A Resident’s Journey with the American Association for Psychiatric Administration and Leadership
In our efforts to support mental health initiatives and highlight the psychiatric programs offered by our partners, PRMS is pleased to feature Dr. Chaden Noureddine, Resident Doctor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, as our guest blogger this month. The American Association for Psychiatric Administration and Leadership, awards one resident with a travel grant to attend their Annual Meeting. PRMS is delighted to support AAPAL’s mission and provide opportunities for members to further their education and research efforts.
Dr. Chaden Noureddine
My journey with the American Association for Psychiatric Administration and Leadership (AAPAL) began in April 2020, when I was a medical student at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, newly arrived in a world upended by a pandemic. What started as an introduction from a peer quickly became one of the most formative professional relationships of my training. Now a PGY-4 resident at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai preparing to begin my Child and Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship at New York-Presbyterian, I look back on five years of AAPAL involvement as foundational to my understanding of what psychiatric leadership can and should look like.
From Lebanon to Psychiatry: A Path Rooted in Mental Health Advocacy
I grew up in Lebanon before emigrating to the United States at 17. Witnessing the stigma and adversity faced by patients with mental illness in Lebanon shaped my path to psychiatry early. That experience instilled in me a deep sense of advocacy and a belief that systems matter as much as individual clinicians. AAPAL gave me a framework for that belief. From my first board meeting as a medical student, I was struck by the culture of the organization: the warmth of its faculty, the seriousness with which leaders like Dr. Victor Buwalda, Dr. Tobias Wasser, Dr. Manish Sapra, and Dr. Luming Li approached their mission, and the genuine investment they showed in the next generation of psychiatric leaders. I had not expected to feel so immediately at home.
Growing as a Psychiatric Leader Through AAPAL Involvement
My contributions to AAPAL grew steadily. I managed the organization's website, deepening my technical skills while learning how infrastructure supports mission. I helped organize events, attended nearly every program offered, and eventually rose to serve as the AAPAL Member In Training Representative, a role I have held from 2025 to the present. In parallel, my APA/APAF Leadership Fellowship from 2024 to 2026 expanded my understanding of psychiatric administration at a national level, reinforcing the lessons AAPAL first taught me about how organized medicine shapes the profession.
The Power of Mentorship in Psychiatric Residency Training
What AAPAL gave me most, beyond titles or skills, was mentorship. The relationships I have cultivated through the organization have guided me through residency, informed my research on technology and youth mental health and shaped my vision for the kind of psychiatrist and leader I want to become. I have written about intergenerational gaps in psychiatric leadership for the Psychiatric Times, a reflection in part of conversations that began within AAPAL.
Looking Ahead: Diversity, Education, and the Future of Psychiatric Leadership
As I enter fellowship, my goals for AAPAL remain clear. I hope to contribute to expanding its educational programming and strengthening its commitment to diversity and representation in psychiatric leadership – two areas I see as inseparable from the organization's broader mission. AAPAL did not just shape my interest in leadership, it gave me a model for what leadership in psychiatry could look like and a community to pursue it.
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