"Dr. Ruiz is a skilled administrator, clinician and scholar, and a proven leader," said Charles Nemeroff, M.D., Ph.D., Leonard M. Miller Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. "I am delighted to have convinced him to return to Miami to oversee clinical service at all of our sites and work with me in recruiting top-notch faculty in psychiatric research and practice."

Previously Dr. Ruiz was a tenured professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. During his academic career, he was also professor and vice chair of psychiatry, as well as assistant dean at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, and professor and vice chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

"In my new position, I am fully committed to ensuring that all patients in South Florida have full access to the highest quality of psychiatric care in the most humane environment possible," said Dr. Ruiz. "On a personal level, I am very happy to be back in Miami, which has always been home to me."

Dr. Ruiz served as president of the American Psychiatric Association and the American College of Psychiatrists and is president-elect of the World Psychiatric Association. He is nationally and internationally known in the field of psychiatric education, cross-cultural psychiatry and health services research. He has authored more than 600 publications, and co-edited the book Substance Abuse: A Comprehensive Textbook in 1980, 1992, 1997, and 2005. Now in press again with the fifth edition, the publication has become the most respected textbook in the field of substance abuse.

Born in Cuba, Dr. Ruiz attended the University of Havana and completed his medical school education at the University of Paris in France. He finished his graduate training in general psychiatry at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in 1968.