The American Psychiatric Association announced that starting June 1, 2024 its new CEO and Medical Director will be Marketa Wills, M.D., M.B.A. Dr. Wills will become the eighth Medical Director in APA’s 180 year history and will be the first Black American and first woman to fill the role. Wills has decades of experience in driving innovation and promoting quality mental healthcare. 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 38,000 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.
Most recently, Dr. Wills served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of John Hopkins Health Plans, had a clinical practice at University of South Florida Student Health Services in Tampa, Florida, sat on for profit and not-for profit boards, and served as the Chair of the Standards Committee of the National Committee for Quality Assurance. Earlier in her career, Dr. Wills was a member of the APA Board of Trustees as an APA SAMHSA Minority Fellow, recently sat on the APA Future of Psychiatry Presidential Task Force, and was a member APA’s Council on Health Care Systems and Finance.
“As a longtime mental health advocate, I am honored to take the reins of the APA at this time in our history,” said Wills. “Given where we are, with the explosion of AI, innovation, and the changing landscape of technology, I look forward to working with APA’s membership and the administration to accelerate psychiatry into the future.”
At John Hopkins Health Plans, Wills led a staff of 300 employees and had been instrumental in evaluating and implementing digital clinical tools for members to better manage their own health conditions. She has served in different leadership capacities in both health care plans and in academic settings and is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She is an alum of McKinsey & Company (Cleveland Office), where she consulted on various healthcare engagements, and has also served on her local NAMI board and as a volunteer at her local Mental Health America affiliate.
Dr. Wills has been named to Maryland’s Top 100 Women List by the Daily Record (2022), as a Woman of Influence by I-95 Business (2022), and Chair of the Medical Alumni Advisory Council at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (2022). In April 2024, Wills was inducted into the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine honor society (Alpha Omega Alpha). She also coauthored a book in 2019 entitled “Understanding Mental Illness.” Wills holds an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business, and an A.B. from Brown University. She completed her training at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean Hospital Adult Psychiatry Residency Program.
She hails from Dayton, Ohio, where she spent her formative years. She recently relocated with her family to the Washington, DC area for her new role.
Contact Marketa at her LinkedIn Profile
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