Orgazational Structure

The Society is constituted into four regions
to reflect our international members

North America

Latin America

Europe – Africa

Asia – Australia

Committees

The Society has a number of Committees, all of which report to the Board of Directors.  A summary of the Society’s current Committees is provided below.
For the rules governing the activities and membership of each of the Committees refer to the Society’s bylaws.

Biennial and Regional Congress Scientific Committees
These commitees are responsible for planning the biennial and Regional Congresses, in consultation with the Board of Directors.  The Committee invites speakers and research presentations, selecting appropriate presentations, and arranges the social activities and other program details.  The program of the Congress is to reflect the international and culturally diverse membership of the Society.

The Committee members include a Chairperson and additional members who are appointed by the President and Vice-President with the approval of the Board of Directors.

Congress Organising Committee

Congress Organising Committees are established to oversee the local arrangements for the bi-annual and Regional Congresses.

Meet

our
Board

Members

President

Headshot Sharon Nelson

Assoc Professor Sharon M. Nelson

State College, PA, USA

I am a clinical psychologist and an evaluation scientist with the Center for Evaluation and Implementation Resources (CEIR) and the Serious Mental Illness Treatment Resource and Evaluation Center (SMITREC), part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

My work focuses on research and evaluation of suicide risk and emergency service use for patients diagnosed with personality disorders and serious mental illness using national healthcare systems data. I am also leading efforts to develop national training programs for clinicians to learn program evaluation best practices. 

President Elect

Headshot Majse Lind

Assoc Professor Majse Lind

Aalborg, Denmark

I am an assistant professor in clinical psychology at Aalborg University, Denmark. My research is focused on the dynamic and temporal story a person crafts about the personal past, present, and presumed future (narrative identity) and mentalization in adolescents and adults manifesting personality pathology.

Immediate Past President

Headshot Brin Grenyer

Professor Brin Grenyer

Wollongong, Australia

I am the president of the ISSPD for the 2024-26 term and director of the Project Air Strategy for Personality Disorders and Senior Professor at the University of Wollongong Australia. My research is focused on the development and evaluation of new models of care with people experiencing challenges of personality disorder symptoms and their families, with a particular focus on process and outcome from psychotherapy and compassionate implementation within health services.

Secretary Treasurer

Headshot Åse-Line Baltzersen

Åse-Line Baltzersen

Oslo, Norway

I am Head of Communications at the Norwegian National Advisory Unit on Substance Use, Severe Concurrent Mental Health Disorders, and Personality Disorders (NRAPP), and President of Personlighetsalliansen (Personality Alliance).

I work to promote dimensional and person-centered understandings of personality and personality disorder, and to improve access to effective, compassionate care. With a background in communication and knowledge translation, I focus on bridging scientific insight, clinical language, and lived experience—turning research and theory into understanding, empathy, and change.

Coalition Vice-President

Headshot Mario Speranza

Professor Mario Speranza

Versailles France

I work in the department of psychiatry and mental health of the General Hospital of Versailles, France, and I’m professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Paris Saclay Versailles. A major focus of my clinical and research activity is the study of emerging personality disorders in children and adolescents, especially borderline personality disorders, using a developmental framework. I will be acting as a member-at-large of the ISSPD for the 2025-27 term

Vice-President, Europe

Headshot Ueli Kramer

Professor Ueli Kramer

Lausanne, Switzerland

I am the current president of the European Society for the Study of Personality Disorder (ESSPD) and I co-represent the ESSPD at the ISSPD board. I am Professor for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Lausanne, Director of the Institute of Psychotherapy at the University Clinic of Lausanne (Switzerland), and affiliated with the University of Windsor (Canada). I am an expert in psychotherapy research, in addition to being a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist

Vice-President, North America

Headshot Shirley Yen

Assoc Professor Shirley Yen

Boston, MA, USA

I am a founding member of NASSPD, and am currently the President for the 2022-2025 term. I am an Associate Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, in the Department of Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. I am also a Training Director of the Clinical Psychology program at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston MA.

Vice-President, Asia-Pacific

Headshot Sathya

Assoc Professor Sathya Rao

Melbourne Australia

I am the president of the AART-PD (Australasian Association for Research and Treatment for Personality Disorder) for the 2024-25 term. I am an Associate professor at the Monash University, Melbourne, and work as an Executive Clinical Director and consultant psychiatrist at Spectrum, a center of clinical excellence and statewide specialist service for personality disorder and complex trauma in Victoria, Australia”, My main interests are innovating models of care for personality disorder and translational clinical research.

Regional Group, Latin America

Headshot of Glauco Valdivieso Jiménez

Glauco Valdivieso Jiménez

Lima, Peru

I will be acting as Vice-president, leading the Latinamerican Regional Group and member of the ISSPD Board. I am a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist specialized in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and certified in Transference Focused Therapy by the ISTFP. I am a professor of the Clinical Psychiatry course
at the School of Medicine of the Scientific University of the South (UCSUR). I work in the mental health unit and Psychiatry service of the Villa El Salvador Emergency Hospital in Lima. I am co-founder and medical director of the Peruvian Institute for the Study and Comprehensive Approach to Personality (IPEP) and co-founder of the Personality Disorders Chapter of the Peruvian Psychiatric Association and the Latin American Journal of Personality.
My main areas of interest are research and dissemination of topics related to personality and mood disorders.

Regional Group, Middle East

Headshot Alireza Farnam

Professor Alireza Farnam

Tabriz, Iran

I am Dr. Alireza Farnam. Psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry, working at Kharazmi Research Center of Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran. I am working at my private clinic in Tabriz too. 
My main research trends are personality and self-awareness. I am the founder of “personality modulation clinic” at Razi hospital, helping the normal people who feel have some  subclinical problems, preventing them from fully actualizing their potentials. I have also been a member of working group for revising the personality disorder chapter of ICD-11, since 2009 till 2017. 

Communications officer (ex-officio)

Headshot Stephanie Romer

Stephanie Römer

Wollongong, Australia

Stephanie is a psychologist and a PhD (Clinical Psychology) student at the University of Wollongong, Australia. She has been working as a psychologist in the Netherlands and Austria. Stephanie is also a Research Fellow at Project Air Strategy, currently investigating early interventions for young people with emerging personality disorder as well as evaluating a brief intervention program.

Member at Large

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Dr Colin Campbell

London, UK

Bio coming soon

Early Career Member 

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Dr Diana Bartsch

Adelaide, Australia

Bio coming soon

Lived Experience

Headshot Kimberly Hickey

Kimberly Hickey

Boston, USA

I was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) in 2017 and use my lived experience to advocate for better access to evidence-based treatment for personality disorders. I am a long-time volunteer with Emotions Matter, where I serve as a board member & secretary and have engaged in advocacy work in the United States since 2021. I currently work at McLean Hospital and plan to pursue higher education to treat those with personality disorders in a clinical setting. I will serve in the lived experience role at ISSPD for the 2026-2027 term.

Lived Experience (Family Carer)

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Peter Heggie

Sydney, Australia

Bio coming soon

Student member (ex-officio)

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Coming Soonl

Coming Soon

Bio coming soon

Communications and social media committee

The ISSPD Communications Committee was formed in 2021 to help expand and grow the way that ISSPD communicates with members as well as the community. There are subcommittees devoted to managing and developing content for social media (like our Facebook or Twitter) and to designing and developing a new ISSPD website.

The Communications Committee is always seeking additional volunteers, including those with lived experience, researchers or clinicians from areas not currently represented on the committee, or volunteers with ideas for ways to develop and grow communications content.

Communications Director

Headshot Stephanie Romer

Stephanie Römer

Wollongong, Australia

Headshot of Glauco Valdivieso Jiménez

Glauco Valdivieso Jiménez

Lima, Peru

Headshot Åse-Line Baltzersen

Åse-Line Baltzersen

Oslo, Norway
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