Honors & Awards

Award for Creativity in Psychiatric Education

Department News | March 30, 2026

The American College of Psychiatrists recently held its annual conference in Florida where Jennifer Piel, MD, JD received the 2026 Award for Creativity in Psychiatric Education. The award recognizes her medical-legal and legislative advocacy training for psychiatric learners. 
 
Dr. Piel’s program, “Legislative Advocacy in Psychiatry Education,” is a pioneering curriculum that equips psychiatry residents with the knowledge and skills needed to engage effectively in mental health policy and legislative advocacy. Designed to address a longstanding gap in psychiatry training, the program combines structured weekly didactics on the legal system, statutory interpretation, and ethics with mentored, individualized advocacy projects that allow residents to apply what they learn in real-world contexts.

Elizabeth McCauley’s career profiled in journal’s Past Presidents Series

Department News | February 25, 2026

Elizabeth McCauley, PhD has long been known as an influential figure in clinical child and adolescent psychology, with a career defined by the integration of science, clinical innovation, public service, and mentorship. In a recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Dr. McCauley’s career is profiled as part of a special series entitled “Leaders in the History of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology: Past Presidents Series.”
 
Dr. McCauley’s election to president of the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology in 2007 came at a critical time when increasing focus was placed on the development and implementation of evidence-based practices and integration of research into clinical practice. Dr. McCauley’s research and advocacy in these areas, as well as her broader research career, have had a transformative impact on youth access to care, adolescent depression treatment, and the training of the next generation of clinician-scientists.
 
The article provides a professional biography of Dr. McCauley, including her education and early career, contributions to the field of clinical child and adolescent psychology, and accomplishments during her tenure as president of SCCAP.

Read the profile at Taylor & Francis Online

Highly cited researchers and scholars 2025

Department News | December 30, 2025

We’re proud to announce that two of our faculty have been named on the Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list from Clarivate. Congratulations to Aaron Lyon, PhD and Cara Lewis, PhD, HSPP (now with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute).

The annual list identifies researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade. Their names are drawn from the publications that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science citation index. See the UW Medicine Newsroom story for a list that includes 45 scientists whose work was conducted at the UW School of Medicine or Fred Hutch Cancer Center.

A number of other department faculty have been recognized as Highly Ranked Scholars – Lifetime by ScholarGPS, an AI-driven scholarly analytics platform that ranks over 30 million researchers, 58,000 institutions, and countries based on publication, citation, and h-index metrics. It highlights the to 0.05% of scholars as "Highly Ranked Scholars" and the top 0.5% as "Top Scholars" in their respective fields.

Congratulations to all of our department faculty for being recognized for their exceptional productivity and impact, and the quality of their scholarly work!

Aaron Lyon receives School Mental Health Research Award

Department News | December 30, 2025

The National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) and the School Mental Health Research Summit Planning Committee have selected Aaron Lyon, PhD as the recipient of the 2025 School Mental Health Research Award! 

This award was started in 2018 to recognize leaders in school mental health whose scholarly work has made a significant contribution to advancing research and practice in school mental health.

Dr. Lyon was presented with the award at the 2025 Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health in Orlando, FL. He was nominated and selected as the winner by the School Mental Health Research Summit planning committee along with the award’s previous winners and planning committee members. Congratulations, Dr. Lyon!

Community-Based Integrated Care Fellowship team receives Innovations in Education Award

Department News | December 30, 2025

We’re proud to announce that our Community-Based Integrated Care Fellowship team received the Stoudemire Innovations in Education Award at the year’s Academy of Consultation Liaison Psychiatry (ACLP) meeting in San Antonio, TX. Congratulations to Amy Bauer, MD, MS; Jennifer Erickson, DO; Mark Newman, MD; Katherine Palm-Cruz, MD; and Anna Ratzliff, MD, PhD! 
 
The Stoudemire Innovations in Education Award is given to an individual or individuals who developed a creative educational program in the area of consultation-liaison psychiatry that is outstanding by virtue of its innovation and impact. This award is named for Alan Stoudemire, MD (1951-2000), a highly respected clinician and educator who was a professor of psychiatry at Emory University.

Farzaneh Faradi receives Austin Riggs Award 

Department News | November 26, 2025

We’re thrilled to share that Farzaneh Farhadi, MD, has been selected as a recipient of the 2025 Austen Riggs Award for Excellence in Psychotherapy. This national award recognizes psychiatry residents who demonstrate exceptional dedication to the practice and development of psychotherapy within a biopsychosocial framework.

This award is presented by the Austen Riggs Center. Located in Stockbridge, MA, the Austen Riggs Center is a therapeutic community, open psychiatric residential treatment center, and institute for education and research with a mission to promote resilience and self-direction in those with complex psychiatric problems. 

Dr. Farhadi’s recognition highlights her deep commitment to compassionate, holistic patient care

Morgan Liu and Nikitha Pothireddy win poster award at ACLP meeting

Department News | November 26, 2025

Congratulations to psychiatry residents Nikitha Pothireddy, MD and Morgan Liu, MD who won second place for the Best Trainee Poster award at the Academy of Consultation Liaison Psychiatry (ACLP) annual meeting in San Antonio, TX.

Their poster, “Assessing the impact of bidirectional text messaging Intervention on scheduling rates in a statewide perinatal telepsychiatry clinic,” reported on a quality improvement project conducted within the PERC Center’s Perinatal Telepsychiatry Clinic and the work of the Mental Health Navigator team including Perla Raga, Suwilanji Chisebuka, Hannah Kim, and Lauren Oickle. The faculty mentor for this QI project is Amritha Bhat, MD, MPH. This work aims to increase much needed access to perinatal mental health care in Washington. Congratulations to everyone involved! 

Andy Saxon receives Outstanding Achievement & Service Award

Department News | November 26, 2025

Congratulations to Andy Saxon, MD, recipient of the 2025 Outstanding Achievement and Service Award from the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP). This honor is presented to an outstanding member of the community who works in the field of addiction and who has contributed significantly to the science, teaching, treatment, and/or advocacy related to substance use disorders and co-occurring mental illness.
 
Before his entry into psychiatry, Dr. Saxon completed an internal medicine internship and worked for four years as an emergency room physician. Following a general psychiatry residency at UW, Dr. Saxon has more than four decades of experience as a clinical and research addiction psychiatrist. He sits on the editorial boards of the journals, Drug and Alcohol Dependence and General Hospital Psychiatry. He is a lifetime Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, where he served as the chair of the Council on Addiction Psychiatry from 2017-2019. He’s a fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, as well as a member of College on Problems of Drug Dependence and of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry. He has given numerous presentations at conferences and has more than 200 papers published in peer reviewed journals.