Saul Levin

Levin was born in South Africa and received his medical degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1982. He then moved to the United States to complete a residency in psychiatry at UC Davis Medical Center. He completed a master's degree in public administration at the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University in 1994.[1]

Between his qualification as a psychiatrist and his master's degree, Levin worked for the United States Department of Health and Human Services, where he was the coordinator of a program for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. When he finished his master's degree, he founded a healthcare consulting firm,[2] Access Consulting International,[1] which he headed for ten years.[2] 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.[1][2] He also served as the Vice President for Science, Medicine and Public Health in the American Medical Association.[3]

In July 2012, Vincent C. Gray, then Mayor of the District of Columbia, appointed Levin as interim director of the District of Columbia Department of Health.[2] A year later, in mid-2013, Levin was named the CEO and medical director of the American Psychiatric Association (APA);[4] since joining the association in 1987 he had served on several APA committees.[2]

Levin is openly gay.[2][5] His appointment as the CEO and medical director of the APA made him the first openly gay person to hold the position,[5] and possibly the first openly gay person to lead an American national medical specialty society.[3]