Alexsis de Raadt-St. James has given $575,000 to support two innovative new programs in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry.

De Raadt-St. James, a former Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, gave $325,000 to the Department to help establish the UCSF Program for Diagnostic Improvements in Brain Disorders of Childhood. The funding will support a multidisciplinary approach to investigate hereditary factors underlying mental disorders in children, including autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning disabilities and other early-onset neuropsychiatric ailments.

"Advancing our understanding of mental disorders in young patients is a complicated but rewarding and essential field of medicine," says Steven Hamilton, MD, an outstanding human geneticist recently recruited to the Department. "This gift will be of enormous assistance to UCSF's efforts in this area."

De Raadt-St. James also has committed $250,000 to establish the Death Notification Stress Management Program, the first comprehensive effort to address the needs of death notifiers and family survivors. The program will train health professionals, military personnel, law enforcement officers and others to make death announcements in ways that are appropriate, consoling and informative.

Charles R. Marmar, MD, associate chief of staff for Mental Health Services at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center and vice chair in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry, will direct the development of the program. "I am impressed with Alexsis's commitment to be an active partner in the design and implementation of the program," reports Marmar.

De Raadt-St. James is making these gifts to honor her father and godfather, both of whom recently passed away. "I know they would be pleased to be remembered through these innovative programs, and I'm proud to be able to support UCSF in its efforts to battle childhood brain disorders and to provide this much-needed training," she says.