Home DBSA 2025 Scientific Advisory Board Reception & Gerald L. Klerman Award Presentation

DBSA 2025 Scientific Advisory Board Reception & Gerald L. Klerman Award Presentation

The DBSA Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) welcomes you to this year’s Gerald L. Klerman Awards Reception. Presented annually, these awards recognize researchers whose work contributes to and advances the understanding of the causes, diagnosis, and treatment of depression and bipolar disorder. The SAB is pleased to convene this year in Los Angeles to celebrate professionals who contribute to this important field of study.

For over 35 years, the SAB has comprised members with outstanding clinical and scientific expertise that make special contributions to advancing the DBSA mission to provide hope, help, support, and education to improve the lives of people who have mood disorders.

The primary role of the SAB is to advise the DBSA Board of Directors and staff on all matters of science and medicine. Members of the SAB participate by serving as ambassadors for DBSA in their local community and their national/international academic community, volunteering their expertise in support of DBSA programs and communications, and offering financial support through direct gifts and/or donations of honorarium fees.

We thank our members, sponsors—Johnson & Johnson and Teva Pharmaceuticals, and our guests today for their continued support of the vital work DBSA accomplishes. Thank you for joining us in the celebration!

Warm Regards,

Mark A. Frye, MD
SAB Chair
Member, DBSA Board of Directors

Program Agenda

Check-In & Reception Begins

DBSA Welcome & Remarks
Michael Pollock, DBSA CEO
40th anniversary – where we’ve been and where we’re going. 

Recognizing DBSA Board and SAB
Lauren Yang, PsyD

Awards Ceremony
Honoring 2025 Gerald L. Klerman Awardees
Presented by Mark A. Frye, MD

Senior Investigator
Hilary Patricia Blumberg, MD

Senior Investigator
Roy Perlis, MD, MSc

Young Investigator
Sarah H. Sperry, PhD

Closing Remarks
Mark A. Frye, MD

Event Speakers

Mark A. Frye, MD
Mark A. Frye, MD

Mark A. Frye, MD
DBSA Scientific Advisory Board Chair

Mark A. Frye, MD, is a Consultant in the Department of Psychiatry & Psychology. He is the Past Chair of the Department of Psychiatry & Psychology (2010-2020) and is recognized with the distinction of the Stephen and Shelley Jackson Family Professorship in Individualized Medicine. Born and raised in Rochester, Dr. Frye received his M.D. from the University of Minnesota and completed his psychiatric training at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He subsequently completed a fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, with a research focus on the neurobiology of treatment-resistant depression and bipolar disorder. Dr. Frye and his team established the Mayo Clinic Individualized Medicine Biobank for Bipolar Disorder to identify the underpinning mechanisms of bipolar disorder through genomic studies. An active clinical investigator, he has received research support from NIMH, NIAAA, Mayo Foundation, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, industry partners, and has published more than 445 peer-reviewed papers. He has received numerous awards, including the American College of Psychiatry Mood Disorders Research Award (2018), Gerald Klerman Senior and Young Investigator Awards from Depression Bipolar Alliance (2014, 2003), the International Society for Bipolar Disorder Robert Post MD Mentoring Award (2022), and Mogens Schou Education Award (2011), 2 Mayo Clinic Rome Mentorship Awards (2011, 2012), and 3 UCLA departmental medical student and resident teaching awards (1994, 2003, 2005). In addition to this work with Depression Bipolar Support Alliance, he is the Scientific Co-Director for the Integrated Network for BD2 (Breakthrough Discoveries for Thriving with Bipolar Disorder), a new non-profit foundation that is dedicated to funding research, specifically, into bipolar disorder.

Lauren Yang, PsyD
Lauren Yang, PsyD

Lauren Yang, PsyD
DBSA Scientific Advisory Board

Lauren Yang, PsyD (she/her), is a licensed clinical psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry at Kaiser Permanente – Redwood City, CA. She is President of the Associate Board and past Vice Chair of the Young Adult Council for DBSA. Drawing from her lived experience of bipolar II disorder since 2013, she has contributed blog articles, podcast episodes, panel discussions, and webinars for DBSA, International Bipolar Foundation, Live Well Bipolar, and BP Hope Magazine.

Moreover, Dr. Lauren currently serves as Co-Chair of the Education and Training Council in addition to being the 2022-2024 Postdoctoral Leadership Fellow and 2022-2024 Newsletter Co-Editor-in-Chief for the Asian American Psychological Association. Relatedly, she has been a guest speaker on podcasts People of Color in Psychology with Dr. Jack Tsan on navigating multicultural identities while living with bipolar disorder as an early career professional for the Multicultural Counseling Institute’s AAPI Heritage series, as well as Grad School Femtoring with Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu on navigating higher education with bipolar disorder. As such, her professional interests include bipolar and related affective disorders, life transition challenges, young adult concerns, Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AANHPI) mental health, cultural identity development, and advocacy for marginalized communities. Dr. Lauren’s mission is to challenge stigma around mental health conditions, improve access to mental health support, and promote diverse representation and cultural responsiveness in mental health care provision.

She received her Doctor of Psychology and Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Yeshiva University and Bachelor of Science in Psychobiology with honors from UCLA.

Michael Pollock, DBSA CEO
Michael Pollock, DBSA CEO

Michael Pollock
DBSA Chief Executive Officer

Michael Pollock has served as CEO for Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance since 2018. A thoughtful, motivated, outcomes-oriented leader, Michael drives DBSA’s mission of providing hope, help, support, and education to improve the lives of people living with mood disorders. He is a fierce advocate for the value of peer support, accessible mental health care, and programs and policies that empower people living with mood disorders to reach their full potential. During his 33 years of non-profit leadership experience, Michael has held executive-level positions at the National Safety Council, Thresholds, and United Way.

Michael is an alumnus of Bowling Green State University, where he earned both a BS in Business Administration and an MS in Organization Development.

Honoring 2025 Gerald L. Klerman Awardees

Hilary Blumberg, MD
Hilary Blumberg, MD

Dr. Hilary Blumberg | 2025 Senior Investigator Award

Hilary P. Blumberg, MD is a psychiatrist, the John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatric Neuroscience, Professor of Psychiatry, Radiology and Biomedical Imaging and in the Child Center, and Director of the Mood Disorders Research Program, at the Yale School of Medicine. Her work is devoted to understanding the causes of mood disorder and related disorders and of suicide risk across the lifespan and generating new early detection and intervention approaches. Her research program focuses on translational investigative approaches integrating multimodal neuroimaging research with genetic, stem cell, behavioral and clinical trial research to identify brain circuitry differences and generate strategies to target them for early detection, interventions, and prevention. She leads international neuroimaging efforts to study bipolar and other mood disorders and suicide risk from childhood to older adulthood. She has published many seminal papers on bipolar disorder and suicide prevention, and she has received numerous awards, including the International Society of Bipolar Disorders Mogens Schou Award for Research in Bipolar Disorder, Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Colvin Prize for research in mood disorders, American Psychiatric Association Blanche F. Ittleson Award for research in children and adolescents, and American College of Physicians Award for mood disorders. She studied neuroscience as an undergraduate at Harvard University graduating summa cum laude, and completed her medical degree, and psychiatry and specialty training in neuroimaging, at Cornell University Medical College prior to joining Yale’s faculty in 1998.

Roy Perlis, MD
Roy Perlis, MD

Dr. Roy Perlis | 2025 Senior Investigator Award

Roy Perlis, MD MSc is Associate Chief for Research and Ronald I. Dozoretz, MD Endowed Chair in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he also directs the hospital-wide Center for Quantitative Health. He is a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. The Perlis lab pioneered the application of emerging artificial intelligence (AI) methods to improve patient care in psychiatry, opening the door to truly personalized medicine by using electronic health records for understanding the course of mood disorders. Applying these kinds of methods to biobanks allowed his group and collaborators to identify the first risk genes for major depression and for treatment-resistant depression. In 2010 Dr. Perlis was awarded DBSA’s Gerald L. Klerman Young Investigator Award; he is proud to serve as a scientific advisor to the DBSA.

Sarah H. Sperry, PhD
Sarah H. Sperry, PhD

Dr. Sarah Sperry | 2025 Young Investigator Award

Sarah H. Sperry, PhD, is the Richard Tam Early Career Professor of Translational Bipolar Research in the Department of Psychiatry and a Faculty Associate in Psychology at the University of Michigan (UM). Dr. Sperry graduated cum laude from Tufts University with a B.S. in clinical psychology in 2011. She obtained her Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 2020 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining UM, she completed her clinical internship at the Medical University of South Carolina/Charleston VAMC in 2020 and postdoctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2021. At the UM, Dr. Sperry directs the Emotion and Temporal Dynamics (EmoTe) Lab and serves as the Associate Director of the Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Program. Her research focuses on identifying behavioral and neural indicators of affective and cognitive dysregulation in bipolar disorder, predictors of the development and clinical course of bipolar disorders (e.g., circadian dysrhythmia, alcohol and cannabis use), and how to use digital technologies to personalize assessment and treatment for individuals living with bipolar disorders.

Past Klerman Awardees

Senior/Young Investigator

2023 Melissa Delbello, MD, MS – Senior
2023 Diego Pizzagalli, PhD – Senior
2023 Elizabeth Lippard, PhD – Young

2022 Katherine E. Burdick, PhD – Senior
2022 Georgina Mayling Hosang, PhD – Young

2021 Vikram Patel, MD, PhD – Senior
2021 Carlos Zarate, MD – Senior
2021 Emma Morton, PhD – Young

2020 Maria A. Oquendo, MD, PhD – Senior
2020 Daisy Singla, PhD – Young
2020 Tamsyn Van Rheenen, PhD – Young

2019 Steven H. Hollon, PhD – Senior
2019 Paul A. Vöhringer, MD, MSc, MPH – Young

2018 Holly Swartz, MD * – Senior
2018 Argyris Stringaris, MD, PhD, FRCPsych – Young
2018 James J. Prisciandaro, PhD – Young

2017 Boris Birmaher, MD – Senior
2017 Lakshmi N. Yatham, MBBS, FRCPC, MRCPsych, MBA – Senior
2017 Jonathan Posner, MD – Young

2016 Martha Sajatovic, MD – Senior
2016 Constance Guille, MD, MSCR – Young

2015 James W. Jefferson, MD – Senior
2015 Maurizio Fava, MD – Senior
2015 Louisa G. Sylvia, PhD – Young
2015 Rodrigo B. Mansur, MD, PhD – Young

2014 Mark A. Frye, MD* – Senior
2014 Paul E. Croarkin, DO, MS – Young
2014 Andrew A. Nierenberg, MD – Senior

2013 Madhukar Trivedi, MD – Senior
2013 William Beardslee, MD – Senior
2013 Rodrigo Machado-Vieira, MD, PhD, MSc – Young

2012 John Markowitz, MD – Senior
2012 Jürgen Unützer, MD, MPH, MA – Senior
2012 Benjamin Goldstein, MD, PhD – Young

2011 John F. Greden, MD – Senior
2011 Amy M. Kilbourne, PhD – Young
2011 Tina R. Goldstein, PhD – Young

2010 Mark S. Bauer, MD – Senior
2010 Roy H. Perlis, MD, MSc – Young*

2009 David J. Miklowitz, PhD – Senior
2009 David E. Kemp, MD – Young

2008 Karen Dineen Wagner, MD, PhD – Senior
2008 Trisha Suppes, MD, PhD – Senior
2008 Audrey R. Tyrka, MD, PhD – Young

2007 Husseini K. Manji, MD, FRCPC – Senior
2007 Joseph R. Calabrese, MD – Senior
2007 Daniel S. Pine, MD – Young

2006 Helen Verdeli, PhD* – Senior
2006 Ned H. Kalin, MD – Senior
2006 Martha Sajatovic, MD – Young

2005 Lori Altshuler, MD – Senior
2005 Holly Swartz, MD * – Young

2004 Paul E. Kreck, Jr., MD – Senior
2004 Maria A Oquendo, MD – Young

2003 Gregory E. Simon, MD, MPH – Senior
2003 Wayne J. Katon, MD – Senior
2003 David C. Steffens, MD, MHS – Young
2003 Laura H. Mufson, PhD – Young

2002 K. Ranga R. Krishnan, MD – Senior
2002 Jurgen Unutzer, MD, MPH * – Young
2002 Mark A. Frye, MD * – Young

2001 J. John Mann, MD – Senior
2001 Robert M. A. Hirschfeld, MD – Senior
2001 Sarah H. Lisanby, MD – Young

2000 Charles L. Bowden, MD – Senior
2000 Jack M. Gorman, MD – Senior
2000 Madhukar Trivedi, MD * – Young

1999 Dennis S. Charney, MD – Senior
1999 Andrew A. Nierenberg, MD * – Young
1999 John Markowitz, MD * – Young

1998 Alan F. Schatzberg, MD – Senior
1998 Martin B. Keller, MD – Senior
1998 Dominique L. Musselman, MD – Young
1998 Stephen Strakowski, MD – Young

1997 Dwight L. Evans – Senior
1997 Linda L. Carpenter, MD – Young
1997 Lori Altshuler, MD * – Young

1996 Charles B. Nemeroff, MD, PhD – Senior
1996 David Kupfer, MD – Senior
1996 Ellen Frank, PhD – Senior
1996 Paul E. Kreck, Jr., MD – Young

1995 Peter C. Whybrow, MD – Senior
1995 Trisha Suppes, MD, PhD * – Young
1995 Zachary N. Stowe, MD – Young

1994 A. John Rush, MD – Senior
1994 Elliot Gershon, MD – Senior
1994 Neal Ryan, MD – Young

1993 Robert D. Post, MD – Senior
1993 Rif El-Mallakh, MD – Young
1993 Susan McElroy, MD – Young

1991 Paula Clayton, MD – Senior
1991 Joseph R. Calabrese, MD * – Young

1990 George Winokur, MD – Senior
1990 Mark Bauer, MD * – Young

1989 Gerald L. Klerman, MD – Senior
1989 Myrna Weissman, PhD – Senior
1989 J. Raymond DePaulo, Jr., MD – Young

* Recipient of both – Young and – Senior Investigator Awards

 

DBSA Scientific Advisory Board

DBSA is guided by a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), who advises the Board of Directors in matters of science and medicine and is comprised of the leading researchers and clinicians in the field of mood disorders.

Mark A. Frye, MD, SAB Chair
Stephen & Shelly Jackson Family Professorship in Individualized Medicine
Mayo Clinic
Rochester, MN

Members

George S. Alexopoulos, MD
Rahn K. Bailey, MD
Mark S. Bauer, MD
William R. Beardslee, MD
Katherine E. Burdick, PhD
Joseph R. Calabrese, MD
Ian Cook, MD
Melissa P. DelBello, MD
J. Raymond DePaulo, Jr., MD
Mary Fristad, PhD, ABPP
William Gilmer, MD
John F. Greden, MD
Tina R Goldstein, PhD
Steven D. Hollon, PhD
Dr. Rakesh Jain, MD, MPH
Ned H. Kalin, MD
Martin B. Keller, MD
Ronald C. Kessler, PhD
Amy Kilbourne, MD
William Lawson, MD, PhD
Jennifer B. Levin, PhD
Elizabeth Lippard, PhD
Roger McIntyre, MD FRCPC, Past SAB Chair
Lauren B. Marangell, MD
Erin Michalak, PhD
David J. Miklowitz, PhD
Ricardo F. Munoz, PhD
Andrew A. Nierenberg, MD
Aisha Omorodion, MD, MPH
Sagar V. Parikh, MD, FRCPC
Roy Perlis, MD
Professor of Psychiatry
Arti Phatak, PharmD, BCPS
James Prisciandaro, PhD
Andrew Pumariega, MD
Murali Rao, MD, FACLP, DABAM, DLFAPA
Gary Sachs, MD
Martha Sajatovic, MD
Gregory Simon, MD, MPH
Daisy R. Singla, PhD, C. Psych
Jair C. Soares, MD, PhD
Argyris Stringaris, MD, PhD
Trisha Suppes, MD, PhD
Holly Swartz, MD
Louisa Sylvia, PhD
John S. Tamerin, MD
Michael Edward Thase, MD
Tamsyn Van Rheenen, PhD
Paul Vöhringer M.D. M.Sc. M.P.H.
Karen Wagner, MD, PhD
Myrna Weissman, PhD
Samuel Wilkinson, MD
Lauren A. Yang, PsyD
Lakshmi Yatham, MBBS, FRCPC, MRCPsych
John M. Zajecka, MD
Sidney Zisook, MD

2025 DBSA Board of Directors

Executive Committee:

Rebecca Weinstein Bacon – Board Chair
Rachel Yeates – Vice Chair
Mike Kuhl – Strategic Planning Committee Chair
Isela Bahena – Development Chair
Christy Beckmann – Treasurer
Mark Frye, MD – Scientific Advisory Board Chair
John Kurtz – Nominating Chair
Bridget Maul – Secretary​

Directors:

Suzanne Bergoffen
Sharnell Curtis-Martin
Kent P. Dauten
Greg Dicharry
Jimmy Gibbs
Patrick Hickey
Eileen Kamerick
Altha Stewart, MD

For inquiries about serving on the DBSA Board of Directors, please contact Michael Pollock at mpollock@dbsalliance.org.​

Who We Are

Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) is a leading peer-focused mental health organization, whose mission is “to improve the lives of people living with mood disorders.” DBSA National supports more than 450 support groups and over 80 local affiliate chapters. DBSA reaches over 4 million individuals with support, educational resources, and tools to help individuals living with mood disorders lead productive and fulfilling lives. Additionally, through our advocacy efforts, we amplify peers’ voices and work towards systemic change in the delivery of mental health care.

How You Can Help

Our mission is to improve the lives of people living with mood disorders. For more than 40 years, DBSA has worked to improve recognition, early detection, and diagnosis of mood disorders to help people successfully manage their mental health, improve care, expand the ability for people to receive treatment, advance research, and reduce stigma. Your support provides the resources we need to fulfill our mission.

DBSA Thanks the 2025 Gerald L. Klerman Sponsors

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