Columbia Presbyterian Health Sciences Advisory Council Presents Distinguished Service Award To Mike Wallace

New York, NY – May 2003 – The Columbia Presbyterian Health Sciences Advisory Council has presented its semiannual Award for Distinguished Service to journalist and “60 Minutes” correspondent Mike Wallace, honoring him for his advocacy and commitment to raising awareness of mental health issues. The Council gave the award to Mr. Wallace at a noon luncheon May 8 at the Clark Conference Center at 177 Fort Washington Ave.

Mr. Wallace experienced his first episode of depression in the mid-1980s, when he was named in a multi-million-dollar libel lawsuit against CBS News and “60 Minutes.” Since then, he has emerged as one of the most compelling spokespeople in the fight against depression, speaking openly in interviews about his personal battles with the disease. Mr. Wallace was the driving force behind an hour-long 1998 HBO documentary titled “Dead Blue: Surviving Depression,” which not only chronicled his own experiences with depression but helped to shed light on the pervasiveness of the disease and the different treatment options available to sufferers. Mr. Wallace was honored in January 2003 by the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) with its very first “Luminary Award;” a month later, he was named to the national advisory board of the University of Michigan Depression Center. Mr. Wallace also participated in the first-ever White House Conference on Mental Health and has lobbied Congress on behalf of mental health parity legislation.

“We were delighted to present the Health Sciences Advisory Council Award for Distinguished Service to Mike Wallace,” said Dr. Gerald Fischbach, executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences and dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Columbia University. “His willingness to reveal his own battle with depressive illness has given enormous hope to the millions of people—a staggering 18.8 million American adults in any given year—who, fearing stigma, suffer in silence from a disease that is neither shameful nor untreatable. By stepping forward and detailing his struggle with the illness, he has helped bring depression out of the shadows, encouraging countless individuals to seek help. He is an inspiration and richly deserving of this award.”

Dr. Herbert Pardes, president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, adds, “As one of the leading journalists of our time, Mike Wallace has shed light on some of the most pressing health care concerns of the 20th and now the 21st century. His outstanding career is illustrative of the way in which effective journalism can be a catalyst for change. By sharing his personal story, he has created a national awareness about depression, a condition that even today remains untreated or overlooked in many Americans. There is no doubt that in telling his own story, he has helped shape the way depression is diagnosed and treated, and thus helped countless individuals who have suffered in silence for too long. I was honored to join in presenting him with this award.”

Mr. Wallace has been co-editor of “60 Minutes” since its premiere on Sept. 24, 1968, with the 2002-03 season marking his 35th on the broadcast. His no-holds-barred interviewing technique and enterprising reportage are well known, and his numerous and timely interviews read like a who's who of newsmakers: George Bush, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson, and John F. Kennedy, among many others.

Mr. Wallace's experience as a newsman dates back to the 1940s, when he was a radio newswriter and broadcaster for the Chicago Sun. He first joined CBS in 1951, leaving the network in 1955 and returning in 1963, when he was named a CBS News correspondent. Mr. Wallace’s professional honors include 19 Emmy Awards, three Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three George Foster Peabody Awards, a Robert E. Sherwood Award, and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in the international broadcast category. In June 1991, Mr. Wallace was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame; two years later, he was named Broadcaster of the Year by the International Radio and Television Society. He also won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award grand prize and television first prize in 1996 for the “CBS Reports” broadcast "In the Killing Fields of America" (January 1995), a three-hour report he co-anchored on violence in America.

The Columbia Presbyterian Health Sciences Advisory Council meets twice yearly, presenting the Award for Distinguished Service to individuals whose work has made a singular impact on society’s health and well-being. Formerly known as the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Service, the award has been given to Morton and Milly Kondracke, Mary Lasker, Rosalynn Carter, Tipper Gore, Anna Wintour, Dr. Michael DeBakey, Congressman Charles Rangel, Andrea Jung, Rob Reiner, Jerry Lewis, and others.

###

Tags

Emmy Awards, Gerald Ford, Kennedy Journalism Award, Mike Wallace, Rosalynn Carter