NARSAD’s annual New York gala awards dinner was held Friday, October 19, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan.

The gala, which was attended by 625 guests and raised more than $1.4 million, celebrated the organization’s 20th year of funding cutting-edge research on serious mental illnesses. The event also honored the seminal role of NARSAD’s outgoing president Connie Lieber, who led the organization for the last 18 years.

As in past years, NARSAD’s New York gala was the occasion to award its prestigious annual prizes for outstanding achievement in psychiatric research. The prizes recognize career accomplishments in the areas of schizophrenia, mood disorders, child and adolescent psychiatry and cognitive neuroscience, and this year went to Eve Johnstone, M.D., and Jeremy Hall, M.D.-Ph.D., Edinburgh University; Helen Mayberg, M.D., Emory University; James Leckman, M.D., Yale University; and Huda Akil, Ph.D., University of Michigan. (Read more about this year’s prize recipients.)

The theme of this year’s gala was “Healing Children’s Minds,” in an effort to raise awareness of NARSAD’s broad-based effort to understand and develop effective treatments for psychiatric illnesses affecting children and adolescents. In keeping with this theme, NARSAD also recognized leadership in childhood mental health by awarding its first Children’s Mental Health Award to KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit organization that envisions, and facilitates, a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. In addition, earlier on Friday, NARSAD hosted a free, public symposium on childhood and adolescent mental disorders, with presentations by leading experts on mood disorders, anxiety, ADHD, schizophrenia and autism.

NARSAD’s new organizational video, “To Find a Cure,” made its debut at the gala. From a variety of perspectives – through NARSAD researchers and Scientific Council members, as well as the mentally ill and their families -- the video conveys NARSAD’s mission, accomplishments and promise, that through research there is hope.

The gala was graced with a performance by members of the Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus, who sang passages from “Hansel and Gretel,” “The Magic Flute,” “La Boheme” and other operas. The Bob Hardwick Sound provided music for dancing.

2007 Gala Sponsors

Research Benefactors



The Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation



Karen and Jerry Callaghan

The Carmel Hill Fund

The Essel Foundation

Nola M. Falcone Charitable Foundation



Constance and Stephen Lieber

Jeanne and Sanford Robertson


Research Partners

ALPS Fund Services, Inc.

AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals

Columbia University / New York State Psychiatric Institute

Sam Lieber and Mary Rubin

Sheila and Thomas Rabaut