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Celebrating Our Innovators

A Reception to Honor Three Innovative Thinkers:
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton,
eating disorders awareness activist Kitty Westin, and
Wesleyan University Professor Ruth Striegel-Moore

Washington, D.C. - February 27, 2002

  
Joslyn Smith and Hillary Clinton
Senator Clinton, right, greets eating disorder survivor Joslyn Smith.

 

Recipient of Policy Award: Senator Hillary Clinton (D- NY)

Senator Clinton is a long-time advocate on children and adolescent health issues. Recently, Senator Clinton gave testimony regarding eating disorders during a hearing on the Mental Health Parity bill.

Excerpt from Senator Clinton’s statement, Achieving Parity for Mental Health Treatment Hearing, July 11, 2001:

“Despite the fact that eating disorders are among the most lethal of all mental illnesses, I have heard stories from young people with anorexia who say that they have been sent home from the hospital despite because they have reached their maximum number of inpatient hospital days. The Eating Disorder Coalition for Research, Policy & Action reports that, although patients with eating disorders typically require 6 weeks of inpatient therapy, insurance companies offer an average of 10 –15 days.”

Presenter of Policy Award: Kate Dillon, Model and EDC Spokeswoman

Kate Dillon, model and activist, is not new to the eating disorder family. Ms. Dillon spoke at the Eating Disorders Coalition lobby day in April 2001 and on a panel discussion on media and size discrimination at Harvard University’s Center for Eating Disorders. She started her own non-profit called the Echo foundation, which works with young people in New York city. Kate Dillon has many fans due to her courage to speak about her past struggles with an eating disorder and body image. One of those sites is located at home.att.net/~plumnbagel/kate/. Kate Dillon’s modeling agency is Wilhelmina Models.

 

 

Kitty Westin
Kitty Westin urges eating disorders activists to keep fighting.

 

Recipient of Action Award: Kitty Westin, Founder of the Anna Westin Foundation

After losing her daughter Anna to anorexia, Kitty Westin founded the Anna Westin Foundation, to be create positive change in their community and on the national level.

Presenter of Action Award: Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN)

Senator Wellstone is co-author of the Mental Health Parity bill. Senator Wellstone attended the Eating Disorders Coalition’s first lobby day in April 2001.

Excerpt from Wellstone's statement regarding the Mental Health Parity bill:

"This bill goes a long way toward our bipartisan goal: that mental illness be treated like any other disease in health care coverage. In 1996, when the Congress passed the Mental Health Parity Act authored by Senator Domenici and myself, it marked the first step toward ending the discrimination against the mentally ill in terms of health care coverage. We now have the opportunity to go a step further and enact legislation that will help move us toward full treatment parity for mental illness. I look forward to bringing this bill to the floor."

 

 

Ruth Striegel-Moore
Ruth Striegel-Moore accepts her award, as Dr. Richard Nakamura looks on.

 

Recipient of Research Award: Ruth Striegel-Moore, Ph.D.

Ruth Striegel-Moore, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at Wesleyan University. Dr. Striegel-Moore is a past president of the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED), an international, interdisciplinary organization of professionals dedicated to promote excellence in research, treatment and prevention of eating disorders. Dr. Striegel-Moore has collaborated on several studies of the prevalence of and risk factors for eating disorders and developed a treatment program for women with binge eating problems.

Funded by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), her studies have shown that binge eating disorders are more common than the earlier clinical literature had suggested and that they are not limited to White women but are a significant problem also among women from ethnic minority groups. This work and her recent study of health insurance claims of 4 million individuals have shown that a majority of individuals either receive no treatment specifically for their eating disorder or receive treatment that does not meet the standards of care recommended by medical experts. Dr. Striegel-Moore is a dedicated mentor to junior scholars and recently received an NIMH grant to support a junior scholar teaching program offered by the AED.

Dr. Striegel-Moore believes that to eliminate the suffering caused by eating disorders efforts are needed to a) improve access to care by reducing the stigma of having an eating disorder, improving the detection of eating problems, and expanding the pool of health professionals who are trained in treating eating disorders; and b) reduce the risk for eating disorders by developing effective prevention strategies.

Presenter of Research Award: Richard K. Nakamura, Ph.D., Acting Director of the National Institute of Mental Health

On December 9, 2001, Steven E. Hyman, M.D., Director of NIMH since April 1996, left the Institute to assume the position of Provost, Harvard University. Having served as Dr. Hyman's Deputy Director for the past 5 years, Richard K Nakamura, Ph.D. is directing the Institute. Working with Dr. Hyman, he assisted in restructuring the Institute to more directly support NIMH’s mission: to reduce the burden of mental illness and behavioral disorders through research on mind, brain and behavior.

 

We thank our hosts for the reception, the Doolittle Guest House, Capitol Hill

     © 2008 Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy & Action. All Rights Reserved.