Patrice A. Harris, MD, MA, a psychiatrist from Atlanta, has diverse experience as a private practicing physician, public health administrator, patient advocate and medical society lobbyist. She was elected to the American Medical Association (AMA) Board of Trustees in June 2011. Active in organized medicine her entire career, Harris has served on the board of the American Psychiatric Association, the governing council of the AMA Women Physicians Congress, the AMA reference committees, and AMA work groups on health information technology, sustainable growth rate and private contracting. She has held many leadership positions at the state level, including serving on the board and as President of the Georgia Psychiatric Physicians Association and on the Medical Association of Georgia’s Council on Legislation, its Committee on Constitution and Bylaws, and its Membership Task Force. She was the founding President of the Georgia Psychiatry Political Action Committee. In 2001, she was selected Psychiatrist of the Year by the Georgia Psychiatric Physicians Association. Starting with medical school at West Virginia University, followed by a psychiatry residency and child psychiatry and forensics fellowships at Emory University, and then as the Barton Senior Policy Fellow at the Emory University School of Law, she has worked for children both clinically and in the advocacy arena. As past director of Health Services for Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, Harris was the county's chief health officer. She continues in private practice and consults with both public and private organizations on health service delivery and emerging trends in practice and health policy. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Emory Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.