Awards and Honors 2013

Click on the links below to read about previous awards. For the most recent award announcements, subscribe to our monthly eNewsletter, the Penn Psychiatry Perspective.

Teaching Awards

Department of Psychiatry Honors

The Albert Stunkard Faculty Recognition Award is given annually to faculty members who are outstanding teachers and mentors. The graduating resident class selects award winners who have significantly influenced their education and training. Named for Albert J. Stunkard, MD, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry and former Chair of the Department, this award recognizes Dr. Stunkard’s enormous contribution to the education, training, and support of Department housestaff. Jody Foster, MD, Theodore (Ted) D. Satterthwaite, MD, Claudia F. Baldassano, MD, Henry R. Bleier, MD, and Sarah B. Mathews, MD received this honor in 2013.

Mel Singer, MD received the 2013 PGY-3 & 4 Teaching Award and Christian Kohler, MD received the 2013 PGY-1 & 2 Teaching Award. These awards honor those individuals whom the residents believe were the most effective teachers of the academic year and exemplary in shaping their overall education.

C. Neill Epperson, MD was awarded the 2013 Martin P. Szuba Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching and Research. This award is presented annually to a Department faculty member with outstanding teaching abilities, ongoing clinical research, and a focus on translating research concepts into clinically useful teaching, all of which Dr. Szuba embodied in his work.

Mark H. “Mickey” Bernstein, MD, PhD received the 2013 Annual Award for Clinical Faculty. This award, funded by a clinical faculty member, is given to a volunteer clinical faculty member who has demonstrated long-term loyalty to the Department and excellence in teaching and/or supervising.

Mahendra T. Bhati, MD was the recipient of the 2013 Earl Bond Award. Initiated by the efforts of Dr. William Peltz, this annual award is given to a Department member who has distinguished himself/herself for teaching at the medical student, resident, and/or graduate levels.

Alisa Gutman, MD, PhD and Matthew Kayser, MD, PhD received the 2013 Dr. Henry P. and M. Page Durkee Laughlin Foundation Award. Upon the recommendation of the residency program, this award is given to residents in recognition of their professional achievement, dedication, and scholarship throughout residency training. Founded in 1964 through the generosity of Hank and Page Laughlin, the Dr. Henry P. and M. Page Durkee Laughlin Foundation is based in Frederick, Maryland. For more than thirty years, the Laughlin Foundation has honored outstanding residents in psychiatric training programs throughout the United States and the United Kingdom.

The Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Award given by the Psychoanalytic Cluster Steering Committee was renamed the Kenneth D. Cohen, MD Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Award as a tribute to the late Dr. Cohen for all of his teaching and supervision of residents throughout his career. A donation was made by his family to fund this award for the next five years. This award honors graduating residents in recognition of their excellence in providing psychodynamic psychotherapy. The recipients for 2013 were: Anthony Carlino, MD, Alisa Gutman, MD, PhD, Nora Hymowitz, MD, and Yan Xuan, MD.

University of Pennsylvania/Perelman School of Medicine Honors

E. Cabrina Campbell, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, and Katharine Baratz Dalke, MD, PGY-2 Psychiatry resident, were both selected by the third- and fourth-year Penn medical students to receive Penn Pearl awards. The medical students annually award Penn Pearls to outstanding faculty and house staff for excellence in clinical teaching. Drs. Campbell and Dalke were recognized at an awards ceremony held on March 12, 2013.

Katie Baratz Dalke, MD received the 2013 Medical Student Teaching Award. This award is given to a resident who has been a consistently outstanding teacher of medical students.

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Research and Career Achievement Awards

Regional, National & International Honors

Four Department of Psychiatry faculty members were inducted into the American College of Psychiatrists (ACP) at the ACP’s Annual Meeting in Kauai, Hawaii, held from February 20-24, 2013. This is a distinguished honor, as membership in the ACP is limited to 750 practicing psychiatrists who have demonstrated outstanding competence in the field of psychiatry, and who have achieved national recognition in clinical practice, research, academic leadership, and/or teaching. The Department’s inductees are (in alphabetical order): Tami D. Benton, MD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry), Steven Berkowitz, MD (Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry), E. Cabrina Campbell, MD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry), and C. Neill Epperson, MD(Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics and Gynecology).

Aaron T. Beck, MD, University Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, received the Doctor Honoris Causa Award of the Babes-Bolyai University (Romania) in July 2012 for his contributions to the fields of psychology and psychiatry.

David F. Dinges, PhD, Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry and Chief of the Division of Sleep and Chronobiology in the Department of Psychiatry, was selected by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) to continue his 13-year leadership of the Neurobehavioral and Psychosocial Factors Team of investigators through 2015. He is only one of seven individuals nationwide chosen by the NSBRI to lead teams focused on health and safety challenges for astronauts undertaking extended space flight. Dr. Dinges is internationally recognized for his expertise on human sleep need in relation to health and safety and life style factors that compromise sleep health. He and his team have performed cutting edge research on the causes, mechanisms, and processes of human sleep deprivation (cognitive, behavioral, emotional, biological, genetic) and the prevention of these fatigue effects and excessive sleepiness by interventions, countermeasures, clinical practices, and federal policies.

Edna B. Foa, PhD, Professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry and Director of the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety, was one of 22 honorees who each received a $25,000 award from the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award Trust. This prestigious award recognizes educators who have inspired their former students to “create an organization which has demonstrably conferred a benefit on the community at large” or “establish on a lasting basis a concept, procedure, or movement of comparable benefit to the community at large.” She was presented the award at a ceremony at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia on November 10, 2012. Dr. Foa is a world leading expert on obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the developer of Exposure and Ritual Prevention (EX/RP) therapy to treat OCD and Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy to treat PTSD. EX/RP is the gold standard treatment for OCD and has been adopted by clinics around the world. PE has been adopted by the U.S. Military and the Department of Veterans Affairs for treating combat veterans, as well as by governments and private health facilities around the world.

Raquel E. Gur, MD, PhD, the Karl and Linda Rickels Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Neuropsychiatry Section, received the 1st Annual Benefit for the Brain Scientific Research Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Pennsylvania Montgomery County on November 14, 2012 at a benefit dinner held by NAMI in Philadelphia. The award and benefit dinner “recognize[d] research that has significantly contributed to a better understanding and treatment of schizophrenia,” work for which Dr. Gur is internationally acclaimed. For more about NAMI Pennsylvania Montgomery County and the Scientific Research Award, please visit: www.nami-montcopa.org

John B. Jemmott III, PhD was selected as one of 60 scholars profiled by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) from among over 46,000 fellows since 1952, and the only Penn faculty member profiled in connection with the 60th Anniversary of the GRFP. For over 20 years, Dr. Jemmott has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct research developing and testing the efficacy of theory-based culturally appropriate HIV/STD risk-reduction interventions for a variety of populations in the U.S. and sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Jemmott is Professor of Communication in Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine, Kenneth B. Clark Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, and Director of the Center for Health Behavior and Communication Research.

Charles P. O’Brien, MD, PhD, Kenneth E. Appel Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Penn Center for Studies in Addiction, received the James Isaacson Award from the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism at its meeting in Sapporo, Japan in September 2012 for a lifetime of research on the biological basis of alcoholism. Dr. O’Brien also received the 2013 David Archibald Award from the Canadian Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. This is an international award that recognizes research accomplishments in mental health. He delivered the  Archibald Lecture on “A New Endophenotype of Alcoholism with Potentially the First Example of  Personalized Medical Treatment in Psychiatry” on April 13 in Toronto, Canada.

Karl Rickels, MD, Stuart and Emily B.H. Mudd Professor of Human Behavior and Professor of Psychiatry, was recognized for work in developing anxiety disorder medications as one of the recipients of the 2012 “CINP Pioneers in Psychopharmacology Award” from the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP). Established in 2002 and given every two years, the awards honor three individuals worldwide who have made major contributions to the field. Dr. Rickels, a leading figure in the field of pharmacotherapy, received the award “for his groundbreaking work in the development of medications to treat anxiety disorders.”

Thomas A. Wadden, PhD, Albert J. Stunkard Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders, received the TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) Research Achievement Award from The Obesity Society. The award “recognizes an individual for singular achievement or contribution to research in the field of obesity” and is supported by an annual grant from the Take Off Pounds Sensibly Foundation (TOPS). Dr. Wadden was presented the award at the Annual Scientific Meeting of The Obesity Society in September 2012 in San Antonio, Texas, where he delivered the TOPS Research Achievement Award Lecture on “Looking AHEAD in the Management of Obesity.” Dr. Wadden is one of the nation’s premier obesity researchers.

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Clinical Recognition

Thirty-three (33) Department of Psychiatry physicians were recognized as “2011-2012” Best Doctors in America.” The list, compiled by Best Doctors, Inc., is composed of physicians who have been selected by the consensus of their peers, and is published every two years.

Eighteen (18) Full-Time or Emeritus Faculty members in the Department were recognized:
Steven Arnold, MD, Robert Berkowitz, MD, Wade Berrettini, MD, PhD, James Cornish, MD, Charles Dackis, MD, C. Neill Epperson, MD, Dwight Evans, MD, Laszlo Gyulai, MD, Kyle Kampman, MD, Charles O’Brien, MD, PhD, David Oslin, MD, Anthony Rostain, MD, MA, James Stinnett, MD, Joel Streim, MD, Michael E. Thase, MD, Joseph Volpicelli, MD, Robert Weinrieb, MD, and Daniel Weintraub, MD.

Fifteen (15) Associated Faculty members in the Department were recognized: 
Christos Ballas, MD, Henry Bleier, MD, Lawrence Blum, MD, Sarah DeMichele, MD, Josephine Elia, MD, David Fink, MD, Newell Fischer, MD, Ruth Fischer, MD, Rollin Gallagher, MD, Paul Kettl, MD, Marc Lipschutz, MD, Michael McCarthy, MD, Robert Sadoff, MD, Andrew Stone, MD, and Robert Toborowsky, MD.

Six (6) Department of Psychiatry physicians were recognized by Philadelphia Magazine as “Top Doctors” in the region, as reported in the May 2013 issue – Kyle M. Kampman, MD (Addiction Psychiatry);  Anthony L. Rostain, MD, MA (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry); Joel E. Streim, MD (Geriatric Psychiatry); Steven E. Arnold, MD (Psychiatry; Alzheimer’s Disease); Edward S. Brodkin, MD (Psychiatry); and Michael E. Thase, MD (Psychiatry).


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