Newswise — Eight new faculty in child psychiatry will join the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago, campus officials announced today, creating one of the most important centers in child mental health in the country.
The appointments, which are subject to approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, include Dr. Bennett Leventhal, a nationally renowned child psychiatrist, and Dr. Edwin Cook, a child psychiatrist and distinguished scholar in the genetics of autism, plus six colleagues, all formerly of the University of Chicago. With the rank of full professor, Leventhal, as director, and Cook, as associate director, will head the newly created Center for Child Mental Health and Developmental Neuroscience.
"The recruitment of these faculty represents an extraordinary commitment to children's mental health and a concentration of resources that may be unmatched anywhere in the country," said Dr. Patrick Tolan, child psychologist and director of the Institute for Juvenile Research in the UIC College of Medicine.
"The addition of these individuals expands, and deepens, our leadership in the field of child psychiatry," said Dr. Henry Dove, acting head of psychiatry. "This is a great day for the children of Chicago and of the state of Illinois."
According to Tolan, the eight new clinicians and researchers have expertise that complements and reinforces the Institute for Juvenile Research's existing programs on the basic causes of child psychopathology and prevention of major social problems such as drug abuse and violence. The new faculty will also help advance existing clinical research on the major mental disorders of children and adolescents, Tolan said, and will staff the institute's Doug and Margaret Colbeth Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic.
"By combining our faculty, we've created, almost overnight, one of the strongest divisions of child psychiatry in the nation," Leventhal said.
According to Tolan, the new recruits will bring to UIC about $10 million in federal funding plus several hundred thousand dollars in foundation support. The College of Medicine is raising private monies to finance the institute's expansion.
Leventhal, former director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Chicago, is a nationally recognized authority in the field. An active clinician, teacher and investigator, as well as an academic and clinical administrator, Leventhal has worked extensively in the areas of attention disorders, autism, community services, developmental disorders, genetics, juvenile justice and psychopharmacology. As director of the State of Illinois Autism Project, he is deeply involved in statewide efforts to address gaps in professional mental health care for cognitively and socially impaired children.
Cook is one of the world's leading researchers on the molecular and genetic abnormalities underlying autism and related developmental disorders, such as Asperger's. He will bring to UIC a first-rate laboratory investigating the neurobiological aspects of early childhood psychopathology. He will also open a developmental disorders clinic, offering comprehensive, multidisciplinary evaluations, as well as providing treatment and consultation in behavior management and educational programming. As both a clinician and researcher, Cook has received numerous awards for his contributions to the field.
Two junior faculty who are part of the group of new recruits, Drs. Thomas Owley, a psychiatrist, and Marrea Winnega, a clinical psychologist, will staff the developmental disorders clinic.
Other senior faculty who will be joining UIC are the following:
Dr. Mark Stein, professor: Stein, a clinical psychologist and researcher, specializes in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). He started the Hyperactivity, Attention, and Learning Problems Clinic at the University of Chicago in 1986 and will direct a similar clinic at UIC. He has published many articles on the diagnosis and treatment of the illness and co-edited a textbook on the subject. His current research focuses on pharmacogenomics, measuring and predicting response to ADHD medications, managing ADHD in primary care settings and sleep problems.
Dr. Kathleen Kelley, associate professor: Kelley will be the training director for the child and adolescent psychiatry residency program at UIC. A pediatrician as well as a general and child-and-adolescent psychiatrist, she was recently named a Harvard-Macy Teaching Scholar by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She collaborates in research exploring the effects of electrical injury.
Dr. Alan Ravitz, associate professor: Ravitz is a sought-after forensic specialist who consults in cases involving parental and state custody disputes. He will continue as director of the child-adolescent inpatient service at the University of Chicago's Lakeshore Hospital, a position he has held for 20 years. He is a past president of the Illinois Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Chicago Society for Adolescent Psychiatry.
Dr. Lauren Wakschlag, associate professor: Wakschlag, a clinical and developmental child psychologist, will launch a preschool behavioral problems clinic at UIC. Her research focuses on risk processes during pregnancy and the first years of life that contribute to the early development of disruptive behavior disorders. She is widely recognized as one of the nation's leading scholars in developing guidelines for the assessment of disruptive behavior disorders in young children and currently sits on the American Psychiatric Association's task force on diagnosis in young children.
"We are very excited about bringing this outstanding group to work with us," said Dr. Joseph Flaherty, dean of the UIC College of Medicine. "The Institute for Juvenile Research has a long history of excellence in issues of children's mental health, and with these individuals on board, working side by side with the distinguished faculty we already have, we will carry that tradition well into the future, in new directions."
The Institute for Juvenile Research, established in 1909 and transferred to UIC in 1990, was the first child guidance clinic and the second organized psychology training program in the nation. It was also one of the first sites for training child psychiatrists. The institute's current federally funded research projects include a new model for school-based mental health consultation; a study of Chicago youth at risk for school failure, antisocial behavior, and violence; and an early-intervention program to prevent later problem behaviors in school. The institute also contracts with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to ensure adequate care for wards of the state.
UIC ranks among the nation's top 50 universities in federal research funding and is Chicago's largest university with 25,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world. For more information about UIC, visit http://www.uic.edu.
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