Steven E. Hyman, MD, core institute member and director of the Program in Brain Health at the Broad Institute, was honored May 9 with the 2026 Yale Department of Psychiatry Mental Health Advocacy Award.
The award was presented at the annual Yale-NAMI Conference on Neuroscience, Mental Health and Society at The Anlyan Center. The conference, held each spring since 1992, provides an opportunity for community members, patients and their families, and providers to come together and hear about new advances in the care of mental illness from Yale experts and community partners.
Hyman served as director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute from 2012 to 2024, and was provost at Harvard University from 2001 to 2011. From 1996 to 2001, he was director of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), where he invested in neuroscience and emerging genomic technologies and started a series of large clinical effectiveness trials to inform practice.
The Mental Health Advocacy Award has been presented by the Department of Psychiatry every year since 2006 and, in most years, is announced at the conference. Winners of this award are celebrated for their important impact on treatment, research, reduction of stigma, and enhancement of the wellbeing of those with mental illness through their advocacy, political action, and sharing of their own lived experience.
Conference attendees heard a range of scientific presentations. Speakers included:
- Kristen Brennand, PhD: “Uncovering the Interplay Between Nature and Nurture in Psychiatric Disorders”
- Scott Woods, MD: “Toward the Prevention of Schizophrenia and Other Psychoses: The Clinical High Risk Syndrome”
- Vinod Srihari, MD: “Learning Health Systems for Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders”
- Chyrell Bellamy, PhD & Rev. Robyn Anderson: “We’ve Come this Far by Faith/Choice: The Imani Breakthrough Faithbased Recovery Program”
The conference was sponsored by the Yale Department of Psychiatry, the Connecticut chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), and Yale Center for Brain and Mind Health.