Dr. Pedro Ruiz (RIP) was professor & Executive Vice Chair as well as Director of Clinical Programs at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Born in Cuba, Dr Ruiz completed his medical school education at the University of Paris in France. Subsequently, he conducted his graduate training in general psychiatry at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Thereafter, he joined the faculty at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City where he rose from instructor to Professor of Psychiatry. In this academic institution he occupied a series of administrative and academic positions, such as, Director of the Lincoln Hospital Community Mental Health Center (1969-1977), Assistant Dean (1977-1979), Director of Bronx Psychiatric Center (1979-1981) and Vice Chair of the Department of Psychiatry (1979-1981).
Dr Ruiz was also tenured Professor of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine (1981-1993) and at the University of Texas at Houston (1993-2010), where he also was Interim Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr Ruiz has also been President of the American Psychiatric Association (2006-2007), the American College of Psychiatrists (2000-2001), the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (2002-2003) and the American Association of Social Psychiatry (2000-2002). Dr Ruiz has also served in more than 40 editorial boards in the United States and abroad and has also authored more than 600 publications; among them, “Substance Abuse: A Comprehensive Textbook” and the Ninth Edition of “Kaplan & Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry”.