Deb Cowley, MD, was announced as the recipient of the 2021 American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training (AADPRT) Annual Lifetime Service Award. The purpose of this award is to acknowledge a psychiatrist AADPRT member who has provided significant service to AADPRT, had an impact on psychiatric residency education nationally, demonstrated excellence in psychiatric residency education, provided generativity and mentoring in residency, or some combination of these.

Dr. Cowley completed her MD at the University of Pennsylvania and her Psychiatry residency at the University of Washington. She is currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. She was the department’s Psychiatry Residency Director 1997-2015 and Vice Chair for Education 2005-2020. Her clinical work, teaching, and scholarship focus on perinatal psychiatry, anxiety disorders, psychiatric education, and faculty development. She has served as President of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training (AADPRT); has chaired AADPRT committees on research in residency, Child portal programs, duty hours, Milestones assessment, and faculty development; and has served on the ACGME Psychiatry Milestones Workgroup and American Psychiatric Association Practice Guidelines Steering Committee.

Dr. Cowley embodies all the criteria of this prestigious award. We all know her incredible contribution to resident training in our own program, but some may not have as much familiarity with her national activities and reputation. Simply put, Dr. Cowley has been a tour de force of activity nationally in resident education. She has held almost every position there is within AADPRT including serving as Membership Co-Chair, Program Chair, Secretary and President. Similarly, she has been on more national organization task forces than you can shake a stick at! She has also been very involved in the Psychiatry Resident In-Training Examination (PRITE), American Psychiatric Association (APA), American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). There is not any major national residency education program Dr. Cowley has not touched. Congratulations!