Four senior members of the faculty were honored at a forewell dinner on July 29, 2014.
Professor Andrew Francis, MD, PhD, was a full time attending on the inpatient adult psychiatry unit for 26 years, serving as director and as a mentor to hundreds of residents. He served as elected chair of the School of Medicine Appointments, Promotions and Tenure committee. The residents voted Dr. Francis Teacher of the Year five times and at the graduation ceremony in June, they presented him with a Lifetime Teaching Award. He was the recipient of the first Excellence in Graduate Medical Education award presented by Dean Kenneth Kaushansky. He is leaving to take a position as Professor of Psychiatry at Penn State Hershey College of Medicine, where he will be Director of ECT and Associate Director of Residency Training.
Vicki Rundberg-Rivera, MD earned her medical degree at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine and spend a year as a pediatric intern at Montefiore Hospital. She joined the Psychiatry residency program at Stony Brook, where she became Chief Resident. After completing a Geriatric Fellowship and a Child Fellowship, Dr. Rundberg-Rivera spent 15 years as an Assistant Professor and attending physician in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Her principal assignment was as a consulting psychiatrist for Western Suffolk BOCES, but she also saw outpatients, covered inpatient on-call, and participated actively in the division's clinical research program. Dr. Rundberg-Rivera is retiring in November to care for her elders and to write.
Michael Schwartz, MD has been the Director of Residency Training since 1997. He first came to Stony Brook in 1983 after competing a fellowship at the National Institute on Aging. After a three-year assignment at the Northport VA, Dr. Schwartz left Stony Brook for private practice. He returned in 1992 to split his time between CPEP and the outpatient department. He was named director of the outpatient department in 1994. During his 17 years the Director of Residency Training Dr. Scwartz improved the experience both for the residents and faculty through careful recruiting and by fostering a culture of collegiality. He became a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association in 2003 and a Distinguished Life Fellow in 2014. The residents selected him as Teacher of the Year ithree times. And in 2013 Dr. Schwartz received the American Psychiatric Association's Irma Bland Award for Excellence in Teaching Residents. Dr. Schwartz will direct the psychiatry program at Huntington Hospital where he practiced for many years.
Joyce Sprafkin, PhD received her degree in Clinical Psychology at Stony Brook. Soon after graduation in 1975, she was recruited to join the Long Island Research Institute and rose through the academic ranks to become an Associate Professor in 1988 with joint appointments in Psychiatry and Psychology. From the mid-70's through the mid-80's, Dr. Sprafkin was an investigator on several grants focusing on the effects of television on children, a field in which she was a nationally recognized expert. She published frequently on the topic from the late 70's through the 80's. In 1986 she began a life-long collaboration with Kenneth Gadow, PhD. Initially, they studied the effects of television on emotionally disturbed or learning disabled children. Throughout the 90's and into the following decade they authored more than a dozen articles on the use of methylphenidate for children with ADHD. In the 2000's the pair turned their attention to the development of DSM-based symptom inventories for use by researchers. In all, Dr. Sprafkin has published 78 journal articles, co-authored three books and made scores of professional presentations. Dr. Sprafkin is retiring next April to the Hudson Valley.