UCSF Psychiatry faculty member Lauren Weiss, PhD, was among the 10 individuals honored at UC San Francisco’s 2016 Chancellor Diversity Awards. The annual awards recognize campus members who are leaders, activists, and pioneers in the fields and communities that they serve for their work in advancing equity and inclusion.
“UCSF’s commitment to equity and inclusion is exemplified in these individuals’ service beyond the scope of their daily jobs,” said Renee Navarro, MD, vice chancellor of Diversity and Outreach. “We are honored to award each of these individuals for their accomplishments.”
Weiss is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Institute for Human Genetics. Her research laboratory studies the genetic architecture of autism using analytical as well as stem cell-based methodologies, and she has been involved in teaching complex trait genetics in our graduate and medical school programs.
Weiss, who received a Chancellor Award for Advancement of Women, formed a female faculty peer problem-solving group, and has participated in the Committee on the Status of Women since 2011, where she has worked toward reducing unconscious bias and microaggression as well as increasing leadership opportunities for women at UCSF.
“I appreciate the senior female mentors that I have been fortunate to have all along my training and career, and their work to make a scientific path easier for my generation of women,” she said. “I would like to continue that effort to make an academic research career equally rewarding for our female and male students today.”
Renee Navarro (center), MD, vice chancellor of Diversity and Outreach, stands with the 2016 Chancellor Diversity Award winners (from left) Marcus Ferrone, PharmD, JD; Susan Forstat; David Rachleff, MSW; Nwando Olayiwola, MD, MPH; Crystal E. Morris; Shan Meltzer; Lauren Weiss, PhD; Suya Colorado-Caldwell; and Peace Chukwudi. [Photo by Susana Bates]
In addition to Weiss, nine other individuals were honored this year:
- Hannan Braun (Chancellor Award for GLBT Leadership)
- Suya Colorado-Caldwell (Chancellor Award for Advancement of Women)
- David Rachleff, MSW (Chancellor Award for Disability Service)
- Marcus Ferrone, PharmD, JD (Chancellor Award for GLBT Leadership)
- Susan Forstat (Chancellor Award for GLBT Leadership)
- Shan Meltzer (Chancellor Award for Advancement of Women)
- Crystal E. Morris (Chancellor Award for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership)
- Nwando Olayiwola, MD, MPH (Chancellor Award for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership)
- Peace Chukwudi (Chancellor Award for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership)
The 2016 Chancellor Diversity Award winners were named Oct. 6 during a luncheon, which was one of several events for Diversity Month at UCSF.
About UCSF Psychiatry
The UCSF Department of Psychiatry and the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute are among the nation's foremost resources in the fields of child, adolescent, adult, and geriatric mental health. Together they constitute one of the largest departments in the UCSF School of Medicine and the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, with a mission focused on research (basic, translational, clinical), teaching, patient care, and public service.
UCSF Psychiatry conducts its clinical, educational, and research efforts at a variety of locations in Northern California, including UCSF campuses at Parnassus Heights, Mission Bay, and Laurel Heights, the UCSF Medical Center at Mt. Zion, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, the San Francisco VA Health Care System, and UCSF Fresno.
About the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences
The UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, established by the extraordinary generosity of Joan and Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill, brings together world-class researchers with top-ranked physicians to solve some of the most complex challenges in the human brain.
The UCSF Weill Institute leverages UCSF’s unrivaled bench-to-bedside excellence in the neurosciences. It unites three UCSF departments—Neurology, Psychiatry, and Neurological Surgery—that are highly esteemed for both patient care and research, as well as the Neuroscience Graduate Program, a cross-disciplinary alliance of nearly 100 UCSF faculty members from 15 basic-science departments, as well as the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, a multidisciplinary research center focused on finding effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders.
About UCSF
UC San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It includes top-ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division with nationally renowned programs in basic, biomedical, translational and population sciences; and a preeminent biomedical research enterprise. It also includes UCSF Health, which comprises two top-ranked hospitals, UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco, and other partner and affiliated hospitals and healthcare providers throughout the Bay Area.
