At the November meeting of the APA Assembly, two APA Areas presented their annual Warren Williams Speaker’s Award.

Area 1 presented its award to Ellen Mercer, former director of the APA Office of International Affairs. Mercer, who left APA at the end of last year, was cited for her years of work to strengthen the relationship between American psychiatrists and their colleagues around the globe. Jeffrey Geller, M.D., who discussed Mercer’s accomplishments, noted that she was instrumental in getting several psychiatrists who had been unfairly imprisoned in several countries released from confinement. Mercer was not at the meeting to accept her award; she was attending the meeting of the Arab Psychiatric Association in Egypt.

Area 2 named New York psychiatrist Vincent Dole, M.D., as the 2000 recipient of its Warren Williams Award. At age 87 and an emeritus professor at Rockefeller University, Dole is a leading authority on the biology and pharmacology of addiction. He is most famous for pioneering the use of methadone in treating heroin addiction, in which his chief collaborator was his wife, psychiatrist Marie Nyswander, M.D.