Hello All,
 
My name is Vandai Le, and it is my great pleasure to be selected as your new National Chair for PsychSIGN.  I would to like to introduce you to our new executive board for this year.  Below are the names and contact information of our board members.  If you have not already heard from your respective Regional Chair, you should receive an email from him/her soon.
 
National Chair:  Vandai Le  psychsign@gmail.com
Facilitator:  Karen Palaszynski  psychsignF@gmail.com
Region 1 Chair: Justin Chen  psychsignR1@gmail.com
Region 2 Chair:  Iman Parhami  psychsignR2@gmail.com
Region 3 Chair:  Lara Cox  psychsignR3@gmail.com
Region 4 Chair:  Ndidi Onyejiaka & Rina Crawford  psychsignR4@gmail.com
Region 5 Chairs:  Jessica Prowell & Landon Williams  psychsignR5@gmail.com
Region 6 Chairs:  Nabyl Tejani & Vandai Le  psychsignR6@gmail.com
Region 7 Chairs:  Kristin McArthur  psychsignR7@gmail.com
 
In case you forget to which region you belong:


Region 1 includes Ontario and Quebec
Region 5 includes Puerto Rico
Region 7 includes Western Canada, AK and HI
 
A BIG Thank You to all those who took the time and effort to attend our 3rd Annual PsychSIGN National Conference this year in Washington, D.C.  Thanks to your attendance and enthusiasm, our conference was a huge success!  For your reference, below is a recap of what happened at this year's national conference:
 
We hope most of you were able to attend our informal meet & greet event on Friday night.  Our Saturday morning started out on an excellent note with a motivation talk by Dr. Deborah Cabaniss from Columbia University.  We hope you enjoyed listening to Dr. Cabaniss speak on psychodynamic psychotherapy, and that the talk improved your understanding and appreciation of the field.  Our conference continued with active discussions specific to each medical class, led by Drs. Linda Pessar, Karen Palaszynski, Jeanne Goodman, Debra Katz, and David Mintz.  This class-specific session was a new addition to this year's conference agenda.  We hope you found the discussions helpful and pertinent to your current level in medical school.  We also hope you enjoyed the opportunity to meet and network with others in your region during lunch on Saturday. 
 
Thank you for your participation in our lively discussion regarding our formal statement to endorse ADMSEP (Association of Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry) in its stance on the length of the 3rd year psychiatry elective.  We had unanimously agreed to support ADMSEP's view that the psychiatry rotation should be at least 6 weeks in length to allow students enough exposure to obtain the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to adequately address psychiatric problems in patients, regardless of their future specialty.  Our formal statement will  be available soon for your review on PsychSIGN's website at www.PsychSIGN.org 
 
Our day continued with exciting and informative lectures on various topics in psychiatry given by Drs. Vilma McCarthy, Sergio Hernandez, and Mary Barber.  We hope you enjoyed learning about Psychopathology in Pop Music, Using the Arts in Psychiatric Medical Student Education, and the Role of Psychiatrists as Advocates (in LGBT issues).
 
We were also extremely fortunate to have the distinguished and world-renowned Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison come speak about her professional and personal experiences with Bipolar/Manic-Depressive Disorder.  We hope you were able to have your complimentary copy of An Unquiet Mind autographed by Dr. Jamison.
 
It was great to end the night with the opportunity to learn about the various subspecialties of psychiatry and meet the leaders of the respective professional organizations over dinner.  We hope you had to chance to speak to our guests and get some questions answered about the many psychiatry subspecialty opportunities after dinner.  Thank you to those who attended our screening of Ordinary People later that night.  And lastly, we hope you found Sunday breakfast with the panel of residents both fun and informative before safely returning home. 
 
Again, thank you for your attendance at this year's PsychSIGN National Conference, and for the enthusiasm you brought.  We sincerely hope you enjoyed your time with us in Washington, D.C.  If there is anything we could improve on for next year's conference, or if you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to let us know.  You can contact your respective Regional Chairs or me directly.
 
On behalf of PsychSIGN's new executive board, we look forward to serving you this year.

 
Sincerely,
-vandai.

--
Vandai X. Le
National Chair, PsychSIGN
MD Candidate 2009
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
psychsign@gmail.com