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The NIMH Director’s Innovation Speaker Series

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is pleased to invite you to attend a series of lectures dedicated to innovation, invention, and scientific discovery. NIMH established the Director’s Innovation Speaker Series to encourage broad, interdisciplinary thinking in the development of scientific initiatives and programs, and to press for theoretical leaps in science over the continuation of incremental thought. Innovation speakers are encouraged to describe their work from the perspective of breaking through existing boundaries and developing successful new ideas, as well as working outside their primary area of expertise in ways that have pushed their fields forward. We encourage discussions of the meaning of innovation, creativity, breakthroughs, and paradigm-shifting.

Submit general questions to the NIMH Director’s Innovation Speaker Series mailbox.

Speaker Schedule 2023-2024

Portrait of Daniel E. Dawes, J.D.

Daniel E. Dawes, J.D.

Talk Title: Director’s Innovation Speaker Series: Changing Minds & Advancing Lines: Why We Must Keep Pushing for Mental Health Equity

Date: February 20, 2024 2:00–3:00 p.m. ET Virtual

Portrait of Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Ph.D.

Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Ph.D.

Talk Title: Director’s Innovation Speaker Series: Social Connection: An eye to the past, present, and future

Date: October 26, 2023, 2:00-3:00 PM ET Hybrid

Speaker Schedule 2022-2023

Headshot of Mary Woolley

Mary Woolley

Talk Title: Director’s Innovation Speaker Series: Your Role in Winning Hearts and Minds for Research

Date: June 22, 2023, 3:00-4:00 PM ET via Zoom

Dr. Sharon Walsh headshot

Sharon L. Walsh, Ph.D.

Talk Title: Director’s Innovation Speaker Series: The Opioid Crisis: Disrupting the Status Quo with the HEALing Communities Study

Date: February 14, 2023, 2:00-3:00 PM ET via Zoom

Portrait of Dr. Ashlee Cunsolo

Ashlee Cunsolo, Ph.D.

Talk Title: Director’s Innovation Speaker Series: Ecological Grief and Anxiety: A Healthy Response to Climate Change

Date: January 19, 2023, 3:00-4:00 PM ET via Zoom

Portrait of Leticia Márquez-Magaña, Ph.D.

Leticia Márquez-Magaña, Ph.D.

Talk Title: Director’s Innovation Speaker Series: Transformative Research Requires Insider Researchers

Date: December 8, 2022, 3:00-4:00 PM ET via Zoom

Portrait of Serena Spudich, M.D., M.A.

Serena Spudich, M.D., M.A.

Talk Title: Director’s Innovation Speaker Series: HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 Effects on Brain and Mind Health: A Tale of Two Viruses

Date: November 9, 2022, 2:00-3:00 PM ET via Zoom

Portrait of Helen A. Neville, Ph.D.

Ken Duckworth, M.D.

Talk Title: Director’s Innovation Speaker Series: NAMI and NIMH: Then, Now, and the Future

Date: September 15, 2022, 3:00-4:00 PM ET via Zoom

Speaker Schedule 2021-2022

Portrait of Helen A. Neville, Ph.D.

Helen A. Neville, Ph.D.

Talk Title: Director’s Innovation Speaker Series: Implementing Radical Healing Strategies to Promote Health Equity

Date: May 3, 2022, 3:00-4:00 PM ET via Zoom

Portrait of Sylvester James Gates, Ph.D.

Sylvester James Gates, Ph.D.

Talk Title: Director’s Innovation Speaker Series: How Looking at Genetics and Networks Led to Solving a Quantum Gravity Problem

Date: April 26, 2022, 12:00-1:00 PM ET via Zoom

Portrait of Foluso Agboola, MBBS, MPH

Foluso Agboola, MBBS, MPH

Talk Title: Director’s Innovation Speaker Series: Beyond FDA Approval: Assessing the Value of New Health Technologies

Date: March 8, 2022, 3:00-4:00 PM ET via Zoom

Otis Webb Brawley, M.D.

Otis Webb Brawley, M.D.

Talk Title: Cancer Control in the 21st Century with an Emphasis on Risk Reduction

Date: February 22, 2022, 3:00-4:00 PM ET via Zoom

Cynthia Rogers, M.D.

Cynthia Rogers, M.D.

Talk Title: Addressing Social Determinants to Optimize Infant Brain Development

Date: January 18, 2022, 3:00-4:00 PM ET via Zoom

Headshot of Nii Addy, Ph.D.

Nii Addy, Ph.D.

Talk Title: Lessons from My Journey as a Black Scientist, NIH-funded Investigator, DEI Leader, and Mental Health Advocate

Date: December 9, 2021, 3:00-4:00 PM ET via Zoom

Picture of Glorinda Segay D.B.H.

Glorinda Segay, D.B.H.

Talk Title: Life Through a Navajo Lens Beyond the Navajo Reservation

Date: October 12, 2021 - 3:00-4:00 PM via Zoom

A portrait headshot of Damien Fair PA-C, Ph.D.

Damien Fair PA-C, Ph.D.

Talk Title: Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience in the Era of Big Data

Date: September 9, 2021 - 3:00-4:00 PM via Zoom

Speaker Schedule 2020-2021

Roberto Lewis-Fernández, MD

Roberto Lewis-Fernández, M.D.

Talk Title: Addressing Ethnoracial Disparities in Mental Health Risk, Assessment, and Service Delivery

Date: June 22, 2021 - 3:00-4:00 PM via Zoom

Elise Robinson, Sc.D.

Elise Robinson, Sc.D.

Talk Title: Genetic Clues to Autism Heterogeneity

Date: May 13, 2021 - 3:00-4:00 PM via Zoom

Beverly Davison, PhD

Beverly Davidson, Ph.D.

Talk Title: Advancing Therapies for Central Nervous System

Date: April 15, 2021 - 3:00-4:00 PM via Zoom

Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD

Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH, FAAP

Talk Title: What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City

Date: March 18, 2021 - 3:00 PM via Zoom

Martin Paulus, MD

Martin Paulus, M.D.

Talk Title: Decision-Making and Computational Psychiatry: An Explanatory and Pragmatic Perspective

Date: November 12, 2020 - 3:00 PM via Zoom

Barak Richman, PhD

Barak Richman, Ph.D.

Talk Title: Pursuing an Innovation Agenda: A New Healthcare Architecture

Date: December 15, 2020 - 3:00 PM via Zoom

Michael Ungar, PhD

Michael Ungar, Ph.D.

Talk Title: Diagnosing Resilience: A Multisystemic Model for Positive Development in Stressed Environments

Date: January 14, 2021 via Zoom