Brief History of the Academy for Eating Disorders
First Meeting
The Academy for Eating Disorders (AED) began in 1993 with a meeting organized by Craig Johnson, Ph.D. in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. Thirty-three clinicians and researchers met to discuss concerns about the deleterious effect of managed care and other insurance practices on providing quality treatment for patients with eating disorders.
This group saw a need for an organization of eating disorders professionals that embodied excellence in education, treatment and research that could advocate for patients with eating disorders, provide professional training and development and, in general, represent the field of eating disorders. The AED was formed to meet these goals, and today, the AED includes over 1,000 eating disorders professionals from around the world who have joined together to support this mission.
The current and past leadership of the AED has worked hard to ensure that this mission is met. To follow is a brief description of each AED president, including some of the highlights of each president’s term of office.
Past Presidents
 1993-1995
President: Pauline Powers, MD, South Florida, USA
- Membership grew from 33 to 250 members
 President: Ruth Striegel-Moore, PhD, Wesleyan University, USA
- Restructuring of the organization reduced the AED Board from 26 members to a more manageable number with term limits established for Board members
- Melanie Katzman, PhD, and Bryan Lask, MD, organized a task force to enhance international membership
- AED co-sponsored a workshop on the Development of Research Priorities in Eating Disorders, initiated by Susan Yanovski, MD, from the National Institutes of Health, USA
 1996
President: B. Timothy Walsh, MD, Columbia University, USA
- Increased focus on professional training and education
- Teaching Day tradition established with Amy Baker Dennis,
PhD, appointed first Coordinator for Teaching and Education
1997
 President: Joel Yager, MD, University of New Mexico, USA
- Membership increased to over 500 members. Negotiated the International Journal of Eating Disorders as the official journal of the Academy
- Established a listserv to enable members to communicate more effectively
- Initiated the process of shifting the management structure from the Adolescent Medicine offices at Montefiore Hospital in New York City to an organizational management corporation
1998
President: Marsha Marcus, MD, Western Psychiatric Institute, USA
- Completed management transition process
- Increased AED activities promoting public education about eating disorders
 1999
President: Stephen Wonderlich, PhD, University of North Dakota, USA
- First formal strategic planning session held in Toronto, Canada
- Significant organizational restructuring with the addition of Publications, Research, and Public Affairs Councils
2000
President: James Mitchell, PhD, Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, USA
- Redefined the relationship between the AED and other U.S.-based eating disorders organizations, including advocacy groups (which eventually coalesced into the U. S.-based National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and the Eating Disorders Research Society (EDRS)
- First AED sponsored International Conference on Eating Disorders (ICED) held in New York, USA
 2001
President: Allan Kaplan, MD, Toronto General Hospital, Canada
- Period of rapid growth with membership of AED surpassing 1000
2002
 President: Patricia Fallon, PhD, Seattle, Washington, USA
- Expanded initiatives designed to increase the involvement of colleagues from outside of North America
 2003
President: Cynthia Bulik, PhD, University of North Carolina, USA
- Global membership expanded
- First AED-sponsored conference outside North America held in Quito, Ecuador
 2004
President: Michael Devlin, MD, Columbia University, USA
- AED transitions to new management group
- AED Web site renovated
- Planning initiated for first ICED to be held outside of North America
- Publication of special issue of International Journal of Eating Disorders and publication of the first AED Annual Review
 2005
President: Scott Crow, MD FAED,
University of Minnesota, USA
- New leadership structure implemented.
 2006
President: Eric van Furth, PhD, National Center for Eating Disorders, Centrum Eetstoornissen,
Ursula, The Netherlands
- AED plans for launch of Worldwide Charter
 Immediate Past President
2007
President: Kelly Klump, PhD, FAED, Michigan State University , Department of Psychology
- AED Research Grant Program developed
- AED Scientific Committee formed
- Develop of the AED Research-Practice Task Force focused on improving the quality of research, clinical practice and prevention in the field of eating disorders by facilitating an on-going transfer of knowledge from research into practice and from practice into research
- Completion of the first AED Position Paper on eating disorders as serious forms of mental illness
 Current President
2008
Judith Banker, LLP, MA, FAED, Center for Eating Disorders
Updated:
September 2, 2008
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