News

Three faculty members who have retired from the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences this year have been honored with emeritus/emerita status: James Blumenthal, PhD, ABPP, Scott Moore, MD, PhD, and Patricia A. Resick, PhD, ABPP.

Congratulations to our Duke Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences trainees and faculty members who received these year-end awards.

After 45 years of service to the Duke University School of Medicine, James A. Blumenthal, PhD, ABPP, J. P. Gibbons Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, retired in February 2024. He was widely recognized as the leading behavioral science researcher in the field of cardiac rehabilitation and behavioral approaches to the clinical management of cardiovascular disorders.

In a talk on May 31 on the Duke campus, Temple Grandin, PhD, discuss connections between animal behavior and autism. The talk was organized by the Durham County Library and co-sponsored by the Durham Library Foundation and the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development.

Duke University School of Medicine’s Black employee resource group held its third annual Juneteenth celebration on June 20. The event featured keynote speaker Damon Tweedy, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.

Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) is known as a mental health resource for students on college campuses around the country. Former Duke Psychiatry faculty member Dr. Kenneth Rockwell was instrumental in creating Duke’s CAPS, and former faculty member Dr. Joseph Talley worked at CAPS from its inception in the 1970s till his retirement in 2022. Dr. Rockwell is highlighted as part of Duke's Centennial celebration.

This National Institutes of Health article highlights a recent publication by researchers from Duke Center for Autism & Brain Development and collaborators. According to the study, supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health, a tablet-based screening tool that analyzes children’s behavior in response to specific video clips shows promise for enhancing early autism screening.

Associate professor John Mitchell, PhD, has been named director of the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute's Community-Partnered Research Network (CPRN). In this role, Mitchell will collaborate closely with Duke faculty, academic partners, and community organizations to develop, implement, and provide oversight of the CPRN.

Pilot award recipients from the Duke CTSI and Children’s Health & Discovery Initiative (CHDI) Child Health Equity Program, funded by the Translating Duke Health Initiative, presented their research projects during a meeting of the Program’s Advisory Council in May. Duke Psychiatry faculty members John Mitchell, PhD, and Jessica Lunsford-Avery, PhD, were among the presenters.

While a Duke psychiatry resident, Heather Kim, MD, partnered with associate professor Marla Wald, MD, to create a gender care psychiatry elective. Kim is now a psychiatrist at Mass General Hospital whose practice focuses on gender-affirming care.