Gunnar Christiansen, MD 

Founder, NAMI FaithNet
Retired Board Certified Ophthalmologist
Past President, NAMI California
Former Board of Directors Treasurer and Advisory Board, NAMI Orange County Recipient, 2011 NAMI California Outstanding Clergy Person Award 

Dr. Christiansen, a retired board certified ophthalmologist, has devoted a significant part of his life during the past twenty years advocating for an improved world for those suffering with mental illness. His most major contribution was the founding and subsequent development of NAMI FaithNet (Outreach to the Faith Community) in California, which is now also the outreach arm of NAMI National.

Frederick J.  Frese III, PhD 

Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve College of Medicine and
Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Northeastern Ohio University College of Medicin
Coordinator, Recovery Project for Summit County, OH
Executive Director, Ohio’s Adult Recovery Network
Past Vice-President, Board of Directors of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI)
Past President, National Mental Health Consumers Association 

Frederick J. Frese III, Ph.D., is a psychologist and Coordinator of the Recovery Project for Summit County (Akron area), Ohio. He is also the executive Director of Ohio s Adult Recovery Network, a former vice-president and long-time member of the Board of Directors of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) and a former president of the National Mental Health Consumers Association. He currently holds faculty appointments in clinical psychiatry at Case Western Reserve College of Medicine and at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. He has published numerous articles and book chapters concerning recovery from mental illness. He recently edited the volume, The Role of Organized Psychology in Treatment of the Seriously Mentally Ill . Dr. Frese lectures widely and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Detroit Free Press, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, and on CNN Healthweek, Nightline s Up Close, and the ABC Evening News. In 1965, Dr. Frese was diagnosed with schizophrenia, a condition for which he has frequently been hospitalized. He is currently in recovery, and continues to receive treatment
for this condition. He is married and is the father of four.

William Hetrick, PhD 

Cognitive Neuroscientist and Clinical Psychologist
Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Neuroscience, Indiana University, Bloomington  

Dr. Hetrick is a cognitive neuroscientist and clinical psychologist who studies the causes and innovative approaches to the treatment of severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He is professor of psychological and brain sciences, neuroscience, and of psychiatry at Indiana University, Bloomington. His research utilizes cognitive and brain imaging techniques to identify the neural underpinnings of these disorders and response to novel treatments. His professional passions include (a) the translation of basic scientific discoveries into clinical care and public policy and (b) the training of the next generation of clinical scientist to ensure that they are steeped in cutting-edge scientific research techniques and evidence-based practices.

Philip Janicak, MD, PhD 

Professor of Psychiatry, Rush University, Chicago
Medical Director, Rush Psychiatric Clinical Research Center
Distinguished Life Fellow in the American Psychiatric Association
Past Medical Director, Psychiatric Clinical Research Center
Past Associate Program Director, NIH General Clinical Research Center, University of Illinois Medical Center   

Dr. Janicak is a Professor of Psychiatry at Rush University in Chicago, Illinois,
the Medical Director of the Rush Psychiatric Clinical Research Center and a
Distinguished Life Fellow in the American Psychiatric Association. He completed
his medical training and psychiatric residency at Loyola University of Chicago in
1976. In 1978 he became a research psychiatrist at the Illinois State Psychiatric
Institute. He was the Medical Director of the Psychiatric Clinical Research Center
and also the Associate Program Director for the NIH General Clinical Research
Center at the University of Illinois Medical Center from 1994-2004.

 Richard Josiassen, PhD 

Research Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, Drexel University College of Medicine
Chief Scientific Officer, Translational Neuroscience, LLC
Former consultant to the White House and Office of the Secretary of Defense  

Dr. Josiassen graduated from Westmont College (B.A.) and received his Ph.D.(Clinical Psychology) from Fuller Graduate School of Psychology in Pasadena, California. He did clinical training at Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry and Kaiser-Permanente Medical Center in Los Angeles. Dr. Josiassen was awarded a 3-year NIMH Postdoctoral Fellowship in clinical neuroscience and joined the laboratory of Charles Shagass, MD in 1979. His early research focused on neurophysiological mechanisms associated with psychotic disorders, using pharmacological and cognitive challenges to demonstrate anomalies in specific CNS mechanisms associated with psychosis. His recent efforts have focused on abnormal cellular functioning in schizophrenia, and the roles of electrolyte regulation, metabolic regulation, and specific neurohormones in schizophrenia. His work on the underlying mechanism(s) and treatment of hyponatremia in schizophrenia is groundbreaking, and he and colleagues have published the first paper reporting on an effective and safe pharmacological treatment for this condition (Biological Psychiatry, 2008). Dr. Josiassen served as a consultant to the White House (1969-71) and Office of the Secretary of Defense (1971-72). He has served on several federal funding committees including NIMH study sections and FDA Advisory Panel. He has been awarded several major NIMH grants and published over 150 original scientific data-based papers and abstracts. Recently he was named the recipient of the Vernik Family Trust, a major fund to support his work in schizophrenia. He is Editor Emeritus of the journal Biological Psychiatry and was Associate Secretary General of the IVth World Congress of Biological Psychiatry.

 Robert S. Kern, PhD 

Research Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
Holds a Joint Appointment with the Treatment Unit of the Department of Veteran Affairs Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center 

Robert S. Kern, PhD is a Research Psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and holds a joint appointment with the Treatment Unit of the Department of Veteran Affairs VISN 22 Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC). Dr. Kern is a recognized leader in cognitive rehabilitation in schizophrenia and has received extramural funding from NIMH, the Veterans Administration, and the Stanley Medical Research Institute. His research efforts have been devoted to understanding cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia and developing innovative methods of psychiatric rehabilitation. He has been principal investigator of a series of studies over the past 15 years that have explored the efficacy of a psychosocial intervention approach called “errorless learning” that putatively compensates for impairments in neurocognition in teaching new skills and abilities. His current research efforts involve examining errorless learning for improving work functioning in persons with schizophrenia. He currently serves on the editorial board for Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology and Psychological Assessment.

Deborah L. Levy, PhD 

Director, Psychology Research Laboratory, McLean Hospital
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School   

Dr. Levy received a B.A. degree and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago. She completed a clinical internship at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center (Westchester Division) and a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical psychology at The Menninger Foundation in Topeka KS. She is currently Director of the Psychology Research Laboratory at McLean Hospital and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
 

Roberta L. Payne, PhD 

Former Professor, University of Denver
Board of Directors, Mental Health Center of Denver
Mental health consumer with paranoid schizophrenia  

 Educated at Stanford, UCLA, and Harvard, Dr. Roberta Payne has taught Latin and Italian at several universities and has published literary translations from the Italian. Retired, she currently teaches Latin and Biblical Greek privately and is a published creative writer and artist. She is a member of the board of directors of the Mental Health Center of Denver and lectures to medical students and other groups. Dr. Payne is a mental health consumer with paranoid schizophrenia.
 

Ming Tsuang, MD, PhD, DSc 

Behavioral Genomics Endowed Chair and University Professor, University of California
Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego
Director, Center for Behavioral Genomics, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego
Director, Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics
Former Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts Mental Health Center 

Dr. Tsuang is Behavioral Genomics Endowed Chair and University Professor, University of California and Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Director, Center for Behavioral Genomics, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego. He also directs the Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics. He was Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts Mental Health Center, where he served as superintendent and president of
Massachusetts Mental Health Institute of Psychiatry. He received his M.D. degree from National Taiwan University and his Ph.D. in Psychiatric Genetics and D.Sc. (Doctor of Science,) in Genetics Epidemiology from University of London. He has been recognized worldwide for his research in schizophrenia, manic-depressive illness, and substance abuse.

NAMI Panel Members 

Paul Stansbury  

President, NAMI South Bay in Los Angeles County
Treasurer, NAMI Los Angeles Coordinating Council of NAMI affliates
Paul and his wife have a 32 year old son with a schizo-affective disorder. They currently attend American Martyrs Church in Manhattan Beach, CA.

Wayne Baldaro  

Past President, NAMI Glendale
Walk Manager, NAMIWalks Los Angeles County, the largest mental health awareness event in Los Angeles County
Wayne and his wife Letty have a 30 year old son with bi-polar disorder. They currently attend Montrose Church in Montrose, CA.

Rita Murray 

President, NAMI Whittier
Member, NAMI Los Angeles County Coordinating Council
Family-to-Family Teacher and Support Group Facilitator
Her experience of having a mother with bipolar disorder has helped inform her advocacy.