NNDC Executive Committee Memeber, Holly Lisanby, MD Named Director of Translational Research for NIMH

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has asked Holly Lisanby, MD, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, to serve as its director for the Division of Translational Research. Dr. Lisanby will step down from her role as chair and take a leave of absence from Duke to begin serving the NIMH this fall, pending final NIH approval.

As director for the Division of Translational Research, Dr. Lisanby will be in an exciting position to help set a national agenda for research on mental illness.

Dr. Lisanby is one of the leading researchers in the area of neuromodulatory interventions for treating major depression and serves as a principal investigator on studies that range from basic research through clinical trials.  A prolific author with approximately 200 scientific articles and book chapters, she has received national and international recognition, including a Distinguished Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, the Max Hamilton Memorial Prize of the Collegium Internationale Neuro-Psychoharmacologicum, the Gerald Klerman Award from the National Depression and Manic Depression Association, and in 2015 the Eva King Killam Research Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Dr. Lisanby received dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Mathematics and Psychology and her MD from Duke University. She completed a residency in Psychiatry at Duke in 1995, serving as chief resident. In 2010, she returned to Duke as chair for the Department of Psychiatry and today holds the J.P. Gibbons Professor of Psychiatry endowed chair.