Hello AWP Family,
From all of us at AWP, we send Happy New Year greetings as we ring in 2024! We are wishing this year will bring more hope, peace, and joy than the world saw last year. There has been immense suffering across the world and the unfortunate realization that the world, as a whole, is unable to easily solve these problems. Domestically, many of us wait with nervous anticipation about the upcoming elections and their consequences. We weep and are saddened by legislation that is seemingly moving us backwards in terms of women’s reproductive rights and targeting transgender people, whom we know from a mental health perspective to be the most vulnerable. We are heartened and encouraged by the next generation of trainees, who are equally disturbed by these issues and have sought out mentorship, support, and guidance at AWP. In reviewing the applications for AWP awards, led by AWP Awards Chair Dr. Misty Richards from our Executive Council, we have so many outstanding trainees—we are in awe of your accomplishments and look forward to all that you will be contributing to our field in the future. We are proud of your commitment and the work that you have already done for women, improving women’s health, and in reproductive psychiatry, and we encourage you to continue in these endeavors. You are the leaders of tomorrow!
In these challenging times, we hope AWP will be a place where we can all come together, supporting each other, and working towards common goals. We hope to be a place of shelter and refuge from stress and pain, and be a place where we all come up for air together, sigh, take a deep breath, and re-focus on what matters.
We currently have wonderful trainees who are seeking mentorship, advice, and guidance as they navigate their medical training and navigate their way through life. Please join us in our monthly AWP Mentorship/Networking Meetings to meet some of these amazing young people, chaired by Dr. Reid Mergler from our Executive Council. They are consistently going to be every 4th Thursday of the month, 4-5pm Pacific/7-8pm EST, so please mark your calendars.
We are also calling all artists to submit artwork in re-designing AWP’s logo after 40 years, an effort led by Dr. Ruby Puentes-Castilla from our Executive Council. The deadline is March 1st and comes with a $500 award. Please help us spread the word and let your psychiatrist artist friends and trainees know about AWP’s Logo Contest! More details are in this newsletter.
Finally, we hope to see many of you in NYC at the APA Meeting this year. As a reminder, the meeting is May 4-8 and our Annual AWP Meeting will be on Tuesday May 7th in the late afternoon spanning into early evening. We cannot wait to see our AWP family in person this year!
I’d like to thank our new AWP Newsletter Editors and congratulate Dr. Maryam Zulfiqar (AWP Newsletter Editor) and Dr. Komal Trivedi (AWP Newsletter Associate Editor) on their first edition of the newsletter. Thank you for all your hard work, we so appreciate it! We also could not have this Newsletter organized so beautifully without the amazing work of Frances Bell, AWP’s Executive Director. Thank you, Frances, we are very grateful for you!
Amy Alexander, M.D.
AWP President
