Patrick Corrigan wins the Sigma Xi Excellence in University Research Award
Distinguished Professor of Psychology Patrick Corrigan has been awarded the Sigma Xi Excellence in University Research Award. The award was presented at the university-wide faculty meeting on April 9 at IIT.
Dr. Corrigan has an esteemed reputation around the world for his work on serious mental illness, health disparities, and stigma. He has captured more than $45 million in funds to support his research and related work, using those funds to support to active research centers that have generated more than 300 peer-reviewed papers. He does this while an active member of the IIT faculty, currently with 10 doctoral students and as chair of two university-wide committees.
Dr. Corrigan’s research extends the focus of traditional psychiatric rehabilitation to examine the stereotypes held by the community and those living with serious mental illness, and investigate the role of ethnic disparities in undermining rehabilitation. He is an internationally recognized expert, and as a member of national and international advisory groups has worked to develop anti-stigma campaigns aimed at improving the lives of individuals around the world. His examination of the effects of the Affordable Care Act on health disparities is crucial for narrowing race and economic status life expectancy gaps.
His research work is organized under two centers which he directs: the National Consortium for Stigma and Empowerment (NCSE) and Chicago Health Disparities (CHD).
NCSE (www.NCSE1.org) is now in its 15th year and represents the collaboration of more than 20 academic institutions. Most recently, Corrigan was P.I. of an NIH-funded center grant with co-PIs from Yale, Penn, Temple and Rutgers. His NCSE work largely focuses on strategies meant to diminish the public and self-stigma of mental illness. CHD (www.chicagohealthdisparities.org) is a collaboration of services providers and academic institutions in Chicago addressing the health needs of people of color with serious mental illness.
CHD is based in Together for Health (T4H), a collection of more than 30 health care clinics in the area that was funded as part of Illinois’ response to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Corrigan is currently P.I. of three federal grants through CHD on services for African Americans and Latinos with serious mental illness. Epidemiological research shows this population is likely to get sick and die fifteen years young than Americans in general. Corrigan is investigating psychiatric rehabilitation approaches to helping people better avail themselves of the primary care system.
Corrigan is a prolific investigator; he has authored fifteen books on top of his more than 300 peer-reviewed articles. His editorial duties are equally broad and deep. He is leaving the American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation after 17 years and is now editor-elect of Stigma and Health. He is currently on four editorial boards and is ad hoc reviewer for approximately 30 additional articles each year.
We congratulate Dr. Corrigan on this momentous recognition from the university community.
