APA Honors Contributions to Mental Health Field

Through their work in politics, advocacy, or clinical care, individuals honored at APA's 2008 annual meeting in Washington, D.C., have made outstanding contributions to the field of mental health.

These are the honorees and the awards they received, as listed in the program of APA's 52nd Convocation of Distinguished Fellows:

William C. Menninger Memorial Convocation Lecture: Oliver Sacks, M.D., neurologist and author best known for his books, Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and An Anthropologist on Mars.

Special Presidential Commendations:Virginia Anthony, executive director of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; Carol Nadelson, M.D., clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard University, director of the Office for Women's Careers at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and a past APA president; Donna Norris, M.D., an assistant clinical professor at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital's Program in Psychiatry and the Law and the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School; Herbert Pardes, M.D., president and CEO of New York Presbyterian Hospital and New York Presbyterian Healthcare System and an APA past president; Rep. Fortney “Pete” Stark (D-Calif.), chair of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, and Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.), a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Distinguished Service Award:Aaron Beck, M.D., university professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania who developed cognitive therapy in the 1960s; Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), champion of parity legislation; Paul Fink, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at Temple University School of Medicine and an APA past president.

Organizational Distinguished Service Award:The American College of Psychiatrists, a nonprofit honorary organization of psychiatrists recognized for their professional achievements.

APA/Lilly Resident Research Award: Michael Ciranni, M.D., a PGY-3 psychiatry resident at New York University; Maor Katz, M.D., a PGY-2 psychiatry resident at Stanford University; Kenji Narushima, M.D., a PGY-4 psychiatry resident at the University of Iowa; Jeff Sanders, M.D., a PGY-2 psychiatry resident at the University of California, San Diego; Fahd Zarrouf, M.D., a PGY-5 resident in the internal medicine/psychiatry combined residency at the Charleston Area Medical Center-West Virginia University.

Human Rights Award:Alfred Freedman, M.D., former chair of the Department of Psychiatry at New York Medical College and an APA past president.

Blanche F. Ittleson Award for Research in Child Psychiatry:Karen Wagner, M.D., Marie B. Gale Professor and vice chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

APIRE/Kempf Fund Award for Research Development in Psychobiological Psychiatry (mentor):Nancy Andreasen, M.D., Andrew H. Woods Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, director of the Psychiatric Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and editor in chief of the American Journal of Psychiatry from 1992 to 2005.

APIRE/Kempf Fund Award for Research Development in Psychobiological Psychiatry (mentee):Laurie McCormick, M.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa College of Medicine.

Agnes Purcell McGavin Award for Distinguished Career Achievement in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry:David Mrazek, M.D., chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at the Mayo Clinic, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine, director of the S.C. Johnson Genomics of Addictions Program, a member of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and vice chair of the Psychiatry Residency Committee.

Isaac Ray Award:Jeffrey Metzner, M.D., a clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Jack Weinberg Memorial Award for Geriatric Psychiatry:George Alexopoulos, M.D., founder and director of the Weill-Cornell Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry, a professor of psychiatry and codirector of the Aging Center for Research and Clinical Care at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, and director of the National Institute of Mental Health-supported Advanced Center for Interventions and Services Research in Geriatric Mood Disorders.

APA Administrative Psychiatry Award Lecture:Carl Bell, M.D., president and CEO of the Community Mental Health Council and Foundation Inc., director of Public and Community Psychiatry and a clinical professor of psychiatry and public health, and codirector of the University of Illinois at Chicago Interdisciplinary Violence Prevention Research Center.

APA Simon Bolivar Lecture:Jose Canive, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico, director of the Center for Functional Brain Imaging, and director of psychiatry research at the New Mexico Veterans Affairs Health Care System.

APA John Fryer Award Lecture:Richard Pillard, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine.

APA Solomon Carter Fuller Award Lecture:Mildred Mitchell-Bateman, M.D., former director of the West Virginia Department of Mental Health and the first chair of psychiatry at Marshall University School of Medicine.

APA Alexander Gralnick, M.D., Award for Research in Schizophrenia:Robert Drake, M.D., Andrew Thomson Professor of Psychiatry and Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School and director of the Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center.

AAPL/APA Manfred S. Guttmacher Award Lecture:Douglas Mossman, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine and administrative director of the Glenn M. Weaver Institute of Law and Psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.

APA Judd Marmor Award Lecture:Charles Nemeroff, M.D., chair and Reunette W. Harris Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Emory University School of Medicine and chair of APA's Committee on Research Training.

APA Adolf Meyer Award Lecture:Jonathan Davidson, M.D., a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and director of the Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Program at Duke University Medical Center.

APA Oskar Pfister Award Lecture:Dan Blazer, M.D., J.P. Gibbons Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and vice chair for education and academic affairs at Duke University Medical Center and a professor of community and family medicine at Duke and head of the University Council on Aging and Human Development.

APA Patient Advocacy Award Lecture:Pete Earley, best-selling author, mental health advocate, and former reporter for the Washington Post.

APA Award for Research in Psychiatry:Robert Freedman, M.D., chair of the Department of Psychiatry and director of the Schizophrenia Research Center at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and the Denver VA Medical Center.

APA Benjamin Rush Award:Mark Micale, Ph.D., a professor of the history of science and medicine at the University of Illinois.

APA Kun-Po Soo Award Lecture:Wen-Shing Tseng, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at the University of Hawaii School of Medicine.

APA Alexandra Symonds Award Lecture:Gail Robinson, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and obstetrics/gynecology at the University of Toronto and director of the Women's Mental Health Program at the University Health Network in Toronto. She is chair of APA's Committee on Family Violence and Abuse.

APA George Tarjan Award Lecture:Albert Gaw, M.D., a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco Medical School and medical director of quality management for San Francisco's Community Behavioral Health Services.

APA/NIMH Vestermark Psychiatry Educator Award Lecture:Ronald Rieder, M.D., director of residency education at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and founding chair of APA's Committee on Research Training.

APA/AACDP Research Mentorship Award:Dwight Evans, M.D., presidentelect of the American College of Psychiatrists and editor in chief of Current Psychiatry Reports.

APA/AstraZeneca Young Minds in Psychiatry International Awards Program:Alfredo Bellon, M.D., co-chief resident at the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Baylor College of Medicine; Brady Case, M.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry at New York University; Jung-Seok Choi, M.D., Ph.D., student at Seoul National University College of Medicine; Yantao Ma, M.D., staff psychiatrist and lecturer at the Institute of Mental Health at Peking University; Renata Schoeman, MBChB, a research fellow and consultant at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa; Daniel Wolf, M.D., a postdoctoral fellow in neuropsychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania; Florian Zepf, M.D., registrar in training at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at J.W. Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

APA/Merck and Co. Inc. Early Academic Career Research Award:Alison Adcock, M.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences in the Center for Cognitive Science at Duke University.

APIRE/Lilly Psychiatric Research Fellowship:Michael Bloch, M.D., a PGY-4 resident in the Yale Child Study Center's Albert J. Solnit Adult and Child Psychiatry Integrated Research Training Program; Roger Jou, M.D., a PGY-4 resident in psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine and a graduate student in the Investigative Medicine Ph.D. program at Yale.

APIRE/Wyeth M.D./Ph.D. Psychiatric Research Fellowship:Steven Lieske, M.D., a PGY-4 resident at the University of California, San Francisco; Mireya Nadal-Vicens, M.D., a research collaborator at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Carol Davis Ethics Award:Claire Zilber, M.D., vice president of the Board of the Colorado Regional AIDS Interfaith Network and a private practitioner.

Health Services Research Early Career Award:Brady Case, M.D., teaching fellow in child and adolescent psychiatry at Brown Medical School and a research assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine; Greer Sullivan, M.D., associate director of the RAND Gulf States Policy Institute.

Jacob K. Javits Public Service Award:Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), a member of the House Budget Committee, Joint Economic Committee, and Ways and Means Committee.

Frank J. Menolascino Award for Psychiatric Services for Persons WithMental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities:Ramakrishnan Shenoy, M.D., a clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University Health Services, Medical College of Virginia, and a consultant to the Mental Retardation Team at Central State Hospital.

Profile of Courage Award:Anna Holmgren, M.D., a staff psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital in New York who traveled to New Orleans to work with Hurricane Katrina survivors.

Jeanne Spurlock, M.D., Minority Fellowship Achievement Award:Toni Love Johnson, M.D., residency training director for the Department of Psychiatry at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland and medical director for the Behavioral Medicine and Counseling Department of the Center for Community Health at MetroHealth. ▪