Saul M. Levin is a South African

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

and business executive who works in the United States. He has worked in private consulting and in government administration. Since 2013, he has been the CEO and medical director of the

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are invo ...

Education

Levin was born in South Africa and received his medical degree from the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

in 1982. He then moved to the United States to complete a

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgrad ...

in psychiatry at

UC Davis Medical Center UC Davis Medical Center is part of UC Davis Health and a major academic health center located in Sacramento, California. It is owned and operated by the University of California as part of its University of California, Davis campus. The medical c ...

. He completed a master's degree in public administration at the John F. Kennedy School of Government of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

in 1994.

Career

Between his qualification as a psychiatrist and his master's degree, Levin worked for the

United States Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...

, where he was the coordinator of a program for the

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA; pronounced ) is a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is charged with improving the quality and availability of treatment and rehabilitative services ...

. When he finished his master's degree, he founded a healthcare

consulting firm A consulting firm or simply consultancy is a professional service firm that provides expertise and specialised labour for a fee, through the use of consultants. Consulting firms may have one employee or thousands; they may consult in a broad range ...

, Access Consulting International, which he headed for ten years. He then served as the president and CEO of Medical Education for South African Blacks, a U.S.-based charitable trust that offered scholarships to black South African healthcare students. He also served as the Vice President for Science, Medicine and Public Health in the

American Medical Association The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. Founded in 1847, it is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was approximately 240,000 in 2016. The AMA's sta ...

. In July 2012,

Vincent C. Gray Vincent Condol Gray (born November 8, 1942) is an American politician who served as the mayor of the District of Columbia from 2011 to 2015. He served for one term, losing his bid for reelection in the Democratic primary to D.C. Council member M ...

, then

Mayor of the District of Columbia The mayor of the District of Columbia is the head of the executive branch of the government of the District of Columbia, in the United States. The mayor has the duty to enforce district laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed ...

, appointed Levin as interim director of the District of Columbia Department of Health. A year later, in mid-2013, Levin was named the CEO and medical director of the

(APA); since joining the association in 1987 he had served on several APA committees.

Personal life

Levin is openly gay. His appointment as the CEO and medical director of the APA made him the first openly gay person to hold the position, and possibly the first openly gay person to lead an American national medical specialty society.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levin, Saul Living people American Psychiatric Association Harvard Kennedy School alumni LGBT people from South Africa LGBT physicians South African chief executives South African psychiatrists University of the Witwatersrand alumni Year of birth missing (living people)