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Dewan, Greenberg receive SUNY's highest faculty honor

SYRACUSE, N.Y.— Upstate Medical University professors Mantosh J. Dewan, MD, and Roger P. Greenberg, PhD, have been appointed to the rank of Distinguished Service Professor and Distinguished Teaching Professor, respectively, by the State University of New York Board of Trustees. They are among 26 SUNY faculty that have received SUNY's highest tribute.

"The genius of SUNY faculty lies not only in their intellectual capacity, but also in their surpassing excellence in teaching and in their ability to apply their scholarship and research in service to the campus and larger community in which we all live," said SUNY Board of Trustees Chairman Carl T. Hayden. "These SUNY faculty attract students and scholars to our campuses, enhance the prestige of the entire university and they are most deserving of highest academic rank the university can bestow. My sincere gratitude and hearty congratulations go to them all."

Dewan, professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, received a Distinguished Service Professorship for his service to the Upstate campus, to SUNY and to his local and global communities. Dewan has for many years contributed his time and expertise to increasing the accessibility and quality of public community-based mental health services in Onondaga County and beyond.

He was instrumental in saving Hutchings Psychiatric Center and he re-established a fellowship in child psychiatry to give children and families access to highly-trained practitioners and that made a child psychiatrist available to youngsters at the Hillbrook Detention Facility. Dewan developed a multi-county training and consultation program, including a Website, on treating adults with co-occurring psychiatric and addictive disorders. He established a psychiatric assessment and treatment program for children entering foster care and he was instrumental in establishing a highly successful clinical consultation and training service with public mental health providers in Greene, Lewis and Jefferson counties. He designed and obtained funding from the state Office of Mental Health for a child psychiatry consultation service that provides training and case specific phone consultation to pediatricians and family practitioners in Onondaga County and the four surrounding counties.

Under his leadership, his department has developed psychiatric services in Watertown to serve Fort Drum soldiers and their families. Dr. Dewan also spearheaded a program for residents to earn a master's in public administration at Syracuse University's Maxwell School. He serves on a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services committee to develop a national rural mental health plan, and a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration planning group to tackle the serious mental health issues in Iraq. He was one of three non-Iraqi physicians invited to participate in the Iraqi Action Planning meeting in Egypt where he demonstrated how to deliver evidence-based treatments in impoverished rural areas of Iraq based on the model he developed in Syracuse. Dr. Dewan is also a visiting professor at the University of Mumbai.

Greenberg, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, received a Distinguished Teaching Professorship for his "mastery of teaching, outstanding service to students and commitment to their ongoing intellectual growth, scholarship and professional growth." Greenberg has earned an international reputation as a notable scholar, teacher, mentor and program director.

Greenberg has served as director of Upstate's Clinical Psychology Training Program since 1971 and head of the Division of Psychology since 1993. The training program is accredited by the American Psychology Association since 1970 and was selected in a national survey of directors of University Clinical Psychology Doctoral Graduate Programs as one of the 10 best in the country.

Greenberg has served as a mentor, teacher and clinical supervisor to more than 250 psychology trainees, hundreds of psychiatric residents and numerous medical students. He is the recipient of Upstate's 2007 President's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Greenberg has produced more than 225 articles and presentations that have had a major impact on the field of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. Long a leading scholar of Freud's work, he is the author of the definitive analysis, The Scientific Credibility of Freud's Theories and Therapies, written with Dr. Seymour Fisher, that was selected as one of the 10 best books in the behavioral sciences by the National Library Association as well as by Psychology Today. In 2008 he published two book chapters, two papers, an invited paper and a book review.

Greenberg has given invited lectures at many national conferences as well as prestigious institutions such as Oxford University, University of Toronto, and Cornell University where he was selected to give the first Catlin Memorial Lecture. He has influenced many of his trainees to become academics themselves—his mentorship has included publishing more than 35 articles with former students.

Greenberg also has been active in the application of academic standards in assessing programs and student performance at the national level. He has been an active member of the American Psychological Association since 1969 and has served as a site visitor for psychology training programs for the purpose of accreditation for over 35 years. He has mentored and trained a number of new site visitors who have learned well by his example.

Greenberg has served as an elected board member of the Central New York Psychological Association since 1986 and as its president in 2001 and 2002. He received the group's highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

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