organization’s Chester Pierce Resident Research Award (1995), Solomon Carter Fuller Award (2024), and Presidential Commendation (2025). He also served as president of the National Medical Association in 2012-13 and is currently president of the Black Psychiatrists of America.

Bailey’s term as president-elect will begin this May at the conclusion of the APA Annual Meeting, when current President-Elect Mark Rapaport, M.D., begins his one-year term as president.

Other newly elected members of APA’s Board of Trustees include:

• Treasurer: Gia Merlo, M.D., M.B.A., M.Ed.
• Trustee-at-Large: Vincenzo Di Nicola, M.Phil., M.D., Ph.D.
• Area 2 Trustee: David Roane, M.D.
• Area 5 Trustee: Heather Hauck, M.D., M.B.A.
• Resident-Fellow Member Trustee-Elect: Karthik V. Sarma, M.D., Ph.D.

The results of the election are not official until the APA Board of Trustees confirms them at its March meeting.

American Psychiatric Association

The American Psychiatric Association, founded in 1844, is the oldest medical association in the country. The APA is also the largest psychiatric association in the world with more than 39,200 physician members specializing in the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and research of mental illnesses. APA's vision is to ensure access to quality psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. For more information, please visit www.psychiatry.org.