Irving B. Harris Endowed Chair in Infant Mental Health Alicia F. Lieberman, PhD, was honored with ZERO TO THREE’s 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award on October 9 during the organization’s annual conference. A widely renowned expert on mental health and development in infancy and early childhood, Lieberman is also the director of the Child Trauma Research Program at Zuckerberg San Francisco Hospital and Trauma Center, director of the Early Trauma Treatment Network, vice chair for faculty development in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and a former board president of ZERO TO THREE.
Founded in 1977 as the National Center for Clinical Infant Programs, ZERO TO THREE is a leading early childhood development nonprofit dedicated to ensuring all babies and toddlers have a strong start in life. It works to advance the proven power of nurturing relationships by transforming the science of early childhood into helpful resources, practical tools, and responsive policies for millions of parents, professionals, and policymakers.
“Alicia is one of the premiere leaders in our field, a teacher and mentor who has made a tremendous difference in the lives of babies and toddlers everywhere,” stated Paul Spicer, PhD, board president of ZERO TO THREE. “Throughout her career, she has been a pioneer in the area of trauma-informed clinical care of young children, work that continues today in helping children through this pandemic. She has been a dedicated leader at ZERO TO THREE and her influence will be felt for generations to come. She is so deserving of this award, and I’m proud to see her honored this year.”
Lieberman is the developer of child-parent psychotherapy, an evidence-based treatment for traumatized children from birth to five-years-old, and has made major contributions to the field’s understanding of attachment, toddler development, and cross-cultural perspectives on early development through her research, writing, training and consultation. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including most recently the 2016 Rene Spitz Award for Lifetime Achievement from the World Association of Infant Mental Health (WAIMH), 2016 Public Health Hero Award from the San Francisco Department of Public Health, 2017 Whole Child Award from the Simms-Mann Institute, 2018 Blanche Ittleson Award from the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice, and 2019 Paulina Kernberg Award from the Weill Cornell Institute.
“When others speak about Dr. Lieberman, a common thread is the compassion and wisdom that she brings to our profession,” added ZERO TO THREE Executive Director Matthew Melmed, JD. “She has always been quick to recognize and lift up the positive practices that shape parenting, leading to her concept of ‘angels in the nursery.’ This is truly a well-deserved honor for an inspiring leader and mentor to us all.”
About UCSF Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
The UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute are among the nation's foremost resources in the fields of child, adolescent, adult, and geriatric mental health. Together they constitute one of the largest departments in the UCSF School of Medicine and the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, with a mission focused on research (basic, translational, clinical), teaching, patient care, and public service.
UCSF Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences conducts its clinical, educational, and research efforts at a variety of locations in Northern California, including Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital; UCSF Medical Centers at Parnassus Heights, Mission Bay, and Mount Zion; UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland; Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center; the San Francisco VA Health Care System; UCSF Fresno; and numerous community-based sites around the San Francisco Bay Area.
About the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences
The UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, established by the extraordinary generosity of Joan and Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill, brings together world-class researchers with top-ranked physicians to solve some of the most complex challenges in the human brain.
The UCSF Weill Institute leverages UCSF’s unrivaled bench-to-bedside excellence in the neurosciences. It unites three UCSF departments—Neurology, Psychiatry, and Neurological Surgery—that are highly esteemed for both patient care and research, as well as the Neuroscience Graduate Program, a cross-disciplinary alliance of nearly 100 UCSF faculty members from 15 basic-science departments, as well as the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, a multidisciplinary research center focused on finding effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders.
About UCSF
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. UCSF Health, which serves as UCSF’s primary academic medical center, includes top-ranked specialty hospitals and other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area.
