Joan Russo, PhD, who has shared her statistical prowess with our department since 1980, is transitioning from professor to emeritus faculty. Her unique analytic skills have had a tremendous impact on our research efforts and have strengthened our department as a whole. For many years, Dr. Russo worked closely with Wayne Katon providing statistical and analytic support. More recently, she has worked on John Fortney’s PCORI grant, Lydia Chwastiak’s projects, and with Doug Zatzick on the Trauma Survivors Outcomes and Support Studies. She has worked with scores of faculty writing grant proposals, analyzing research data, and transforming results into compelling narratives, resulting in an incredible 326 co-authored publications.

Dr. Russo is an outstanding quantitative methodologist. Her expertise spans depressive and anxiety disorder psychometrics, clinical trial design and analyses, electronic health record screen development and implementation, as well as multiple other topics relevant to mental health services research. In addition to her grant work, Dr. Russo provides outstanding methodological training and support to psychiatry residents, psychology interns, fellows, and junior and senior faculty. Despite her enormous skills and impact, she is incredibly humble and a true pleasure to work with.

Dr. Russo officially retires this December, but we will thankfully continue to enjoy her partnership, as an emeritus faculty member, for a few more years!