The Vestermark Psychiatry Educator Award recognizes excellence, leadership, and creativity in the field of psychiatric education and is given annually to a psychiatric educator for outstanding contributions to the education and development of psychiatrists. The award was established in 1969 in memory of Seymour Vestermark, M.D., chief of the National Institute of Mental Health Training Branch from 1948 to 1959 and an authority in the field of professional mental health education. The award concentrates on the field of psychiatric education in its broadest context, with special emphasis on preparation of teachers, use of new educational tools, and improved teaching techniques in the field of mental health.
2026 Award Recipient
Carlyle H. Chan, M.D., completed his Psychiatry Residency at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics. This was followed by a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar Fellowship at Yale University. He returned to his alma mater, the Medical College of Wisconsin, serving continuously on the Psychiatry faculty for the past 46 years. Starting as a lecturer for medical student courses, he added resident supervision and teaching, and advanced to Residency Program Director, a position he held for 17+ years. He is currently Professor and Vice Chair for Professional Development and Educational Outreach, where he directs the Department’s Grand Rounds and other CME activities including the Door County Summer Institute, which he founded 39 years ago. Nationally, he has also been active on all three levels of medical education. He is a Past-President of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatry Residency Training (AADPRT) and was one of the founders and early Chair of the Organization of Program Directors Associations (OPDA). He served on the Board of Directors of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) where he was elect Chair. He served on the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Psychiatry Review Committee and on the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). He was a Senior Consultant for GME for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Special Initiatives Program as well as a member of their Integration Committee for their monograph on the Fundamental Role of the Arts and Humanities in Medical Education (FRAHME). He guided the development of two new rural Wisconsin Psychiatry residencies and is now developing a psychiatry/behavioral health fellowship for rural Wisconsin Family Medicine residents. He is currently a Psychiatry Content Expert for Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Rural Residency Planning and Development Program’s Technical Assistance Center. He is a recipient of the ACGME’s Parker J Palmer Courage to Teach Award, the Association for Academic Psychiatry’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and MCW’s Society of Teaching Scholars. He continues to see outpatients for both psychopharmacological treatment and psychodynamic psychotherapy.
Sheldon Benjamin, M.D. is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurology at the University of Massachusetts T H Chan School of Medicine (UMass Chan), where he served as Director of Neuropsychiatry from 1986-2025. He served as Interim Chair of Psychiatry from 2017-2020, founding director of the UMass Chan Neuropsychiatry Fellowship from 1989-2024, founding director of the Combined Neurology/Psychiatry Residency Program from 1997-2020 (associate director from 2020-2025), and co-director of the UMass Adult Neurodevelopmental Disability Fellowship program from 2016-2024. He served as Vice Chair for Education in Psychiatry from 2009-2024. In 2020 he stepped down after 25 years as Psychiatry Program Director and served as Associate Program Director until 2025. In 2023 he served as Visiting Professor in Neuropsychiatry at Kings College Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience and the Maudsley Hospital in London UK.
A graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, he completed psychiatry residency training at Tufts New England Medical Center, neurology residency training at Tufts and Boston University, and fellowship in Behavioral Neurology at the Boston University/Boston Veterans Administration Hospital. He is board certified in both Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) and in Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry by the United Council on Neurological Subspecialties (UCNS).
Dr. Benjamin is currently one of the Psychiatry Directors of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, a member of the Psychiatry Review Committee of the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), secretary of the International Neuropsychiatric Association, and the international member of the Board of Directors of the Associação das Pioneiras Sociais (Association of Social Pioneers), operators of the SARAH network of rehabilitation hospitals in Brazil. He has served as President of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatry Residency Training (AADPRT) and the American Neuropsychiatric Association (ANPA). He is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the APA, a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and a Fellow of the American Neuropsychiatric Association.
Dr. Benjamin has been selected as the recipient of the Outstanding Educator Award by the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society, The UMass Chan Lamar Soutter Lifetime Achievement Award in Education, the UMass Chan Chancellors Medal for Distinguished Teaching, the ANPA Gary J Tucker, MD Lifetime Achievement Award in Neuropsychiatry, and the AADPRT Lifetime Service Award in Psychiatric Education.
A specialist in the evaluation of behavioral problems at the interface of psychiatry and neurology, he teaches clinical neuroscience and neuropsychiatry; and has published and presented widely on neuropsychiatry, clinical neuroscience training of psychiatrists; neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric examination techniques; educational technology; residency training issues; and the history of neuropsychiatry. He is co-author of The Brain Card®, a guide to comprehensive bedside neuropsychiatric examination; the ACGME-ABPN Psychiatry Milestones; the APA Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Schizophrenia; the APA Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder; and co-editor of the new textbook from American Psychiatric Publishing, Psychiatric Neurology: A Clinical Approach.
Previous Award Recipients
- 2025: Alan Tasman, M.D.
"Clinical Education on the Social Determinants of Mental Health: Putting the Social Back Into the Biopsychosocial Model" - 2024: Sydney Zisook, M.D.
"Caring for Ourselves" - 2023: Laura Roberts, M.D., M.A.
"Launching and Navigating a Successful Career in Academic Medicine" - 2022: No Award Given
- 2021: No Award Given
- 2020: Jeffrey M. Lyness, M.D.
- 2018: Alan Kuo-Hin Luoie, M.D.
"Why Artificial Intelligence and Computational Neuroscience Should Be Taught to Psychiatry Residents" - 2017: Sandra Sexson, M.D.
"Promoting Physician Competence Across the Lifespan: Targeted Lifelong Learning and Continuous Practice Assessment and Improvement" - 2016: Robert E. Hales, M.D. & John H. Coverdale, M.D.
"Psychiatric Faculty Development: Challenges for the 21st Century" - 2015: Geraldine S. Fox, M.D., M.H.P.E
"Stories that Stick: Teaching From the Heart Using Personal Narrative Stimulus Video" (given at IPS) - 2014: Carol A. Bernstein, M.D.
"Leading Change Through Education and Mentorship"