Patricia Ryan Recupero, JD, MD
President and Chief Executive Officer

President and CEO of Butler Hospital and Executive Vice President for Behavioral Health of Care New England since January, 1999, Dr. Patricia Recupero has extensive experience in the field of mental health. A member of Butler Hospital’s staff since 1989, she has served the hospital both administratively and clinically as Executive Vice President, Vice President of Systems Integration and Managed Care, Medical Director, Chief of Forensic Psychiatry, Director of Managed Care, and Director of Alcohol and Drug Inpatient Services.

Board certified in Forensic Psychiatry and Addiction Psychiatry, Dr. Recupero is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Brown Medical School and has been a member of Brown’s Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior since 1989, including serving as the Psychiatry Residency Training Director.

Dr. Recupero is the past President of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law and is a member of the Ethics Committee and the Education Committee.  She formerly served AAPL as Secretary, Councilor, chair of the Gender Issues Committee, co-chair of the Education Committee and as a member of the Geriatric Committee and the Addiction Psychiatry Committee. She is the Chair of the Council on Psychiatry and the Law and Area Representative of the Assembly of the American Psychiatric Association. She also serves as a Member of the Assembly Executive Committee for Area I, as Chair of the Workgroup on Cyber Medicine, as a member of the Joint Reference Committee, as a member of the Committee on Advocacy & Litigation Funding and as a Corresponding Member of the Committee on Judicial Action. She has also served as Chairperson of the Manfred S. Guttmacher Award Committee. Dr. Recupero is Past President of the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems (NAPHS) in Washington, D.C.

With a long history of advocating for the rights of the mentally ill as a psychiatrist and administrator, Dr Recupero was recognized by The National Association of the Mentally Ill as an Exemplary Psychiatrist and was cited for her extensive knowledge of the clinical, operational and legislative aspects of behavioral health.

In addition to serving a two-year term as President of the Rhode Island Psychiatric Society, Dr. Recupero has been an active supporter of local mental health advocacy organizations and has worked closely with legislators to expand the type of serious mental illnesses that must be covered by insurance plans through improving parity legislation in Rhode Island.

Earning both an M.D. and J.D., Dr. Recupero is able to combine the professions of medicine and the law to advance mental health. She has written and lectured on a variety of topics including prevention of sexual harassment, substance abuse and marital violence, the effects of alcohol on women and children, and cyber medicine.