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.

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.

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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.

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