UC Davis professor named Educator of the Year

Robert E. Hales, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, is being recognized as Educator of the Year for 2006 by the Association for Academic Psychiatry (www.academicpsychiatry.org), a professional organization whose members include psychiatry representatives from medical schools and residency training programs in the United States.

Hales will be formally honored later this month at the association’s annual meeting in San Francisco. The national award highlights outstanding educators who have made a significant impact in the field of psychiatry. The organization recognizes innovative approaches that enhance training at all levels of medical education, as well as increase the public’s general awareness about psychiatric issues.

Hales is a renowned adult psychiatrist who specializes in neuropsychiatry, clinical psychopharmacology and mental health services research. He has been a national leader and innovator in psychiatric education for more than two decades, starting with his training work among the medical students and residents at Walter Reed Medical Hospital.

At UC Davis, Hales is well-known for being an active mentor to colleagues and students alike. Colleagues say his support and encouragement of their research and clinical work has helped their department gain a national reputation for excellence. Through his guidance, five members of Hales’ department currently hold leadership positions in other key national associations, such as the American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Association of Residency Training Directors in Psychiatry, and related educational associations in the field.

Developing centers of education and research has also been a hallmark of Hales’s efforts at UC Davis. He played key roles in helping to launch the university’s Center for Neuroscience, Center for Neuroimaging and the M.I.N.D. Institute for neurodevelopmental disorders. His initiatives help explain why the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences has doubled the size of its faculty and why its related research funding is at an all-time high.

Hales’ abilities in the classroom are equally impressive, earning accolades for providing clear and concise lectures and offering what students say are “refreshing perspectives in medicine.” His department’s overall reputation for educational excellence has meant that about 11 percent of UC Davis School of Medicine students elect to specialize in psychiatry once they graduate, which is higher than the national average.

In addition to teaching and administrative leadership, Hales has written or edited 44 books and more than 150 journal and magazine articles in publications ranging from the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences to Parade Magazine. His topics have been equally varied, ranging from depression and dementia-associated agitation to anxiety disorders and brain injury.