Gary B. Melton Award
The Gary B. Melton Award was established in 2020. It recognizes outstanding achievement in the creation of safe and humane communities for children and families.
Dr. Gary B. Melton served as president of the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice (then the American Orthopsychiatric Association) from 2004-2005, co-editor of American Journal of Orthopsychiatry from 2010-2014, and senior editor for the journal until his passing. His scope of knowledge and expertise extended across a number of disciplines, social concerns, and national bordera. Dr. Melton focused much of his considerable passion and talent on children and families — more specifically, on the creation of safe and humane settings for children and families.
Award Recipients
2024 | Victoria Ngo, PhD
Associate professor of Community Health and Social Services
City University of New York Graduate School of Public health & Health Policy (CUNY SPH)
Director, Center for Innovation in Mental Health at CUNY SPH
Mental Health Director of the Center for Immigrant, Refugee and Global Health at CUNY
Dr. Ngo was recognized for her vision in promoting community-based strategies as a way of building resilience and mental well-being in the Harlem community.
Victoria Ngo, PhD, is an associate professor of Community Health and Social Sciences at the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy (CUNY SPH). She is also the director of the Center for Innovation in Mental Health at CUNY SPH, and Mental Health director of the Center for Immigrant, Refugee and Global Health at CUNY. Dr. Ngo also holds an adjunct scientist position at the RAND Corporation. Her research focuses on developing mental health interventions and implementation strategies to promote access and quality of care to ethnic minorities and underserved populations worldwide. She specializes in implementation strategies for mental health task-sharing and use of community participator methods to increase access to evidence-based mental health interventions and sustainable integration of mental health services into non-mental health settings including primary care, maternal health, HIV, cancer care, schools, and other community-based settings. As part of system transformation initiatives to address health inequities at NIH and RWJF, she is leading the Harlem Strong Mental Health and Economic Empowerment Collaborative to transform systems of care using a neighborhood-based collaborative care model to support integrating mental health and community-based services in housing, primary care, and community-based organization in Harlem.
2022 | Warren Binford, JD, EdM
W.H. Lea for Justice Endowed Chair in Pediatric Law, Ethics & Policy, University of Colorado
Director for Pediatric Law, Ethics & Policy at the Kempe Center
Professor Binford was recognized for her contribution to elevating the voices of children and their human rights in her scholarship and advocacy. In so doing, she has helped to create environments for children that are safe, humane and participatory.
Warren Binford, JD, EdM, is an international children’s rights scholar and advocate whose research and writing largely focuses on 21st century forms f childhood harms. She became the inaugural W.H. Lee Endowed Chair for Justice in Pediatric Law, Policy and Ethics at the University of Colorado (CU) where she is a professor of Pediatrics (tenured), professor of law (by courtesy), and a core faculty member in the Center for Bioethics and the Humanities at the CU School of Medicine. She also serves as the director of Law, Policy and Ethics at CU’s Kempe Center on the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect. She has published widely and has appeared on children’s issues on CNN, BBC, NBC, NPR, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Newsweek, Washington Post, New Yorker, Atlantic, and many other media outlets.