Department news | November 30, 2018
The Colville, WA clinic that was the 2017-18 implementation site for ICTP Fellow Ashley Davidson, MD, won the Providence Spokane Region 2018 Innovators Award for their use of the Collaborative Care Model to improve the quality and spectrum of care to their patients. In addition to Ashley, Lydia Chwastiak, MD, MPH, Tanya Keeble, MD, Amy Burns, MD, Anna Ratzliff, MD, PhD, and Debra Morrison were all involved in this award-winning partnership.
Department news | October 31, 2018
Richard Ries, MD, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Washington State Health Care Authority earlier this month for his longstanding work with the annual Co-Occuring Disorders and Treatment Washington State Conference. He and Dennis Donovan, PhD, started the COD & Treatment Conference in the late 1980s to share current information on co-occuring disorders and treatment among professionals from behavioral health, developmental disabilities, adult and youth corrections, and physical health. The goal of the conference is to promote integration of services across the public mental health, substance use disorder, developmental disabilities, and medical systems; promote knowledge about co-occurring disorders and the value of integration, to support the development of a co-occurring capable system of care, and to advocate and partner with others to promote integrated treatment and recovery for all people. Over 500 people were in attendance this year.
Department news | September 30, 2018
Maria Monroe-DeVita, PhD, associate professor and co-director of the First Episode Psychosis Program at Harborview, was recently awarded the Washington State Hero Award by the Washington Council for Behavioral Health at their annual conference in Kennewick, Washington. She was nominated and selected for this prestigious award for her translational work toward implementing and sustaining evidence-based and recovery-oriented practices for individuals experiencing serious mental illness across Washington State over the past 12 years, including Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) programs, and more recently spearheading efforts to disseminate and implement evidence-based interventions for individuals and families experiencing early psychosis. These include the New Journeys coordinated specialty care teams and formative work toward developing a Family Bridger program focused on assisting and supporting families and caregivers who have loved ones who have experienced early psychosis both during hospitalization and while transitioning to care in the community. Dr. Monroe-DeVita was joined by Todd and Laura Crooks who also received a Hero Award from the Washington Council for their groundbreaking work toward improving mental health care in the community via Chad’s Legacy Project, a nonprofit named after their son.
Department news | September 30, 2018
The students of MEDEX Seattle Class 50 collectively nominated Jason Kilmer, PhD, as the recipient of a 2018 MEDEX Golden Apple Award given to outstanding guest lecturers to the MEDEX classroom. For everyone who has heard Dr. Kilmer speak, this comes as no surprise. The decision to honor Dr. Kilmer’s lecture on communication came from student comments like the below:
MEDEX Northwest operates as a section under the Department of Family Medicine, UW Medicine and trains healthcare providers who will practice primary care in medically underserved and rural areas of the UW School of Medicine’s service region. Most of its 2,100-plus graduates work in the WWAMI region.
Department news | September 30, 2018
Vice Chair for Education and Faculty Development Deb Cowley, MD, will receive the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP)’s 2018 Cancro Academic Leadership Award next month at AACAP’s annual meeting in Seattle. Dr. Cowley will be the guest speaker at the Training and Education Lunch where attendees learn about important updates and innovations in child and adolescent psychiatry training for medical students, fellows and the community. Dr. Cowley’s talk, Faculty Development for Clinician Educators, will review the faculty development needs of clinician educators in child and adolescent psychiatry, and she will discuss ways to address these needs within the workplace. The Training and Education Lunch is open to child and adolescent psychiatry residency program directors, medical school clerkship directors, and other faculty who are passionate about education.
Department news | September 30, 2018
Mary Larimer, PhD, became the President of the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) in June, 2018. RSA was established in 1976 to assist and encourage the application of research to the solution of problems related to alcoholism. Today, the Society serves as a meeting ground for scientists, providing a forum for communication among researchers and promoting the acquisition and dissemination of scientific knowledge in the areas of basic science, risks and resiliency, education and prevention, treatment, outcome and recovery, and policy and economics. The president serves a one year term and provides opportunities to contribute leadership at a national level on behalf of this specialty. Dr. Larimer is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Center for the Study of Health and Risk Behaviors.
Department news | June 30, 2018
The Wayne J. Katon Outstanding Mentor Award recognizes a faculty member who demonstrates sustained commitment to the creative, scholarly, professional and personal development of mentees. The award honors Wayne Katon, MD, a gifted and dedicated mentor who supervised medical students, psychiatry residents, research fellows and junior faculty across several departments, many of whom have become principal investigators of their own grant funded research programs. He directed an NIH-funded T-32 Fellowship Program in Primary Care Psychiatry for over 25 years that produced more than 30 successful researchers at the interface of medicine and psychiatry, including many members of our department.
The recipient of this year’s award is Kathleen Myers, MD. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Myers has developed a comprehensive strategy for training junior faculty and fellows in the field of telepsychiatry. Her personal goal of bringing child psychiatry to the under-served populations of Washington and Alaska has supported the career development of many fellows and junior faculty members. Her nomination packet described her as someone who is wholly dedicated to putting her mentees first and who tirelessly and earnestly works to create opportunities for others to grow professionally and personally.
Past recipients of the award include Raphe Bernier, PhD, and Mary Larimer, PhD. The award is funded by the Wayne Katon Memorial Fund for Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Faculty Development.
Department news | June 30, 2018
This year, we established an award honoring extraordinary and sustained dedication, commitment, and effectiveness in fostering the professional and personal development of faculty members in our Clinician Teacher pathway.
We are delighted to announce the 2018 winner of this award is Anna Ratzliff, MD, PhD. Dr. Ratzliff has displayed a consistent and passionate commitment to mentoring clinician teachers, in both individual and group settings. She has led the UWMC clinician teacher peer mentoring group and over the past few years has mentored over 20 faculty members through a curriculum development project for the Integrated Care Training Program (ICTP). Mentees describe her as “an amazing mentor,” praise her for her “genuine desire to help others succeed coupled with her willingness to provide meaningful opportunities for growth for those that she works with” and state that her mentorship has been very valuable in their career development.
Department news | June 30, 2018
The Gary J. Tucker Career Teaching Award, named in honor of the Chair of our department from 1985 through 1997, recognizes exceptional career achievement in teaching and education and honors Dr. Tucker's significant contributions to our academic programs, his leadership and dedication as a teacher, clinician, and scholar, his love of teaching, and his ability to inspire and encourage trainees.
The award is given to a member of the academic or clinical faculty who has demonstrated, throughout his or her career, outstanding skills as a teacher and dedication to education. This year, the award was given to Elizabeth McCauley, PhD.
Dr. McCauley has been a faculty member for nearly 40 years. In 2006, she received the UW Medicine Award for Excellence in Mentoring for her long-term commitment to mentoring and faculty development, wise counsel, and encouragement of mentees to develop autonomy as faculty members and independent scholars. As the Psychology Internship Director from 1984-89 and again from 2013-18, she influenced dozens of future psychologists and showed them a path forward in their careers. She teaches in the classroom, in clinic, and through research mentoring. She has mentored over 40 trainees and currently mentors six junior faculty members. Excerpts from her nomination packet say she “juggles many roles with style and grace,” and is “kind,” “willing to share her wisdom and knowledge,” and “an inspiration to me and those around me.”
Past recipients of the award include Jack Carr, PhD, Johan Verhulst, MD, Chris Varley, MD, Joan Romano, PhD, Deb Cowley, MD, Dick Miyoshi, RPh, and Marcella Pascualy, MD.
Department news | June 30, 2018
The Exceptional Staff Award is a new award that honors and celebrates the valuable efforts staff members make toward supporting the mission of the department and upholding our core values of collaboration, continuous learning and mentorship, and integrity and accountability. In this inaugural year, we had two recipients: Pam Collins and Brenna Boyd.
Pam started working in the department as a part-time secretary for Wayne Katon, MD, and delved into fiscal management when she was hired to work at the AIMS Center. Pam learned on the job by taking ad hoc POD classes, completing a Fiscal Management Certificate and attending National Council of University Administrators trainings and conferences. She continually increased her knowledge and effectiveness and eventually was promoted to Division Administrator for Population Health a few years ago. She has become an extremely valuable resource for other Division and Center administrators who seek her out for her knowledge as well as her ability to remain calm and respond with humor in the most stressful situations. Pam has had a profound, positive effect throughout the department and her 16 year tenure has deeply supported our success.
Brenna joined the department in March, 2019 as a Research Study Coordinator for the Bernier Lab and has demonstrated exceptional commitment to the lab, the department, and the scientific community ever since. Her commute regularly involves a 9+ mile run from Columbia City, which is unparalleled to the effort she places in her work. The Bernier Lab sees complicated families of children with special needs, and Brenna does a tremendous amount of work to make each visit runs seamlessly to ensure comfort and ease for the families, relating to children and parents alike with warmth, respect and consideration. Her primary project is to coordinate a large multi-site study with Yale University, Boston Children’s, UCLA, and Duke University including overseeing the collection and entry of thousands of behavioral and experimental data points per participant. Brenna has risen to every occasion with determination and unfathomable kindness, and our department is better place because she is part of it.
The Exceptional Staff Award is funded by the Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Staff Development Fund that supports the development and appreciation of staff working for the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
