National Advisory Board
The National Advisory Board assists Depression Center leadership in achieving and monitoring its mission and goals. The Board consists of local, national, and internationally recognized leaders with demonstrated expertise in the areas of education, research, public policy, health care delivery, corporate partnering, and philanthropy.
Daniel E. Atkins
Kellogg Professor of Community Information
University of Michigan
Daniel E. Atkins is the Kellogg Professor of Community Information in the School of Information and is a professor in the Division of Computer Science and Engineering in the College of Engineering. He is also coordinator of the Community Informatics specialization within the SI Master of Science in Information program.
Atkins also serves part-time as U-M associate vice president for research, cyberinfrastructure, a position which reports to the Office of the Vice President for Research and the Office of the Provost.
From June 1, 2006 to June 30, 2008, he served as director of the Office of Cyberinfrastructure at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C., while on leave from the University of Michigan.
Atkins began his research career in the area of computer architecture and did pioneering work in parallel computer architecture and high-speed computer arithmetic that is widely used in modern processor chips. He also conducts research and teaching in the area of distributed knowledge communities and open learning resources. He has directed several large experimental digital library projects as well as projects to explore the socio-technical design and application of collaboratories for scientific research.
Atkins served as chair of the National Science Foundation Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure. The panel issued a landmark report in February 2003 recommending a major Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Program intended to revolutionize science and engineering research and education. The report catalyzed new priorities and the new Office of Cyberinfrastructure at the NSF.
Among his many distinctions, Atkins was the 2008 winner of the Paul Evan Peters Award from the Coalition of Networked Information, Association of Research Libraries, and EDUCAUSE. The award recognizes notable, lasting achievements in the creation and innovative use of information resources and services that advance scholarship and intellectual productivity through communication networks.
Joshua G. Berman, J.D.
Partner, Katten Muchin Rosenman, LLP
Joshua Berman is a partner at the national law firm of Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, where he specializes in health care law, government investigations, criminal defense and complex litigation. He represents hospitals, health systems, nonprofit organizations, physician groups, insurance companies, device and pharmaceutical companies, senior officers, directors and executives and other corporate entities in a variety of matters nationwide. Mr. Berman is one of the national leaders of the firm’s White Collar and Government Investigations practice.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Berman spent seven years as a federal prosecutor in New York City and Washington, D.C. In that capacity, Mr. Berman investigated, prosecuted and tried cases relating to health care fraud, white collar crime, securities and bank fraud, public corruption, anti-piracy and copyright infringement, racketeering, cybercrime, espionage, counter-terrorism, and organized and violent crime. Mr. Berman was on an elite team of prosecutors that investigated and prosecuted al Qaeda members and their associates overseas and within the United States. In 2001, Mr. Berman served as Associate Investigative Counsel on the Webster Commission, leading one of the teams that reviewed the FBI’s national security and counterintelligence programs in the wake of FBI Special Agent Robert Hanssen’s espionage.
Mr. Berman is a frequent speaker and author. He has served as an adjunct professor of law at Columbia Law School, Georgetown University, American University, The George Washington University, The Catholic University of America, and Cardozo Law School, where he taught courses on white collar crime, federal prosecutions and cybercrime. Mr. Berman regularly provides legal insight to the media on numerous topics, including sensitive health care and government investigation matters. Some of his recent media appearances include The New York Times, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, CNN, Good Morning America, Nightline, CNBC , TIME andUSA Today.
Mr. Berman has been actively involved in advocacy and efforts on behalf of health organizations, including recently the Children's Brain Tumor Foundation (New York) and Cure Autism Now (Washington, D.C.).
Mr. Berman received his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, magna cum laude, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif, and an editor on the Michigan Law Review. He received his B.A. from Cornell University, where he graduated magna cum laude.
Kathy
Cronkite
Author and Mental
Health Advocate
Kathy Cronkite is a popular writer, journalist and public speaker. As one of the millions who suffer from clinical depression, she has become a tireless champion for mental health. As an advocate, Cronkite delivers a clear message: Depression must be accepted as the medical condition it is in order to combat depression's stigma by accepting it as a treatable disease.
Her book, "On the Edge of Darkness: Conversations About Conquering Depression" (Doubleday, 1994), has received wide acclaim for its informative and eloquent treatment of mental illness. In writing the book, Cronkite interviewed celebrities who suffered from depression, including Mike Wallace, Joan Rivers, Dick Clark, Kitty Dukakis, Rod Steiger, Rona Barrett, Jules Feiffer, John Kenneth Galbraith, and William Styron. Combined with interviews with well-known researchers of mental illness, these celebrity conversations cast a dispelling light on the myths and stigma that surround mental illness.
Her knowledge and work are well respected by mental health professionals. Honored by the Texas Psychological Association for outstanding public contribution to psychology in 1999, Cronkite has spoken all over the country and has appeared many times on television and radio. Her appearance on the TODAY show prompted over 12,000 calls in three hours to the 800 number of the National Institute of Mental Health, on whose advisory board she served. Cronkite also worked on the Communications Workgroup and the Bridging Science and Services Workgroup. Cronkite was presented with the William Styron Award by the National Mental Health Association. This award is presented to a prominent American who has managed a mental illness and helped others through their openness and outspoken advocacy. She was also the recipient of the Media Award from the Mental Health Association of Austin in 1987 and 1996.
Cronkite drew on her experiences as the daughter of famed television newscaster Walter Cronkite in penning her first book, "On the Edge of the Spotlight: Celebrities' Children Speak Out About Their Lives. Using a similar method to the one that she later employed in "On the Edge of Darkness"; she interviewed the children of celebrities to explore the challenges and privileges that were afforded to them.
Deborah
I. Dingell
President, D2 Strategies
Debbie Dingell is currently the president of D2 Strategies and is a chair the manufacturing initiative of the American Automotive Policy Council. Debbie Dingell is an active civic and community leader in both Michigan and Washington, D.C. and is a recognized national advocate for women and children. She recently completed a more than 30 year career at General Motors as a senior executive, where she headed the GM Foundation and public affairs.
Mrs. Dingell is also a national Democratic strategist, a member of the Democratic National Committee and has chaired numerous political campaigns. She currently chairs several boards, initiatives and committees and sits on numerous cultural, health, social services and civic boards in both Michigan and Washington, D.C. Much of her recent work has been focused on ethical issues and social responsibility as it relates to government and business. A known “bridge-builder,” she continues to promote and lead efforts toward greater understanding among the Detroit area’s Mideast community.
As a respected, bi-partisan voice, she is a regular contributor to the Fox News Channel, MSNBC, co-hosts “AM I Right” on the Detroit Public Television station, and is a regular roundtable Panel participant on WDIV’s “Flashpoint” as well as several other local media programs in Michigan and Washington, D.C. She is included in Washingtonian’s 2009 100 most influential women in Washington, DC and Detroit Crain’s listing of the 100 most influential women in Michigan.
Mrs. Dingell is married to Congressman John D. Dingell of Michigan.
Kenneth Duckworth, M.D.
Medical Director, National Alliance on Mental Illness
Ken Duckworth, M.D. is the Medical Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness as
well as Medical Director of Vinfen Corporation, a non-profit human services organization headquartered in Cambridge, MA. He is triple board certified in adult, child and adolescent,
and forensic psychiatry, and is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Duckworth has held many positions in clinical and leadership roles, including serving as the Medical Director and then Acting Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and, before that, as Medical Director of Massachusetts Mental Health Center for five years. While State Medical Director, Dr. Duckworth worked to reduce restraint and seclusion
in Massachusetts hospitals, implemented a clinical approach to the medication cost challenge
at Mass Health, and also supervised the first study on early mortality of public mental health clients. This last endeavor led him to develop the nationally acclaimed NAMI educational program, Hearts and Minds, promoting lifestyle changes to help reduce risks of type II diabetes, heart disease and related conditions. He recently co-authored NAMI’s 2006 state-by-state mental health system analysis, Grading the States Dr. Duckworth is a member of the National Coordinating Council, Standards for Bipolar Excellence (STABLE) Project; Steering Committee, NIMH Bipolar Disorder Trials Network; and the national board of the American Association of Community Psychiatrists. A Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Duckworth teaches at Harvard Medical School and Boston University School of Public Health. He has received numerous awards and honors for clinical excellence and has written papers on a variety of psychiatric issues.
James Johnson Duderstadt
President Emeritus and University Professor of Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan
Dr. James J. Duderstadt received his baccalaureate degree in electrical engineering with highest honors from Yale University in 1964 and his doctorate in engineering science and physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1967. After a year as an Atomic Energy Commission Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech, he joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 1968 in the Department of Nuclear Engineering. Dr. Duderstadt became Dean of the College of Engineering in 1981 and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs in 1986. He was appointed as President of the University of Michigan in 1988, and served in this role until July, 1996. He currently holds a university-wide faculty appointment as University Professor of Science and Engineering, directing the University’s program in Science, Technology, and Public Policy, and chairing the Michigan Energy Research Council coordinating energy research on the campus.
Dr. Duderstadt's teaching and research interests have spanned a wide range of subjects in science, mathematics, and engineering, including work in areas such as nuclear fission reactors, thermonuclear fusion, high powered lasers, computer simulation, information technology, and policy development in areas such as energy, education, and science.
During his career, Dr. Duderstadt has received numerous national awards for his research, teaching, and service activities, including the E. O. Lawrence Award for excellence in nuclear research, the Arthur Holly Compton Prize for outstanding teaching, the Reginald Wilson Award for national leadership in achieving diversity, and the National Medal of Technology for exemplary service to the nation. He has been elected to numerous honorific societies including the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Science, Phi Beta Kappa, and Tau Beta Pi.
Dr. Duderstadt has served on and/or chaired numerous public and private boards. These include the National Science Board; the Executive Council of the National Academy of Engineering, the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy of the National Academy of Sciences; the Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee of the Department of Energy; the National Commission for the Future of Higher Education, the Big Ten Athletic Conference; the University of Michigan Hospitals, Unisys, and CMS Energy.
He currently serves on or chairs several major national study commissions in areas including federal science policy, higher education, information technology, and engineering research, including NSF’s Advisory Committee on Cyberinfrastructure, the National Commission on the Future of Higher Education, and the NAE Committee on Engineering Research.
Michael
J. Fitzpatrick
Executive Director, National Alliance on Mental Illness
Michael Fitzpatrick
is Executive Director of NAMI (National
Alliance for the Mentally Ill). He recently
served as the Director of NAMI’s Policy
Research Institute over the last two years.
He has also served as NAMI’s Director
of State Policy. Mr. Fitzpatrick has an
MSW in Administration and Planning from
Boston College. He has also served in the
Maine Legislature. From 1994-1996, he served
as the House Chair of the Health and Human
Services Committee.
Prior to being employed by NAMI in 1999, Mr. Fitzpatrick was employed by the Spurwink Institute. He has served on numerous community, government and non-profit boards. He has recently served as the President of the Board of the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program in his home state of Maine. Mr. Fitzpatrick has also been employed in senior management positions in state government, with non-profit agencies and in the private sector. He has developed successful education, employment, housing, outreach and rehabilitation programs.
Jay
H. Gardner
Vice President and
Director, Development & Strategy
Ford Land, Ford Motor Company
Jay Gardner is Vice President
and Director of Development and Strategy
for Ford Land at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn,
Michigan. Prior to this, he was the director
of Ford Land Europe in Cologne, Germany
and responsible for construction, real estate
transactions, and facility management. Gardner
is Ford's top corporate real estate executive
on the continent and is responsible for
overseeing the project management teams
for every one of its expansions. Gardner's
group at Ford Land is overseeing large expansion
projects in Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Germany,
the Netherlands and Russia. The largest
of these is a $200 million, 250,000 square
mile automotive assembly plant and supplier
park in Camacari in northern Brazil. Ford
Motor Land Services Corporation, a wholly
owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company,
was established in 1970. As the company’s
provider of real estate, construction and
facility management services, Ford Land
plans, acquires, constructs, manages, develops
and disposes of all corporate real estate
worldwide. In addition, it is responsible
for dealership real estate operations, corporate
facilities planning and a corporate energy
efficiency and supply program. Headquartered
in Dearborn, Michigan, Ford Land has offices
in Warley, England; Cologne, Germany; Valencia,
Spain; and Sao Bernardo, Brazil.
John
F. Greden, M.D. Chair
Rachel Upjohn Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, Department of Psychiatry
Executive Director, Depression Center
Founding Chair, National Network of Depression Centers (NNDC)
Research Professor, Molecular and Biological Neurosciences Institute
University of Michigan
Dr. John Greden is Executive Director of the Universityof Michigan Comprehensive Depression Center, the Rachel Upjohn Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences in the Department of Psychiatry, and Research Professor in the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute. He joined the faculty at the Medical School in 1974 and served as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry from 1985 to 2007.
Dr. Greden’s clinical and research activities have emphasized the study of the longitudinal course of depression, linkages between stress hormones and depressive recurrences, and clinical strategies for preventing such recurrences. He has published more than 268 scientific papers, edited a number of scientific books including “Treatment of Recurrent Depression,” and has been acknowledged in various listings of the “The Best Doctors” and the “Top 100 Psychiatrists” in America. He has been a devoted educator, having delivered more than 300 invited presentations on depression and other topics nationally and internationally and was twice acknowledged as “Teacher of the Year” at the University of Michigan Medical School.
On a national level, Dr. Greden has been a leader in major scientific organizations, having served as past president of both the Psychiatric Research Society and the Society of Biological Psychiatry. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Psychiatric Research from 1993-1999, and Senior Editor of Scientific Publications for the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) from 1998-2001. In 2000, he was appointed Chair of the Council on Research for the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and in 2002 was elected Chair of the American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry. He has started or led several unique training initiatives for the American Psychiatric Association Young Investigators Colloquium, the Society of Biological Psychiatry Travel Award, the NIMH-APA Task Force on Young Investigator Training, and the Rachel Upjohn Clinical Scholars Depression Program for young academicians at Michigan. He has personally mentored scores of young investigators in NIMH “K” awards, Veterans Administration Career Development Awards, or NARSAD Young Investigator awards.
In 1999, Dr. Greden proposed establishment of the University of Michigan Depression Center. The Regents of The University of Michigan endorsed the concept in 2001 and the Center has made major strides in becoming a multidisciplinary national prototype for integrated research, clinical care, education and public policy formulation.
Dr. Greden received his Medical Degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School, completed an internship at UCLA Harbor General Hospital in Los Angeles, and was a resident in psychiatry at the University of Minnesota Hospitals and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Prior to joining the Michigan faculty, he served as Director of Psychiatry Research at Walter Reed.
Kay
Redfield Jamison, Ph.D.
Author and Professor
of Psychiatry
Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison is Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Honorary Professor of English at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She is the co-author of the standard medical text on manic-depressive illness, which was chosen in 1990 as the "Most Outstanding Book in Biomedical Sciences" by the American Association of Publishers, and author of Touched with Fire, An Unquiet Mind, and Night Falls Fast. She is the author or co-author of five books and more than 100 scientific articles about mood disorders, suicide, psychotherapy, and lithium. Her memoir about her own experiences with manic depressive illness, An Unquiet Mind, was selected by The Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly and the Seattle Post Intelligencer as one of the best books of 1995. An Unquiet Mind was on The New York Times Bestseller List for more than five months and was translated into fifteen languages. Her book, Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide, was a national bestseller, translated into twelve languages, and selected by The New York Times as a "Notable Book of 1999." Her most recent book, Exuberance was published in 2004.
Dr. Jamison completed her undergraduate and doctoral studies at the University of California, Los Angeles where she was a National Science Foundation Research Fellow, University of California Cook Scholar, John F. Kennedy Scholar, United States Public Health Service Pre-doctoral Research Fellow, and UCLA Graduate Woman of the Year. She also studied zoology and neurophysiology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Dr. Jamison, formerly the director of the UCLA Affective Disorders Clinic, was selected as UCLA Woman of Science and has been cited as one of the "Best Doctors in the United States." She is the recipient of a MacArthur Award, the American Suicide Foundation Research Award, the UCLA Distinguished Alumnus Award, the UCLA Award for Creative Excellence, the Siena Medal, the Endowment Award from the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, the Fawcett Humanitarian Award from the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association, the Steven V. Logan Award for Research into Brain Disorders from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the William Styron Award from the National Mental Health Association, the Falcome Prime for research in affective illness from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, and the Yale University McGovern Award for excellence in medical communication. Dr. Jamison was a member of the first National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research.
Phil
Jenkins
CEO, Sweepster Inc.
Phil Jenkins is a lifelong
resident of Michigan and the founder and
CEO of Sweepster Inc. Jenkins was a young
engineer working for Caterpillar Tractor
when he got a call from his mother in 1949
asking him to return home to take over the
family farm equipment business in Dexter,
then called Jenkins Equipment Company. Sweepster
Inc. manufactures attachment, walk-behind,
self-propelled and airport runway sweepers
for all types of equipment used in airports,
municipalities, agriculture, and construction
around the globe. Annual sales total about
$50 million, with aviation products generating
about 25 percent of the gross revenue. Sweepster
Inc. is an Earth Share of Michigan company
supporting environmentally responsible workplaces.
Jenkins is also a board member of Equipment
Manufacturers Institute (EMI) in Chicago,
Illinois, as well as an active community
member helping to establish the Generations
Together Center in Dexter an inter-generational
daycare center that provides day care for
both the very old and the very young together.
In 1999, Jenkins lost his wife of forty-seven
years who suffered from depression.
Congressman
Patrick J. Kennedy
U.S. House of Representatives, Rhode Island
Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy is serving his seventh term in Congress as the representative from the First District of Rhode Island. A graduate of Phillips Academy
in Andover, MA, Kennedy came to Rhode Island
to attend Providence College where he received
his degree in Social Science in 1991. While
at Providence College, Kennedy became politically
active, first helping to revive the college's
Young Democrats' organization, and then,
in March 1988, winning election as a Democratic
National Convention delegate committed to
Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.
In the Democratic primary in September 1988, at the age of 21, he unseated a five-term incumbent in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, becoming the youngest Kennedy family member ever to win office. Representing District 9, comprised of the Mount Pleasant and Elmhurst neighborhoods of Providence, Kennedy was re-elected in 1990 and 1992. As a member of the Rhode Island House, he served on both the Health, Education and Welfare and Special Legislative Committees. In 1992, he was named Chairman of the House Rules Committee and championed reform and open government in the General Assembly. He was a leader on gun control issues, sponsoring the state's seven-day waiting period for gun purchases. In November 1994, he defeated Republican Kevin Vigilante to win an open seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. At the age of 27, he was the youngest member elected to Congress that year.
Kennedy served three terms on both the House Armed Services Committee and the Resources Committee. In December 1998, he was appointed to the House Appropriations Committee, but requested a leave of absence in order to fulfill a two-year term as the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He remained a member of the Armed Services and Resources Committee while overseeing the operations of the DCCC, the Democrats' campaign and political arm. In January 2001, Kennedy assumed his seat on the Appropriations Committee, which has the authority over all of the federal government's discretionary spending. As part of his Appropriations duties, Kennedy sits on the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and on the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, and Judiciary.
Congressman
Joseph K. Knollenberg
Former U.S. Congressman, Michigan
Former Congressman Knollenberg began his sixth term in Congress on January 7, 2003, when he was sworn-in to represent the people of Michigan’s Ninth Congressional District. First elected in 1992, Joe spent his first ten years in office representing Michigan’s 11th District, which stretched from western Wayne County to southwest Oakland County. Following the 2000 Census, Michigan’s congressional districts were redrawn and Knollenberg’s home fell in the new Ninth District, which consists of 22 cities and townships entirely in Oakland County.
He is best known at home for his strong record of constituent service and focus on improving the quality of life in Southeast Michigan. He is particularly proud of the dedication his staff shows to helping constituents navigate the federal bureaucracy as well as his efforts to secure federal funds to help clean up the Rouge River, to redirect federal resources to the Northern Border so that Detroit-area border crossings with Canada are secure and efficient, and to promote free trade agreements that bring high-paying jobs to our part of Michigan.
In his years in Congress, Joe has earned a reputation for his hard work and his common sense approach that has produced results for his constituents and the entire state of Michigan. As Vice President Dick Cheney noted in a August 2002, “Both Republicans and Democrats respect his diligence, his viability, his good judgment.”
Prior to running for Congress, Joe ran a small business in Troy, Michigan and was involved extensively in local and civic affairs. His sons, Marty and Steve, now run the family business. Joe and his wife Sandie have lived in Oakland County for the past 35 years. They currently reside in Bloomfield Township.
Earl
Lewis, Ph.D.
Provost and Executive
Vice President for Academic Affairs, Emory
University
Earl Lewis is Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of History and African American Studies. Before joining the Emory faculty in July 2004, Earl served as dean of the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies and vice provost for academic affairs/graduate studies at the University of Michigan. He was the Elsa Barkley Brown and Robin D.G. Kelley Collegiate Professor of History and African American and African Studies and formerly director of the Center for Afro-American and African Studies. From 1984 to 1989 he was on the faculty in the department of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
Earl, who holds degrees in history and psychology, is author and co-editor of seven books, among them In Their Own Interests: Race, Class and Power in 20th Century Norfolk (University of California Press, 1993) and the award-winning To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans (Oxford University Press, 2000). Between 1997 and 2000 he co-edited the eleven-volume The Young Oxford History of African Americans. Earl co-authored the widely acclaimed Love on Trial: An American Scandal in Black and White, published in 2001 by WW Norton. His most recent books are The African American Urban Experience: Perspectives from the Colonial Period to the Present, co-edited and published with Palgrave (2004), and the co-written Defending Diversity: Affirmative Action at the University of Michigan, published by the University of Michigan Press (2004).
Earl has also written essays, articles, and reviews on different aspects of American and African American history that have appeared in many academic journals. He is a current or past member of a number of editorial boards and boards of directors.
In 1999, Earl was a recipient of Michigan’s Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award. He received the 2001 University of Minnesota's Outstanding Achievement Award given to a distinguished graduate. And Concordia College honored him with an honorary degree in 2002.
Karen
M. Marshall
Program Development Director for the American Association of Suicidology
Karen M Marshall is a career journalist with extensive experience in print, broadcast and web-based reporting. Her work has earned dozens of professional awards for print, radio and television reporting on state and national levels.
In recent years, her interests expanded into furthering the work of a number of local, statewide and national non-profit organizations dedicated to reducing suicide in this country and abroad. After losing her father and an uncle to suicide, she became involved in prevention efforts first as a volunteer and later in professional capacities.
She is now the Program Development Director for the American Association of Suicidology (AAS), a Washington, DC-based nonprofit dedicated to the understanding and prevention of suicide. AAS is the nation’s oldest suicide prevention organization, with a membership comprised of mental health professionals, researchers, crisis center directors and survivors.
Over the past 16 years, she received training from noted experts in the field of suicide prevention, intervention and healing. She has assisted with the development and design of training programs, has taught suicide prevention and intervention to thousands of lay people, and has written for suicide prevention publications throughout the country. She conducts workshops and seminars in the U.S. and internationally.
In 1999, she helped to build the nation’s first suicide prevention crisis line network, which connects certified crisis hotlines around the country under one toll-free telephone number to make emergency suicide prevention services available to anyone, anytime, free of charge. She now serves on an advisory subcommittee for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-TALK [8255]), the federally-funded crisis line network.
She founded a nonprofit organization in her home state of Michigan in 2002 which focused on reducing suicide in the workforce, a population that accounts for two-thirds of all suicide deaths each year. That project is now housed at AAS, where she continues to develop and implement prevention programs for people in their middle years. Karen has also been involved in the development and leadership of a number of state-based and local suicide prevention organizations, was a founding member of the National Council for Suicide Prevention, and chairs a suicide prevention subcommittee for Operation Lifesaver Inc., a national railroad safety organization.
She grew up in Michigan, attended high school and college then began her journalism career there. She recently relocated to the Washington, DC area.
Janet
Olszewski
Director, Michigan
Department of Community Health
Janet Olszewski is a long-time health
care executive for the State of Michigan.
She was appointed MDCH Director by Governor
Jennifer Granholm effective on January 1,
With a FY 2003 gross appropriation
of $9.2 billion and approximately 4,900
employees, MDCH is responsible for health
policy and management of Michigan's publicly
funded health systems. Services are planned
and delivered through several integrated
components. These include, Medicaid health
care coverage for 1.1 million Michigan residents,
mental health and substance abuse services
through contracts with 18 Community Mental
Health Services Programs, 45 local public
health departments that assess health needs,
promote and protect health, prevent disease,
and assure access to appropriate care for
all citizens. The Office of Drug Control
Policy and The Office of Services to the
Aging.
Olszewski served from 2000 to 2003 as Vice President for Government Programs and Regulation at M-CARE. She was responsible for the company’s Medicare products; state contracts for the Medicaid, MIChild and Kids Care programs; compliance with state regulatory requirements; and implementation of benefit changes across all product lines.
Prior to joining M-CARE in 2000, Olszewski spent 23 years with the State of Michigan. She began her state government career with the Office of Services to the Aging in 1977. From 1985 to 1991, she assumed leadership roles in two divisions of the former Department of Public Health. She was acting director of the department’s division of services for crippled children during 1991 and 1992. She led the department’s managed care quality assessment and improvement division from 1992 to 1997. From 1998 – 2000, she was Director for Medicaid Quality Improvement and Customer Services.
Olszewski is a graduate of Boston University and earned a master's degree in social work from the University of Michigan.
Herbert Ouida
Former Executive Vice President, World Trade Centers Association
International Trade Leader and Consultant
Herbert Ouida is currently a Consultant and an Adjunct Professor at Farleigh Dickinson University. Herb devoted 26 years to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in a variety of positions ranging from attorney handling litigation and employee personnel matters to international business development management positions. During his tenure at the Port Authority he accepted a one-year leave of absence at the request of the Mayor of the City of New York to manage a city agency responsible for ground transportation regulation.
In 1995, Herb began eight years of service as the Executive Vice President of the World Trade Centers Association. He left the WTCA in 2003 to create a foundation in memory of his son Todd who lost his life in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Herbert, his wife Andrea, and their family funded an endowment at the University of Michigan Depression Center that supports an annual clinical scholar award and distinguished guest lecturer in the field of childhood anxiety and depression.
Waltraud
E. Prechter, B.A., Ed. (Wally)
President, World Heritage
Foundation
Waltraud Prechter is President
of the Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Fund. For a quarter century, she served
as the closest business advisor and confidant
to her late husband, entrepreneurial visionary
Heinz C. Prechter, quietly building the
business empire that was Prechter Holdings.
Driven by the spirit of giving back to the community, the Prechter family established the World Heritage Foundation, a philanthropic entity dedicated to helping make a difference in the areas of health, education, welfare, arts and culture, and the community. In addition, the foundation fosters innovative public and private sector partnerships, entrepreneurial development, and German American relations. Mrs. Prechter has served as President of the World Heritage Foundation since its inception in 1985.
A strong advocate of health education for many years, she established the Heinz C. Prechter Fund for Manic Depression in memory of her late husband to help develop a cure for bipolar disorder. Mr. Prechter suffered from intermittent bouts of manic depression for most of his adult life and fell victim to suicide on July 6, 2001. Mrs. Prechter was instrumental in establishing the Depression Center at the University of Michigan.
Mrs. Prechter has been a positive force in her community, state, and country. She serves in leadership positions in numerous civic and charitable organizations, including the University of Michigan Health Care Advisory Board and President's Advisory Group; the Leukemia Society; the Kresge Eye Institute; the Robert and Gerry Ligon Research Center of Vision; Wayne State University's Detroit Medical Center Women's Clinical Services Board; Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital; Detroit Symphony Orchestra; and the Downriver Council for the Arts.
Born in the Nuremberg region in southern Germany, Mrs. Prechter attended the University of Erlangen. She came to the United States in 1977 and completed her education at the University of Michigan, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education with honors. She became a U.S. citizen in 1985. A resident of Grosse Ile, Michigan, she is parent to adult twins.
John J.H. Schwarz, M.D.
Surgeon and Former U.S. Congressman
Dr. Joe Schwarz was elected to the United States House of Representatives, representing Michigan's 7th congressional district in 2004 and served until 2007.
Dr. Schwarz served as the Senate's President Pro Tempore and was also a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee where he chaired the Subcommittee on Higher Education and the Subcommittee on General Government. In addition, he was a member of Subcommittees on Capital Outlay and Health Policy.
Prior to serving in the Michigan Senate, he was Mayor of Battle Creek from 1985-1987 and a Battle Creek City Commissioner from 1979-1987. Dr. Schwarz practices medicine and surgery in Battle Creek and is on the active staff of the Battle Creek Health System. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
The former Congressman was appointed by Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm to serve on the Emergency Financial Advisory Panel, led by former Michigan governors Milliken (R) and Blanchard (D). On the national level, Dr. Schwarz was appointed by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to serve on the independent panel to investigate the conditions at Walter Reed Army Hospital in suburban Washington, DC. Dr. Schwarz has many professional affiliations. He is past president of the Calhoun County Medical Society, and a past trustee of Leila Post Montgomery Hospital in Battle Creek. He serves on the Alumni Visiting Committee for the College of Literature, Science and the Arts at the University of Michigan and on the visiting Alumni Committee for the Wayne State University School of Medicine. He is a trustee of Olivet College. Senator Schwarz received an A.B. in history from the University of Michigan and his M.D. from Wayne State University. He completed his residency training in otolaryngology at Harvard. Senator Schwarz also served in the United States Navy in Vietnam and Indonesia.
David Shern, Ph.D.
President and CEO
Mental Health America
With more than 30 years of distinguished service in mental health services research and system reform, David L. Shern, Ph.D. is one of the nation’s leading mental health experts.
Dr. Shern was named in 2006 as the president and CEO of the Mental Health America, the country's oldest and largest nonprofit organization addressing all aspects of mental health and mental illness. Prior to joining MHA, Dr. Shern served as dean of the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute (FMHI) at the University of South Florida, one of the largest research and training institutes in behavioral health services in the United States. He also founded and directed the National Center for the Study of Issues in Public Mental Health - a National Institute of Mental Health-funded services research center located in the New York State Office of Mental Heath (OMH).
His work has spanned a variety of mental health services research topics including epidemiological studies of the need for community services; the effects of differing organizational, financing and service delivery strategies on continuity of care and client outcome and the use of alternative service delivery strategies such as peer counseling and self help on the outcomes of care. He has authored more than 100 publications including papers in Health Affairs, Psychiatric Services, Medical Care, Health Services Research, Behavioral Health Services and Research and the American Journal of Public Health.
In 2000, Governor Jeb Bush appointed Dr. Shern to the Florida Commission on Mental Health and Substance Abuse. He was elected Chair of the Commission by his fellow Commissioners and spearheaded an effort to develop a new statewide focus on and governance model for behavioral health across all human service agencies and settings.
Dr. Shern received his Bachelors of Science, Masters and Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Andrew
Solomon
Author and Mental
Health Advocate
Andrew Solomon studied at Yale University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1985, and then at Jesus College Cambridge, where he received the top first-class degree in English in his year, the only foreign student ever to be so-honored, as well as the University writing prize. He is now pursuing a PhD at Cambridge in Social and Political Studies (psychology), working on the relation between biological and psychosocial models of early attachment between mothers and infants. In 1988, he began his study of Russian artists, which culminated with the publication of The Irony Tower: Soviet Artists in a Time of Glasnost (Knopf, 1991). He was asked in 1993 to consult with members of the National Security Council on Russian affairs and wrote parts of Clinton’s first Russia speeches; that year he was also named a Contributing Writer of The New York Times Magazine, a position he held until 2001. His recently reissued first novel, A Stone Boat (Faber, 1994), was a runner up for the LA Times First Fiction prize and was a national bestseller; it has now been published in 5 languages.
Mr. Solomon’s most recent book, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, won him fourteen national awards, including the 2001 National Book Award, and is being published in 24 languages. It was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It has been on the New York Times bestseller list in both hardback and paperback; it has also been a bestseller in seven foreign countries. Among the honors garnered by The Noonday Demon are the Books for a Better Life Award, the Ken Award of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the QPB New Visions Award, the Voice of Mental Health award of the Jed Foundation and the National Mental Health Association, the Lammy for the best nonfiction of 2001, the Mind Book of the Year for Great Britain, the Prism Award of the NDMDA, the Charles T. Rubey LOSS award, the Dr. Albert J. Solnit Memorial Award, the Silvano Arieti Award, the Dede Hirsch Community Service Award, and the Erasing The Stigma Leadership Award. It was chosen an American Library Association Notable Book of 2001 and a New York Times Notable Book. It was written with the assistance of a Bogliasco Fellowship from the Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities. The NY Times review described it as “All-encompassing, brave, deeply humane...a book of remarkable depth, breadth and vitality...open-minded, critically informed and poetic all at the same time...fearless, and full of compassion.” Mr. Solomon has lectured on depression around the world, including recent stints at Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Cambridge, and the Library of Congress.
Mr. Solomon has lectured on depression around the world. He serves on the boards of the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the Alliance for the Arts, the Alex Fund, the American Council for Cultural Policy, the Worcester Foundation for Medical Research, the Rita Fund, the Larry Kramer Initiative for Gay and Lesbian Studies at Yale University, the William Alanson White Institute for Psychoanalysis, and the World Monuments Fund. He is on the advisory boards of Outward Bound and the Mental Health Policy forum at Columbia University, is a member of the Asian Art Council of the Guggenheim and the Chairman’s Council of the Metropolitan Museum, and serves on the Conservators’ Council of the New York Public Library. He is a fellow of Berkeley College at Yale University and is a member of the New York Institute for the Humanities and the Council on Foreign Relations. He maintains residences in London and New York and is a dual national.
Marianne Udow-Phillips
Director, University of Michigan Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation
Marianne Udow-Phillips was appointed the Director of the University of Michigan Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation in September 2007. The Center is a joint venture of the University of Michigan Health System and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan with a goal to improve the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of the health care system by conducting demonstration projects in both health care finance and delivery and health status and access to care.
Prior to her role with the Center, Marianne was the Director of the Michigan Department of Human Services, appointed by Governor Jennifer Granholm effective January 12, 2004. The Department of Human Services directs the operations of public assistance and service programs through a network of local offices. DHS programs include temporary cash assistance, food assistance, childcare, child support enforcement, medical assistance, adoption and foster care services, domestic violence services, juvenile justice services and adult and children’s protective services.
Prior to her appointment at DHS, she served as Senior Vice President of Health Care Products and Provider Services for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. She was also the former Senior Vice President and Vice President of Plans and Operations for Mercy Alternative and Care Choices. She has a master’s degree in Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
In addition to her long standing commitment to improving the quality and affordability of health care, Marianne is a passionate advocate for improving the lives of the poor with a special emphasis on children, including a focus on early childhood development. She has served on many boards and commissions. Among others, her current board involvement includes the Early Childhood Investment Corporation, Michigan State Housing Authority, School of Public Health Dean’s Advisory Committee and Freedom from Hunger. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, including the Anti-Defamation League’s “Women of Achievement Award”, Crain’s Detroit Business top 100 “Most Influential Women,” Wayne State College of Nursing’s “2003 Lifeline Award,” Girl Scouts of Huron Valley Council’s “2006 Women of Distinction Award,” Michigan Business and Professional Association’s “2006 Women & Leadership in the Workplace Award,” Michigan Fatherhood Coalition “2007 Child Advocate Award,” and most recently the Michigan Women’s Foundation’s “2007 Women of Achievement and Courage Award.”
Mike
Wallace
Correspondent Emeritus
60 Minutes, CBS News
Mike Wallace has been co-editor
of 60 Minutes since its premiere on September
24, 1968. The 2002-03 season marks his 35th
on the broadcast. His incisive interviewing
techniques and expansive knowledge of current
affairs has enabled him to produce an impressive
series of interviews with American and international
leaders, including every President from
John F. Kennedy through George Bush. More
recently, Mr. Wallace has openly discussed
his experience with depression with the
same candor that he has demanded of his
interviewees. His hour-long HBO documentary,
"Dead Blue: Surviving Depression,"
has helped draw attention to the pervasiveness
of depression and the ability to recover
from it. He is a testament to the contributions
that people living with mental illness can
and do make in our society.
View Photo from 2003 Inaugural Meeting
Last Updated on 10/21/2008
