The School of Medicine will hold a reception to honor Leonard E. Lawrence, M.D., associate dean for student affairs, at 5 p.m. Thursday, July 7, at the Children’s Cancer Research Institute. Dr. Lawrence is stepping down from his position in the dean’s office but will remain part time in the department of psychiatry as professor.
Faculty, staff and students are invited to attend.
Dr. Lawrence has just been selected as the recipient of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s 2005 Jeanne Spurlock Lecture and Award. The award was designed to recognize individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of the understanding of diversity and culture as it pertains to children’s mental health. Dr. Lawrence will be honored during the academy’s 52nd Annual Meeting in Toronto Oct. 18-23.
In addition to his duties in the dean’s office and psychiatry department, Dr. Lawrence has been very active throughout the community and state. Perhaps most notably, he served 12 years on the Texas Youth Commission (TYC), including several years as chair. Govs. Richards and Bush appointed him to the board.
The TYC will pay tribute to Dr. Lawrence’s service to Texas children by recommending that a facility be named in his honor. Pending legislative approval, a TYC facility will become the Leonard Lawrence State Juvenile Correctional Facility.
“Thousands of young Texans have Dr. Lawrence to thank for their success,” said Dwight Harris, TYC executive director. “Without him, many of these teens would have faced difficult and uncertain futures. His expertise, compassion and eloquence are unmatched at TYC, and I suspect, most anywhere else.”
Dr. Lawrence started the first free volunteer mental health clinic for black and Hispanic kids on San Antonio’s East Side. It is now the Ella Austin Community Health Center. He was the director of the process that established San Antonio Fighting Back, a major drug abuse intervention program originally funded for a 10-year period by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
“The public is so much a part of what we do at the Health Science Center,” he said. “That is where my heart always has been.”
A retired lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Air Force, Dr. Lawrence joined the Health Science Center in 1972. He is board certified in psychiatry (1970) and child psychiatry (1971). He also served as chairman of KLRN-TV and the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County.
Dr. Lawrence received his M.D. from the University of Indiana.
