JAMES C. HARRIS, M.D., was the founding Director of the Developmental Neuropsychiatry program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Kennedy Krieger Institute. Before initiating this specialty area in psychiatry for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities and acquired brain injury, he served as Director of the Division of Child Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. He received his M.D. degree from George Washington University School of Medicine and completed his pediatric internship at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles before joining the US Public Health Service where he spent 2 ½ years as Peace Corps Staff Physician in Thailand. He continued his training in General Pediatrics at the University of Rochester and completed it at the Johns Hopkins University. Subsequently, he completed residency training in Neurodevelopmental Pediatrics, General Psychiatry and Child Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and is triple boarded in general psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry and pediatrics.
Dr. Harris was president of the Society of Professors of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the organization that represents academic child and adolescent psychiatry nationally in the United States. He was a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the American College of Psychiatry and the American Psychopathological Association. At the National Institutes of Health (NIH) he served as adjunct scientist in the Laboratory of Brain Evolution and Behavior (Paul McLean, chief) and Laboratory of Comparative Ethology (Steve Suomi, chief) and regularly served on research review panels and external review panels for the NIH. He was psychiatric consultant to the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation and was a participant at the last White House Conference on Mental Health. He published over 200 articles, book, chapters, commentaries and abstracts. Internationally, he collaborated with the psychiatry department at Yangon 1 medical, Myanmar.
Dr. Harris’s funded research focused on Developmental Pathways from Genes to Cognition and Complex Behavior in Neurogenetic Syndromes and on the understanding of the Neurodevelopmental basis of social behaviors and empathy. His two volume single authored textbook, Developmental Neuropsychiatry, established the agenda for this emerging clinical specialty garnering the 1996 “Medical Book of the Year” award from Doody’s Rating Service among 2,400 books published in 76 medical specialties. In addition to the two volume Developmental Neuropsychiatry (Volume 1 The Fundamentals, Volume 2, Assessment, Diagnosis, and Treatment), he was the author of the standard textbook on Intellectual Disability: Understanding Its Development, Causes, Classification, Evaluation and Treatment (2006) and Intellectual Disability” A Guide for Families and Professionals (2010). He was series editor for Developmental Perspectives in Psychiatry book series for Oxford University Press, wrote the section on Developmental Neuropsychiatry for the Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry and edited a yearly special issue of Current Opinion in Psychiatry on Neurodevelopment. In 1983, he founded the Autism Clinic at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and served as its co-director. His goal in working with children with neurodevelopmental disabilities focused on helping each child to reach his or her individual potential believing, as he did, that all children are capable of personal self-expression and growth whether or not they have cognitive limitations. Dr. Harris was the first recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award for the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins in 1989, receiving the award again in 1996, 1998 and 1999. He served as director of residency training in child and adolescent psychiatry for 11 years at Johns Hopkins receiving NIMH training grants nine of those years. During the Clinton administration, he served on the President’s Committee for People with Mental Retardation (now Intellectual Disability) and in 2000 received the George Tarjan Award for outstanding leadership and continuous contributions in the field of intellectual disability from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In 2007 he received the Agnes Purcell McGavin Award for Distinguished Career Achievement from the American Psychiatric Association in recognition of his pioneering work in Developmental Neuropsychiatry. In 2011 he received the Leon Eisenberg Award from Harvard Medical School for outstanding leadership and stewardship in the field mental health and disabilities and in 2015 the Frank J Menolascino Award for Psychiatric Services for Persons with Intellectual Development Disorders/Developmental Disabilities. He led the DSM-5 revision of new criteria for Mental Retardation. Dr. Harris was Art and Images Editor for the Archives of General/JAMA Psychiatry from 2002-2014 where he published 146 monthly commentaries on the interface of psychiatry and the humanities. These commentaries are organized into 17 themes including: Depression and Coping with Loss, Asylums and the Portrayal of Mental Illness, Impact of Psychiatric Illness on Artists, Suicide and Attitudes Toward Suicide, War, Plague and Natural Disasters, Paleolithic Art, Nazis and Degenerate Art, Prostitution, Rape and Murder, Interpersonal Crisis in Marriage, Self-Portraiture and Aging, Aging and Dementia, Jung, Freud and Depth Psychology, Patriotic Art, Animal Rights, and Art and Spirituality.
CATHERINE D. DEANGELIS, M.D., M.P.H., is Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Service Professor Emerita, Professor Emerita at the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine (Pediatrics) and School of Public Health (Health Policy and Management), and Editor-in-Chief Emerita of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association (2000-2011), serving as the first woman Editor in Chief. She received her M.D. from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine, her M.P.H. from the Harvard Graduate School of Public Health (Health Services Administration), and her pediatric specialty training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She also has been awarded seven honorary doctorate degrees and has received numerous awards for humanitarianism and medical excellence, including the Ronald McDonald Award for Medical Excellence ($100,000 donation made to the Johns Hopkins Child Life Program); the Catcher in the Rye Award for Humanitarianism by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; the Armstrong, the St. Geme, and the Howland Awards (Various Pediatric Societies); and a lifetime achievement award by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC).
From 1990-2000 she was Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and Faculty, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and from 1994-2000 she was editor of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine and also has been a member of numerous journal editorial boards. She has authored or edited 14 books on Pediatrics, Medical Education and Patient Care, Professionalism, her recently published memoir, Pursuing Equity in Medicine: One Woman’s Journey, and a medical murder mystery, Angel or Devil’s Advocate. She has also published over 250 peer reviewed articles, chapters, and editorials. Most of her recent publications have focused on professionalism and integrity in medicine, on conflict of interest in medicine, on women in medicine, and on medical education. Her major efforts have centered on human rights especially as they relate to patients, health professionals and the poor.
Dr. DeAngelis is a former council member and current member of the National Academy of Medicine (nee IOM); a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (UK) and has served as an officer of numerous national academic societies including past chairman of the American Board of Pediatrics and Chair of the Pediatric Accreditation Council for Residency Review Committee of the American Council on Graduate Medical Education.
She currently serves as an emerita member of the Advisory Board of the U.S. Government Accountability Office and serves on the Board of Trustees of the University of Pittsburgh.
