« Blog

Each year at our Annual OCD Conference, we honor individuals who have gone above and beyond in their service and dedication to the OCD and related disorders community— raising awareness and advocating along the way. We would like to officially announce the 2022 award winners who will be honored at the 27th Annual OCD Conference in Denver, Colorado. Congratulations to our winners below!

Outstanding Career Achievement Award

This award is intended to highlight the significant and notable contributions of a professional in the field of OCD and related disorders.

2022 Winner: James F. Leckman, MD, PhD

Dr. Leckman is one of the world's foremost researchers on OCD and Tourette Syndrome. He is the Neison Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry, Psychiatry, Psychology and Pediatrics at Yale and, for more than 20 years, he has served as the Director of Research for the Yale Child Study Center. Dr. Leckman is also the Deputy Training Director of the Albert Solnit Integrated Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychiatry Program at Yale. He has trained psychiatrists, psychologists, medical students, and research scientists for over 30 years at Yale and its Child Study Center.

His research on OCD and tic disorders has included studies of phenomenology, natural history, neurobiology, genetics, risk factors, immune factors, and treatment. One of his most significant contributions was to develop the dimensional model of OCD, demonstrating that OCD had 4-5 major symptom factors or dimensions. Dr. Leckman is the author or co-author of over 430 original articles published in peer-reviewed journals, 12 books, and 140 book chapters. He is one of the world's most highly cited researchers

Patricia Perkins Service Award

This award is intended to honor any professional or IOCDF member who has stood out as a long-time and active contributor to the IOCDF.

2022 Winner: Sabine Wilhelm, PhD

Dr. Wilhelm is the Chief of Psychology and Director of the Center for OCD and Related Disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Professor at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on the development, testing, and dissemination of treatments for OCD and related disorders. Dr. Wilhelm has been the principal investigator or site principal investigator of seven NIMH-funded research grants and many other grants. She has more than 200 publications on the cognitive functioning, prevalence, and treatment of OCD, body dysmorphic (BDD), and tic disorders and has published seven books on these disorders as well.

For many years, Dr. Wilhelm has served in multiple leadership roles at the IOCDF. These include serving as the Vice Chair of the IOCDF’s Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board (SCB), Chair of the Research Grant Review Committee and Research Grant Policy Committee, and Vice Chair of the SCB Nominating Committee. She has always been a committed and generous member of the OCD professional community as a mentor, a conference presenter, a pivotal member of our BDD Special Interest Group (SIG), and a regular attendee of IOCDF events, such as the OCD Walk.

IOCDF Hero Award

This award is intended to to recognize an individual who has stood out as an exemplary advocate for their contributions to the OCD and related disorders community.

2022 Winner: Kyle King

While in high school in South Florida, Kyle started an OCD support group for him and his peers. Although he has graduated, he continues to run this support group virtually to support his hometown OCD community. Now in college at Yale University, Kyle interns at the Yale OCD Research Clinic with a passion for aiding in the advancement of OCD and related disorders research. His own research focuses on the therapeutic benefits of sharing OCD symptoms with friends. He also spent a summer as an intern at Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, working on their OCD clinical trial.

In addition to his own personal advocacy, Kyle is currently an IOCDF Advocate as well. He started volunteering his time for the Foundation by serving as a head counselor for the teen’s group in the IOCDF’s OCD Camp, as well as being part of the OCD Camp’s planning committee. With a passion for offering support to his peers with OCD, Kyle is one of the Young Adult Special Interest Group (SIG) leaders. For the SIG, he organizes and hosts monthly virtual young adult meetups, and he helps oversee the Young Adult Track at the Annual OCD Conference. Finally, Kyle started a monthly, virtual Research  Roundtable with Dr. Jon Abramowitz, that focuses on sharing current OCD research in a manner digestible to the average individual.

IOCDF Youth Hero Award

Presented by Unstuck: an OCD Kids’ Movie

This award is intended to to recognize a young individual who has stood out as an exemplary advocate for their contributions to the OCD and related disorders community.

2022 Winner: Alex Rosenberg

Alex was diagnosed with OCD when he was 10 years old and just graduated from highschool. He has been an active advocate from an early age, including putting together his own educational fliers on OCD for distribution at his school. At one of his first Annual OCD Conferences, he sought out IOCDF National Advocate, Ethan Smith, to ask how we could do more to make sure everyone could get treatment (he was still in middle school at the time!). 

Now, Alex serves as an incredibly active and positive IOCDF Advocate, with a particular commitment to the Foundation’s faith and OCD initiatives. Alex is a leader in the Faith and OCD Special Interest Group (SIG), and he never misses a meeting. He has spoken on multiple IOCDF livestreams on the integration of his Jewish faith with treatment while utilizing Jewish texts and his collaboration with his rabbi. After every livestream, we receive multiple messages about the impact of Alex's advocacy as a young person. Alex was also a speaker at the 2022 Faith and OCD Conference, the 2021 Online OCD Conference, and the 27th Annual OCD Conference in Denver. 

The 27th Annual OCD Conference is less than two weeks away! Pre-Register online before Thursday, June 30th at 3pm ET to meet our award recipients and learn about the latest treatments, research, and practices in OCD and related disorders. From July 1 on, register onsite at the Conference hotel: Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center, starting at 2pm MT on Thursday, July 7th.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *