2006 ZARROW RECOGNITION DINNER

Thursday, September 28, 2006
Tulsa Marriott Southern Hills

The Zarrow Recognition Dinner is held in conjunction with the Zarrow Mental Health Symosium, and was established to honor individuals and/or organizations who have made significant contributions to the reduction of stigma and to helping create a better quality of life for people living with mental illness.

Click here to read Leigh Woosley's interview with keynote speaker, Joshua Wolf Shenk, that appeared in the Sunday, September 17, 2006 edition of the Tulsa World.

Dinner Keynote Speaker
Joshua Wolf Shenk

Joshua Wolf Shenk is an essayist and independent scholar based in New York City. He is the author of Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness. The book tells – for the first time – the full story of Lincoln’s lifelong depression, how he managed it, and how it came to fuel his epic work. Drawing on seven years of research, Shenk shows how the science and literature on depression offer insight into Lincoln’s remarkable journey, and how Lincoln’s story challenges and enriches our understanding of depression. Published by Houghton Mifflin in 2005, the book was adapted as a cover story in the October 2005 Atlantic Monthly and has been named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Shenk's work has also appeared in Harper's Magazine, The New Yorker, GQ, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and other publications. He is a former editor of The Washington Monthly and has been a correspondent for The New Republic, The Economist, and U.S. News & World Report. His essay "A Melancholy of Mine Own" appeared in the national bestseller, Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression, edited by Nell Casey.

Shenk speaks widely on mental health issues, including his own struggles with depression, as well as on historical topics, and on modern politics and culture. A writing teacher and creative coach, Shenk teaches at the New School University, and conducts private and group workshops.

Shenk served as chief consultant for the 2006 History Channel documentary, "Lincoln," and he sits on the advisory council for the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

His other honors include a fellowship at the New York Foundation for the Arts and a Rosalynn Carter Fellowship in Mental Health Journalism. He is vice-chairman of the board of directors of Stories at the Moth, the urban storytelling series.

Honoree - Dr. Gerard Clancy

This year the Zarrow Families and the Mental Health Association in Tulsa look forward to honoring Dr. Gerard Clancy, President of OU-Tulsa, for his service to the mental health community in Tulsa. Dr. Clancy was a key force in bringing about the Integrated Multidisciplinary Program of Assertive Community Treatment (OU-IMPACT) team to Tulsa to help provide wrap-around services to individuals affected by mental illness who need a higher level of care than traditional outpatient services provide. OU-IMPACT brings psychiatrists, social workers, licensed professional counselors, case managers and nurses together around an individual to help them find housing, make doctor appointments for physical health problems, medication management, applying for SSI, SSDI, food stamps, as well as helping them with activities of daily living and meeting the goals they have set for themselves through engagement, encouragement and positive reinforcement. Dr. Clancy also helped to establish the Bedlam Community Health Partnerships to help indigent and uninsured patients in the state’s northeast region obtain free medical care.

Dinner Sponsors (Updated 9/7/2006)

• Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation
• Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital
• Maxine and Jack Zarrow Family Foundation
• OU-Tulsa
• Toni's Flowers and Gifts
• Tulsa City-County Library
• Tulsa World

Cost to attend the dinner is $50 per person, and is separate from conference registration. For more information, please contact Tiffany Phillips at (918)585-1213 / tphillips@mhat.org. Click here to go to on-line registration.