The Rema Lapouse Award recipient for 2006 is Felton James Earls, professor of child psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and professor of human behavior and development at the Harvard School of Public Health. Hailing from New Orleans, “Tony” Earls received a medical degree from Howard University and completed a residency in general psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and in child psychiatry at Children’s Hospital in Boston. He was a postdoctoral fellow in neurophysiology at the University of Wisconsin and at Harvard Medical School.
Before returning to Harvard, he was Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Child Psychiatry and director of the Division of Child Psychiatry at Washington University, St Louis. He has held visiting appointments at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and adjunct positions at Rockefeller University and the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.
Dr. Earls is currently principal investigator of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods and a Project on the Ecology of HIV/AIDS and Child Mental Health in Tanzania. He has been funded by NIMH, NIAAA, NIJ, and the Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on epidemiological work focusing on such topics as the impact of violence, disasters, and parental substance abuse on children. He has contributed articles to more than 200 publications, over half appearing in peer-reviewed journals, and seven books on child psychopathology.
Asked to explain his training for a life in the laboratory and his subsequent work in epidemiology, he replied that the events of the 1960s including the untimely deaths of the Kennedys, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King as well as so many other deaths in Southeast Asia “propelled him to study and work in the community rather than the comfortable setting of the laboratory.” As for his interest in children, Earls replied, “I can’t understand why everyone does not do this at least some of the time. Recognizing the rights of children is a cardinal principle of life.”
He has served on numerous committees, directorships, and advisory councils. Dr. Earls is a fellow of the American Academy of Art and Sciences and Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Earls serves on the Board of Directors of Physicians for Human Rights, the Committee on Human Rights at the National Academy of Sciences and is director of the Harvard-South Africa Fellows Program. A member of many professional societies, he serves on the editorial boards of numerous professional journals. Previous awards have included: Distinguished Psychiatrist Award and the Blanche F. Ittleson Award from the American Psychiatric Association; Dale Richmond Award from the Academy of Pediatrics; Honorary Doctorate of Science from Northwestern University; and the William Lawson Research Award from Black Psychiatrists of America.
The Rema Lapouse Committee (comprised of Elizabeth Jane Costello, Ronald C. Kessler, Nan Laird, and Anthony Kouzis representing the Epidemiology, Statistics, and Mental Health Sections of the American Public Health Association) is pleased with the acceptance of Dr. Felton Earls for this award. We are eager to see Dr. Earls at the Annual Meeting in Boston, where he will present his special lecture on Monday, Nov. 6, 2006, at 2:30 pm.