Wayne Fenton, M.D., Wins Profile of Courage Award

Credit: David Hathcox

Robert Fenton accepts the Assembly's 2009 Profile of Courage Award on behalf of his late brother, psychiatrist Wayne Fenton, M.D. Fenton was a groundbreaking schizophrenia researcher and clinician who was killed in his office in 2006 by a psychotic young man on whom he had agreed to conduct an emergency consultation at a colleague's request. Fenton, an associate director of the National Institute of Mental Health, spent much of his career studying the unmet needs of people with severe mental illnesses and treating patients who were often considered treatment failures. He was also a tireless campaigner against the stigma these patients endured.