First NIMH James S. Jackson Memorial Award Winner
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is pleased to announce that Enrique W. Neblett Jr., Ph.D., has been selected as the first winner of the NIMH James S. Jackson Memorial Award. NIMH launched the NIMH James S. Jackson Memorial Award to honor outstanding researchers who have demonstrated exceptional individual achievement and leadership in mental health disparities research and excellence in mentorship, influence, and support of students (particularly BIPOC students).
Dr. Neblett is a Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and Associate Director of the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center. Dr. Neblett is one of the leading U.S. scholars in the area of racism and health, with a particular focus on understanding how racism-related stress influences the mental and physical health of young Black Americans. In his newest line of research, he conducts community-based participatory research to develop and implement interventions, programs, and policies that can:
1) address the mental health consequences of individual, cultural, and structural racism;
2) improve health, and;
3) promote health equity.
Dr. Neblett's research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He teaches courses on race, ethnicity, and mental health, and population health determinants and disparities. In 2019, Dr. Neblett was named Mentor of the Year by the Black Caucus of the Society for Research in Child Development. In 2017, he was awarded the Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the Faculty Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring.
Dr. Neblett earned his Sc.B. from Brown University and his M.S. from The Pennsylvania State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Michigan in 2006.
The NIMH James S. Jackson Memorial Award is named in honor of the late Dr. James S. Jackson , a renowned social psychologist who was the Daniel Katz Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Jackson’s research on race, ethnicity, racism, health, and mental health has had far-reaching impacts on the fields of disparities research and minority mental health. Of particular significance, he authored the National Survey of Black Americans and the National Survey of American Life, which changed the way the field examined and understood Black life and mental health in the United States.