Jessica Merkel-Keller, M.D., M.Sc.  is a board certified adult general psychiatrist with a diverse set of interests.  She completed her undergraduate work at Lafayette College, Easton Pennsylvania, and graduate school at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.  She holds two degrees in bioethics.  She graduated with distinction in medical education from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and completed a psychiatry residency program at Johns Hopkins where she remains on the part-time faculty.  She holds licenses in five states, and consults on organizational/system issues in mental health, in addition to active clinical practice.

Dr. Merkel-Keller is focused on cultivating the vitality of the Maryland Psychiatric Society by engaging Early Career Psychiatrists (ECPs), ensuring nurse practitioners and physician assistants incorporate into the multidisciplinary team while accurately representing their credentials, and preparing for critical issues in the legislative season ahead.  Her first MPS News column underscores the MPS role in serving psychiatrists and representing the profession, “Our collective voice makes us strong, and when we are strong, you are strong.”  Our new president has been a member of the MPS since 2013, has served as the ECP Councilor for many years, and as the co-editor of The Maryland Psychiatrist.