This year, for the first time, our Department is celebrating faculty mentoring through our new Wayne J. Katon Outstanding Mentor Award. This annual award recognizes a Department faculty member who demonstrates sustained commitment to the creative, scholarly, professional and personal development of mentees.

The award honors Wayne Katon, a gifted and dedicated mentor who supervised dozens of junior faculty across several departments who have become leaders in many aspects of psychiatry and principal investigators of their own grant funded research programs. Wayne directed a federally-funded T-32 Fellowship Program in Primary Care Psychiatry/Health Services Research 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 inaugural recipient of this award is Raphe Bernier, a rising star in our department who is widely considered one of the leading and most promising autism researchers in the world. A terrific nomination packet submitted on his behalf detailed Raphe’s remarkable generosity and investment in all members of his lab team and his commitment to developing the next generation of researchers in autism (students, trainees, and junior faculty).

Other faculty members nominated for their outstanding mentoring were Deb Cowley, Mary Larimer, Kathleen Myers, Rick Ries, and Michael Vitiello.

Thanks to Lydia Chwastiak, chair of the selection committee, and to the committee members for all of their work. Thanks also to those department members who submitted nominations on behalf of their mentors. And finally, thank you to all of our faculty who mentor our trainees, junior faculty, and staff!