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Home  »  Your Career  »  Awards  »  Distinguished Member Awards  »  Jeanne Spurlock, MD, Lecture & Award on Diversity & Culture
AACAP Jeanne Spurlock, MD, Lecture and Award on Diversity and Culture

The AACAP Jeanne Spurlock, MD, Lecture and Award on Diversity and Culture recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the advancement of the understanding of diversity and culture in children’s mental health, and who will contribute to the recruitment into child and adolescent psychiatry from all cultures.

Award Recipient Benefits

  • $1,000 stipend
  • Delivery of an Honors Presentation at the AACAP Annual Meeting in October
  • Award recognition during the AACAP Annual Meeting opening plenary
  • Attendance at the (in-person) Annual Meeting’s Distinguished Scholar Lunch

Candidate Eligibility Information

  • This award recognizes an individual who has made significant and impactful contributions, specific to diversity and culture in relation to children’s mental health, to areas of social awareness: civil rights, spirituality and/or religion, social welfare, public information, scientific research, education and mentoring, and the arts (theatre, music, painting, sculpture or photography).
  • Individuals’ contributions must have national and/or international stature and clearly demonstrate lasting effects.
  • The nominee is not required to be an AACAP member and may come from a psychiatric or non‐psychiatric field.

Nomination Materials

A completed nomination should include:

  • Statement of nomination - Indicate in 500 words or less why your nominee should receive the Jeanne Spurlock, MD, Lecture and Award on Diversity and Culture.
  • A biographical statement about the nominee OR the nominee’s CV; the rubric of areas factored by the selection committee is shared in page 2 of the nomination form.
    [NOTE: If you have multiple nomination letters or supporting comments for the candidate (from other colleagues with whom the individual has worked), please collate the supporting nomination information in one electronic document.]

Submission Process
Deadline: April 18, 2025


The nominator must email the nomination materials via training@aacap.org to the attention of the Co-Chairs of AACAP's Diversity and Culture Committee as follows:

Brandon Newsome, MD
Deepika Shaligram, MD
AACAP’s Diversity and Culture Committee Co-Chairs

Questions?

Please direct all questions to AACAP’s Research, Grants and Workforce Department via training@aacap.org

The availability of all awards is contingent upon receipt of funding.


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About Jeanne Spurlock, MD

 

Jeanne Marybeth Spurlock, MD (July 19, 1921 – November 25, 1999) was a child and adolescent psychiatrist, professor, author and researcher who specialized in treating women and children, specifically in the black community, working to analyze aspects of culture and race that influenced the treatment of mental illness. She became determined to dedicate her life to promoting caring and empathy in the medical profession after receiving indifferent care in a hospital when she broke a leg at the age of nine.

The eldest of seven children, Dr. Jeanne Spurlock was born in Sandusky, Ohio to Frank and Glodene Spurlock. Her family relocated to Detroit while she was still in grade school. After graduating from the public school system in Detroit, Dr. Spurlock attended Spelman College in Atlanta, GA. Dr. Spurlock then entered medical school at Howard University College of Medicine, graduating in 1947. After graduation, Dr. Spurlock moved to Chicago to begin her residency at Provident Hospital. After selecting psychiatry as her primary practice, Dr. Spurlock accepted a residency at Cook County Psychopathic Hospital. Dr. Spurlock began her private practice in Chicago in 1953. She was later appointed Chief of the Child Psychiatry Clinic at the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. In addition to her position at Reese, she served as Director of the Children’s Psychosomatic Unit of the Neuropsychiatric Institute of the University of Illinois. Dr. Spurlock’s career highlights also include serving as the deputy medical director of the American Psychiatric Association for seventeen years, chairing the Department of Psychiatry at Meharry Medical College, (during the 1960’s) and teaching at George Washington University as well as Howard University. She also operated her own private psychiatry practice.

In 1971, Dr. Spurlock became the first African American and the first woman to win the Edward A. Strecker, MD, Award for outstanding contributions to the field of clinical psychiatry. In 1988, she was awarded the Solomon Carter Fuller Award for the furtherance of the mental health of African Americans.  In 1994, she won the Alexandra Symonds Association of Women Psychiatrists (AWP) Leadership award. Among her many publications, Dr. Spurlock edited Black Psychiatrists and American Psychiatry (1999), and co-wrote with Ian A. Canini, MD, "Culturally Diverse Children and Adolescents: Assessment, Diagnosis, and Treatment" (2000); her many research papers and presentations covered topics such as single parent families, trends in U.S. policy and the consequences for African Americans, and black children in education. Dr. Spurlock paved the way for women in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.

Sources of the biography information:
Dr. Jeanne Spurlock. Changing the face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians. U.S. National Library of Medicine. https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_306.html, June 2003.
Canino, Ian A. (June 2000). Jeanne Spurlock, M.D. (1921–1999). Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 39 (6): 804.
Helfgott, E. (2018, December 20). Jeanne Spurlock, M.D. (1921-1999). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/spurlock-jeanne-m-d-1921-1999/
Dr. Jeanne Spurlock, a Leader in Psychiatric Medicine and Social Activism. Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. https://sanduskyhistory.blogspot.com/2021/02/dr-jeanne-spurlock-leader-in.html. February 2021

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Jeanne Spurlock, MD, Lecture & Award on Diversity and Culture Recipients


View the bio of recent recipients (from 2012 to present) via the AACAP honors book shared here.


YEAR  AACAP MEMBER RECIPIENT HONORS PRESENTATION TITLE  STATE/COUNTRY
2024
 Y  Beverly J. Stoute, MD Why Race? And How Can We Think About It?  GA
         
2023
 Y  James P. Comer, MD, MPH Diversity and Culture and My Career  CT
         
 2022  Y  Warren Y.K. Ng, MD, MPH  CAPturing Dr. Spurlock’s Inspiration
 NY
 2022  Y  Joshua Sparrow, MD  Cultural Affirmation, Community Healing, and Nation Building  MA
       
2021  Y Patrice A. Harris, MD, MA Leadership in Times of Crisis and Beyond  GA
         
2020
 Y Tami D. Benton, MD Addressing Racism and Disparities in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry:
Diversifying Leadership for the Workforce
 PA
2020
 Y Ayesha I. Mian, MD A Story of Hope: Leading Change Beyond Borders Through a Culturally - Informed Focus  Pakistan
         
2019  Y Balkozar Adam, MD Culture, Compassion and Competency: When Culture is More Than a Backdrop  MO
   
2018  Y Vincenzo Di Nicola, MPhil, MD, PhD Borders and Belonging, Culture and Community: From Adversity to Diversity in Transcultural Child and Family Psychiatry  Canada/ Brazil
   
2017  N Naleen N. Andrade, MD Ola: An Indigenous Health System That Could Change Our Homeland  HI
   
2016  Y Cheryl Al-Mateen, MD The Cultural Formulation and Academic Psychiatry  VA
   
2015  Y Richard Pleak, MD 30 Years of Helping Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning (LGBTQQ)
Youth and Professionals: The Importance of Family, Mentors, Students, Colleagues, and Our Academy
 NY
   
2014  N Alfiee Breland Noble, PhD Mama Just Won’t Accept This: The Maverick’s Guide to Faith-Based Mental Health Promotion, Depression, Black Youth, and Families  DC
   
2013  Y Eugenio Rothe, MD Eight Basic Principles in the Psychodynamic Treatment of Immigrant Children and the Children of Immigrants  FL
   
2012   Not Presented This Year    
   
2011  Y Marilyn Benoit, MD Living and Embracing Diversity  MD
   
2010  Y Harry H. Wright, MD, MBA The Path to Diagnosis, Treatment, Education and Research of Autism Spectrum Disorders in a Poor Rural Southern State  SC
   
2009  Y Deborah Deas, MD Addressing Healthcare Disparities: The Medical University of South Carolina College of Medicine Model  SC
   
2008  Y Jack McDermott, MD Emerging American Multiculturalism in America and the Obama Phenomenon  HI
   
2007  Y Andres Pumariega, MD Cultural Competence in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: Rationale, Evidence-Base and Future Directions  PA
   
2006   Not Presented This Year    
   
2005  Y Leonard Lawrence, MD The Texas Youth Commission — A Thirty Year Review  TX
   
2004  Y Ian Canino, MD Training Modalities in Cross-Cultural Child Psychiatry  NY
         
2003  N Rodrigo Munoz, MD,FAPA Jeanne Spurlock and the Political Evolution of Minorities in the APA  CA
         
2002  N Carl Bell, MD Supporting Health Behavior Change in High Risk Youth  IL

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