SIHP Professor Receives Special Recognition Award

Prof. Donald S. Shepard of the Heller School's Schneider Institutes for Health Policy has received a “Special Recognition Award” from the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Corporations of Massachusetts, Inc. (MHSACM). Prof. Shepard and the Honorable Edward M. Kennedy, Senior Senator from Massachusetts, were the two individuals given these awards at the organization’s annual Provider Day Celebration on October 10, 2006.

The citation for Prof. Shepard’s award reads, in part: “Every now and then, an individual or organization has played a role so special to the mission and course of MHSACM and its members…Dr. Donald Shepard is one of those special individuals for MHSACM. Many of you may know him best as the Brandeis researcher who has conducted significant studies on the cost-effectiveness of substance abuse treatment and the unmet need for substance abuse treatment in Massachusetts, and contributed to a review of the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Program. In late 2005, Dr. Shepard’s talents and brilliant analytic skills became even more evident to us when, along with the support of Brandeis colleague Matthew Neuman, M.Sc., and Sara Hartman of MHSACM, he prepared an initial comparative analysis of the range of the five MassHealth managed care organizations [at MHSACM’s request]. He subsequently presented his findings before a hearing of the state’s Joint Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse.”