City & State New York has honored Jennifer Havens, MD, interim chair of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Amanda M. Spray, PhD, director of the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Center at NYU Langone, on their 2021 “Mental Health Power 50” list. Mental health is always an important issue, but with the COVID-19 pandemic it is even more critical.

This year’s inaugural Mental Health Power 50 list recognizes some of the most influential public officials, academics, healthcare professionals, advocates, and activists who are making a difference in the lives of people living with mental illness.

Dr. Havens, also a professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, connects clinicians, researchers, and educators to advance the treatment of mental health and developmental disorders in children. She is also director of child and adolescent behavioral health in the NYC Health + Hospitals’ Office of Behavioral Health.

The stress and trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt acutely by the frontline healthcare workers caring for not only themselves and their families, but also their entire city—and Dr. Spray, who also serves as director of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, is among the experts studying efforts to bolster the mental health resources available to them.

Read more from City & State New York.