Spurlock Award Recognizes Former APA/APA Foundation Fellow for Global Work
Abstract
APA President Altha Stewart, M.D. (right), presents the 2019 Jeanne Spurlock Minority Fellowship Achievement Award to Pamela Y. Collins, M.D., M.P.H., at the Minority Fellows and Alumni Reception at APA’s 2019 Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Collins is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and professor of global health at the University of Washington (UW), where she directs the UW Global Mental Health Program.
Collins was honored for her leadership in global mental health, cultural psychiatry, and mental health disparities. In a letter of nomination for the award, Francis Lu, M.D., director of cultural psychiatry at the University of California, Davis, said Collins’ work has had a direct impact on building resources for mental health in underserved communities around the world.
In her role as leader of the UW Global Mental Health program, Lu said Collins “provides leadership in the service of a diverse group of faculty, trainees, and students in the expansion of research, training, collaborative partnerships, and advocacy with an ultimate goal of reducing the burden of mental disorders in low-resource settings locally, regionally, and globally.”
The Jeanne Spurlock, M.D., Minority Fellowship Achievement Award, established in 1999, recognizes the achievements of former fellows of the APA/APA Foundation minority fellowships program who have made significant contributions to the profession and/or the minority community. It is also intended to encourage continued involvement in the fellowship program.
The award honors Jeanne Spurlock, M.D., the founder of the Minority Fellowship Program and director of APA’s Office of Minority and National Affairs, now the Division of Diversity and Health Equity. She was a pioneer in the field of child psychiatry and studying aspects of culture and race that play a role in the development of mental illness. ■
