APA chief is elected to IOM

Norman B. Anderson, PhD, APA's chief executive officer, has been elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine. IOM members have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.

"I am extremely honored and deeply humbled to be elected to the IOM," Anderson says. "The institute is doing incredible work in so many areas crucial to the health and well-being of the nation and the world. I look forward to being an active participant in advancing the IOM mission, and in providing the important perspective of psychology and the behavioral and social sciences to that mission."

Anderson is one of 70 new IOM members and 10 foreign associates. New IOM members are elected by current active members through a selective process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to advance the medical sciences, health care and public health. IOM's total membership is 1,928.

"The Institute of Medicine is greatly enriched by the addition of our newly elected colleagues, each of whom has significantly advanced health and medicine," says IOM President Harvey Fineberg, MD, PhD. "Through their research, teaching, clinical work and other contributions, these distinguished individuals have inspired and served as role models to others. We look forward to drawing on their knowledge and skills to improve health through the work of the IOM."

As CEO of APA since 2003, Anderson oversees the largest scientific and professional association for psychologists in the United States, with 137,000 members and a staff of more than 550. Before coming to APA, Anderson was the founding associate director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in charge of behavioral and social science, and was the first director of the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. At NIH, he was charged with facilitating behavioral and social sciences research across all of the institutes and centers of the NIH. Before his work at NIH, Anderson served on the faculty at both Duke University School of Medicine and the Harvard School of Public Health.

"Norman Anderson has produced groundbreaking research on stress, discrimination and cardiovascular reactivity in cardiovascular disease, especially hypertension," says Robert M. Kaplan, PhD, NIH associate director for behavioral and social sciences research. "As associate director of NIH and now CEO of APA, he has been a major architect of the growing role of behavioral and social science in health research, and a leader in shaping the new health care reform legislation. Beyond these accomplishments, Dr. Anderson is a kind person, a highly ethical leader, and an inspiration to young psychologists and other scientists."

The IOM is unique in its structure as both an honorific membership organization and an advisory organization. Established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, IOM has become recognized as a national resource for independent, scientifically informed analysis and recommendations on health issues. With their election, members make a commitment to volunteer their service on IOM committees, boards and other activities.