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WPS Creates Human Rights Award To Honor Charles Prudhomme, M.D.

One of the original members of WPS, Dr. Charles Prudhomme, a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and professor at Howard University Hospital (his alma mater) had several notable accomplishments, including:

advocating for the APA to submit an Amicus Brief in the Brown v. Board of Education case before the Supreme Court.
being appointed to the DC Mental Health Commission in 1962 and being the first African American to serve on it.
co-founding the Black Psychiatrists of America.
serving as vice-president of the APA from 1970-1971, the first African-American to do so in the APA’s history.

The Charles Prudhomme Human Rights Award, originated by Doctors Eliot Sorel and Constance E. Dunlap, was conceived to honor the spirit and the legacy of Dr. Prudhomme. The award will be presented annually to well deserving recipients, individuals, or organizations, at the WPS Awards banquet. It is intended to honor individuals or organizations who have demonstrated through their courageous actions, continued and successful commitment to advocating for human rights regarding health and education affecting historically marginalized individuals, families, and organizations, in the spirit of Dr. Charles Prudhomme, and demonstrating success in advancing those goals.

Meet the Honoree of the
Inaugural Dr. Charles Prudhomme
Human Rights Award
Ruth Shim, MD, MPH

Ruth Shim, MD, MPH is the Luke & Grace Kim Professor in Cultural Psychiatry and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, Davis. She also serves as Associate Dean of Diverse and Inclusive Education at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. Dr. Shim received an MPH in health policy from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and an MD from Emory University School of Medicine. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Scientific Advisory Council of Bring Change to Mind, an organization co founded by actress Glenn Close to reduce stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness.

She serves on the Editorial Boards of JAMA Psychiatry, Psychiatric Services, Community Mental Health Journal, and American Psychiatric Publishing, and is co-editor of the books, The Social Determinants of Mental Health, and Social (In)Justice and Mental Health. Dr. Shim is an at-large member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Forum on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders, and the National Academies’ ad hoc committee on Unequal Treatment Revisited: The Current State of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. In 2021, she was the recipient of a NAMI Exemplary Psychiatrist Award and the UC Davis Health Deans’ Award for Excellence in Mentoring. She was named a Top 20 Black Change Maker of 2023 by The Sacramento Bee. Dr. Shim provides clinical psychiatric care in the UC Davis Early Diagnosis and Preventative Treatment
(EDAPT) Clinic.