BPA President Honored by World Association of Cultural Psychiatry

Roberto Lewis-Fernández, M.D. (left), presents Samuel Okpaku, M.D., Ph.D., with the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry’s (WACP) 2018 Pioneering Work in Cultural Psychiatry Award. He received the award in recognition of his groundbreaking contributions to cultural psychiatry. Lewis-Fernandez is the outgoing president of the WACP.

Okpaku is president of the Black Psychiatrists of America and the president and founder of the Center for Health, Culture, and Society in Nashville, Tenn. The center is dedicated to improving access to mental health services in Africa as well as conducting collaborative research. He is the former chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Meharry Medical College and clinical professor at Vanderbilt School of Medicine and has held fellowships at the World Health Organization and National Institute of Mental Health. Among his numerous publications is Clinical Methods in Transcultural Psychiatry by APA Publishing.

The WACP is an independent, international academic organization whose main objective is to promote the exchange of science and educational information and the progress of international activity in the field of cultural psychiatry across the world. ■