Jeanne Spurlock

Jeanne Marybeth Spurlock (July 19, 1921 – November 25, 1999) was an American psychiatrist, professor and author. She served as the deputy medical director of the American Psychiatric Association for seventeen years. She chaired the Department of Psychiatry at Meharry Medical College starting in 1968, and she taught at George Washington University and Howard University. She also operated her own private psychiatry practice, and she published several works.

Early life and education Jeanne Spurlock was born in Sandusky, Ohio in 1921. She was the oldest of seven children born to Frank and Glodene Spurlock. She broke her leg when she was nine years old, and had an unpleasant experience at a hospital. Feeling that there was a lack of caring doctors, but also thinking she would not be able to afford medical school, she decided to become a teacher. where she continued to work as a staff psychiatrist for some time after completing the fellowship. She later worked at the Mental Hygiene Clinic at Women's and Children's Hospital, and consulted for the Illinois School for the Deaf. She moved to the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis in 1953 to train in adult and child psychoanalysis, and she also directed the Children's Psychosomatic Unit at the Neuropsychiatric Institute at the University of Illinois. where she was an attending psychiatrist and the chief of the Child Psychiatry Clinic until 1968. During this time, she also taught at Illinois College of Medicine as an assistant professor, and ran a private practice. In 1990, she was awarded the Guardian for Children Award from the National Black Child Development Institute. In 1992, she won a Special Presidential Commendation Award from the American Psychiatry Association. In 1996, the American Psychiatry Association awarded her the Distinguished Service Award. Spurlock also won the Solomon Carter Fuller Award.

Legacy The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry created two fellowships in Spurlock's honor after her death: the Jeanne Spurlock Minority Medical Student Clinical Fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and, with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Jeanne Spurlock Research Fellowship in Drug Abuse and Addiction for Minority Medical Students. The American Psychiatric Association also created two fellowships: the Jeanne Spurlock Minority Fellowship Achievement Award and the Jeanne Spurlock Congressional Fellowship.

In 2000, Spurlock was posthumously awarded the Elizabeth Blackwell Award, the American Medical Women's Association's highest honor.