APA Honors Those Dedicated to Mental Health

At the recent Annual Meeting in San Francisco, APA honored a select group of psychiatrists, legislators, and mental health advocates for their dedication to improving the lives of people with mental illness.

Each year APA lauds a select number of people who have worked to improve the lives of people living with mental disorders in profound ways, including through clinical practice, research, and advocacy. These are the honorees and the awards they received, as listed in the program book of APA's 63rd Convocation of Distinguished Fellows:

William C. Menninger Memorial Convocation Lecture: La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) in Battle Creek, Mich., one of the largest private foundations in the United States.

Special Presidential Commendations: Jacqueline Feldman, M.D., professor emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and associate medical director of the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI); Norman Harris II, B.Sc., a senior psychology major with a concentration in pre-medical studies at Howard University in Washington, D.C.; David C. Henderson, M.D., psychiatrist-in-chief at Boston Medical Center, a professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, and co-director of the National Institutes of Health T32 Boston University Medical Campus-Massachusetts General Hospital Global Mental Health Clinical Research Fellowship; Judge Steve Leifman, an associate administrative judge for the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida, County Criminal Division in Miami-Dade County; Donna M. Norris, M.D., a child, adolescent, adult, and forensic psychiatrist in private practice in Wellesley, Mass., and a past president of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society; Annelle B. Primm, M.D., M.P.H., a senior medical adviser of The Steve Fund and chair and convener of the All Healers Mental Health Alliance and APA deputy medical director from 2004 to 2015; Mary Kay Smith, M.D., past director of the University of Toledo Public and Community Psychiatry Program and a service professor at the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services for more than 20 years; and the black APA members who “disrupted the Board of Trustee meeting” in 1969.

Distinguished Service Award: Paul S. Appelbaum, M.D., the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine, and Law, director of Division of Law, Ethics, and Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University, and director of the Columbia Center for Research on Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of Psychiatric, Neurologic, and Behavioral Genetics at Columbia University Medical Center; Jeffrey L. Metzner M.D., a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine; Grayson Norquist, M.D., M.S.P.H., a professor and vice chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine, chief of the Grady Behavioral Health Service in Atlanta, chair of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute board of governors, and chair of APA’s Council on Quality Care; Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and associate dean for student affairs at Harvard Medical School; John A. Renner Jr., M.D., a professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine and associate chief of psychiatry at the VA Boston Healthcare System.

Organizational Distinguished Service Award: Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) was created in December 2016 by 25 representatives from diverse sectors including education, mental health, justice, and government. One of CTIPP’s goals is to inform and advocate for public policies and programs at the federal, state, tribal, and local levels that incorporate scientific findings regarding the relationship between trauma and related social and health challenges across the lifespan.

Administrative Psychiatry Award: Victor J. A. Buwalda, M.D., Ph.D., chief psychiatrist and medical director of Novadic-Kentron Center for Addiction, the largest center for addiction disorders in Brabant, the Netherlands.

Award for Research in Psychiatry: Stephen M. Strakowski, M.D., the associate vice president of Regional Mental Health and founding chair and professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School.

Simon Bolivar Award: Esperanza Díaz, M.D., an associate professor of psychiatry, the medical director of the Hispanic Clinic and Latino Behavioral Health System, and associate director of the Psychiatry Residency Program at Yale University School of Medicine.

Manfred S. Guttmacher Award: James Ellison, M.D., M.P.H., The Swank Foundation Endowed Chair in Memory Care and Geriatrics at Christiana Care in Wilmington, Del.; Jacob C. Holzer, M.D., a clinical staff associate in the Geriatric Psychiatry Outpatient Services at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass.; Robert Kohn, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Patricia R. Recupero, M.D., J.D., the senior vice president of education and training for Care New England Health System in Providence, R.I., and a clinical professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Health Services Research Award, Senior Scholar: A. John Rush, M.D., an adjunct professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine and professor emeritus at the Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School.

Adolf Meyer Award: Carl C. Bell, M.D., a clinical professor emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Medicine and a staff psychiatrist at Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago.

John Fryer Award: Shannon Price Minter, Esq., the legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), one of the nation’s leading legal advocacy organizations for LGBTQ people.

Patient Advocacy Award: Barbara Van Dahlen, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist and founder and president of Give an Hour, a nonprofit she began in 2005 to provide free mental health services to the military community, and executive director of the President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide (PREVENTS) Task Force.

Judd Marmor Award: Kerry J. Ressler, M.D., Ph.D., the chief scientific officer and James and Patricia Poitras Chair in Psychiatry at McLean Hospital, and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

David A. Mrazek, M.D., Memorial Award: Greer M. Murphy Jr., M.D., Ph.D., professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University; Alan F. Schatzberg, M.D., the Kenneth T. Norris Jr. Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and director of the Mood Disorders Center at Stanford University.

Oskar Pfister Award: George Fitchett, D.Min., Ph.D., professor and director of research in the Department of Religion, Health, and Human Values at Rush University in Chicago.

Isaac Ray Award: Peter Ash, M.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, director of the Psychiatry and Law Service, and director of the Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship at Emory University School of Medicine as well as a member of APA’s Council on Psychiatry and Law.

Benjamin Rush Award: King Davis, Ph.D., a research professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Information.

Kun-Po Soo Award: Stanley Sue, M.D., Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Palo Alto University.

Alexandra Symonds Award: Samantha Meltzer-Brody, M.D., M.P.H., the Ray M. Hayworth and Family Distinguished Professor of Mood and Anxiety Disorders and associate professor of psychiatry at University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine, executive medical director of the UNC Well-Being Program of UNC HealthCare and School of Medicine, and founder and director of the UNC Perinatal Psychiatry Program of the UNC Center for Women’s Mood Disorders.

George Tarjan Award: Britta Klara Ostermeyer, M.D., M.B.A., professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Paul and Ruth Jonas Chair for Mental Health at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine and chief of OU Medicine Psychiatry and Behavioral Health.

Vestermark Psychiatry Educator Award: Alan K. Louie, M.D., professor, associate chair, and director of education in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

Carol Davis Ethics Award: Meera Balasubramaniam, M.D., a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and director of the Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship Program at NYU School of Medicine.

Solomon Carter Fuller Award: Loma Flowers, M.D., voluntary clinical professor of psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco.

Hartford-Jeste Award for Future Leaders in Geriatric Psychiatry: Jennifer Gatchel, M.D., Ph.D., an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a geriatric psychiatrist and physician-scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital.

Health Services Research Award, Early Career: A. Robinson (Robin) Williams, M.D., M.B.E., an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and a research scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Blanche F. Ittleson Award for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: Manpreet Singh, M.D., M.S., an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of the Pediatric Mood Disorders Program at Stanford University.

Jacob K. Javits Public Service Award: U.S. Representative Doris Matsui (D) of California’s Sixth District has represented the city of Sacramento and its surrounding areas since 2005. Rep. Matsui helped write the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Jeanne Spurlock, M.D., Minority Fellowship Achievement Award: Pamela Collins, M.D., M.P.H., a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and of global health at the University of Washington (UW) and director of the UW Global Mental Health Program.

Frank J. Menolascino Award: Matthew Siegel, M.D., an associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, the director of Developmental Disorders Program at Maine Behavioral Healthcare, and a faculty scientist at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute.

Kempf Fund Award for Research Development in Psychobiological Psychiatry: Dost Öngür, M.D., Ph.D., the William P. and Henry B. Test Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the chief of the Psychotic Disorders Division and director of the Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Research Program at McLean Hospital; Cagri Yuksel, M.D., an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an assistant neuroscientist in the Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Research Program at McLean Hospital.

Bruno Lima Award: Allan Chrisman, M.D., an associate professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, chair of the North Carolina Psychiatric Association Disaster Committee, and liaison to APA’s Committee on the Psychiatric Dimensions of Disaster; Hector Colon-Rivera, M.D., Assembly representative for APA Area 3, president of the APA Hispanic Caucus, and medical director of the Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha (APM) in the Philadelphia region; Sejal Shah, M.D., an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, the associate program director of Medical Psychiatry Services at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the program director of the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School; Sherifa Iqbal, M.D., president of the Missouri Psychiatric Physicians Association and disaster mental health regional lead for the American Red Cross of Missouri and Arkansas.

Alexander Gralnick, M.D., Award for Research in Schizophrenia: David C. Henderson, M.D., chief of psychiatry at Boston Medical Center and professor and chair of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine.

Research Mentorship Award: Godfrey Pearlson, M.A., M.B.B.S., founding director of the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center at the Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital and a professor of psychiatry and of neuroscience at Yale University School of Medicine.

Chester M. Pierce Human Rights Award: Catholic Charities USA, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, and International Rescue Committee for their efforts in addressing human rights abuses.

Jack Weinberg Memorial Award for Geriatric Psychiatry: Iqbal Ahmed, M.D., a geriatric psychiatrist and a past president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. ■