Meet the Speakers

Susan Hatters Friedman, MD, DFAPA, is a forensic and reproductive psychiatrist. Dr. Friedman is past president of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL), and has served as Chair of the Law and Psychiatry committee at the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP). She has received the Seymour Pollack Award for her contributions to teaching and educational functions of forensic psychiatry, the AAPL award for the Best Teacher in a Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship, the Red AAPL award for outstanding service to organized forensic psychiatry, the Manfred Guttmacher Award for editing the book Family Murder: Pathologies of Love and Hate with GAP, and the Association of Women Psychiatrists’ Marian Butterfield award for her contributions to women’s mental health. Susan currently serves as the inaugural Phillip J. Resnick Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University, where she also has appointments in the departments of Pediatrics, Reproductive Biology (Obstetrics/ Gynecology), and Law. Dr. Friedman also continues to serve as honorary faculty at the University of Auckland (New Zealand), having worked in New Zealand for seven years previously.
	Donna Vanderpool, JD, MBA, is responsible for the development and implementation of risk management services for PRMS, manager of a psychiatric malpractice insurance program. Ms. Vanderpool has developed expertise in the areas of telepsychiatry, HIPAA, and forensic practice, and has consulted, published, and spoken nationally on these and other healthcare law and risk management topics.
Naakesh (Nick) Dewan, MD, DLFAPA serves as Vice President, Behavioral Health. In this role, he is responsible for creating a cross-functional team that designs and implements the enterprise’s behavioral health strategy for all insurance segments. This includes creating new value-based reimbursement models and new roles in the care delivery system, as well as a broad view of behavioral health across demographics and specific points of care.  Dr. Dewan is an accomplished physician and executive with a proven track record in health systems operations. Prior to joining GuideWell and Florida Blue, he was Chief Medical Officer for behavioral health for a multi-hospital regional health system. Previous roles included being a medical director for a substance use and eating disorder treatment facility, a skilled nursing facility, and leading an applied quality improvement services company.  Dr. Dewan is a leader in the field of outcomes measurement and payment models in behavioral health and served as an advisor to the AMA RBRVS Review Panel.  He was recently chair of the expert panel for CMS developing cost measures for hospital and outpatient behavioral health. Internationally, he has served as the chair of mental health section of the International Medical Informatics Association in Geneva.
	Abbey Strauss, MD, DLFAPA has practiced general Psychiatry for over 40 years, with long periods of involvement in clinical research, various social and mental health advocacy efforts, many involvements with forensic Psychiatry, and a great deal of media work, including appearances on Court TV, HBO Real Sports, and other similar national programs. Dr. Strauss has served on the National Board of Directors for Physicians for Social Responsibility and worked in numerous elected capacities with the Florida Psychiatric Society. He holds a Masters in psychiatric social work and produces and hosts the podcast "The Experts Speak". In the last several years Dr. Strauss has cohosted numerous podcasts with the Palm Beach County Medical Society opioid task force. His involvement with various climate change advocacies began in the late 1960s.
Dr. Stephen Anton, PhD is the Chief of the Clinical Research Division at the University of Florida’s Department of Aging and Geriatric Research. With over 170 published scientific articles in top medical journals, his research has been recognized both nationally as well as internationally. He is a well-established expert on the role that lifestyle factors have in influencing obesity, cardiovascular disease, and age-related metabolic disease conditions. He has published extensively on the role of intermittent fasting and exercise have in promoting healthy aging and metabolic health.

For more information about our Spring Meeting and to register, please see https://www.floridapsych.org/page/2024SpringCME