November 30, 2004

Vanderbilt Kennedy Center director receives honors

Vanderbilt Kennedy Center director Pat Levitt has been awarded the 2004 Friend of Children award by the Tennessee Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The award recognizes Levitt’s contributions at the local, state and national level to the healthy development of children.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. ñ Vanderbilt Kennedy Center director Pat Levitt has
been awarded the 2004 Friend of Children award by the Tennessee Chapter
of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The award recognizes Levitt’s
contributions at the local, state and national level to the healthy
development of children.

Levitt has also been appointed a member of the Dana Alliance for Brain
Initiatives. The Dana Alliance is a nonprofit organization supported by
the Dana Foundation with the mission of advancing public education
about the progress and benefits of brain research and disseminating
understandable, accessible information about the brain. It has a
membership of almost 400 neuroscientists in the U.S., Canada and
Europe.

Levitt is one of only three neuroscientists in Tennessee invited to
serve as a member of the alliance. Others are Lee Limbird of Vanderbilt
University Medical Center and James T. Robertson of the University of
Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis.

Levitt joined Vanderbilt University in 2002 as professor of
pharmacology and director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, a national
research center and university-wide institute that supports
multidisciplinary research, community outreach programs and clinics
that focus on issues related to typical and atypical development that
impacts behavior, communication, learning and memory.

Media contacts: Jan Rosemergy, (615) 322-8238
jan.rosemergy@vanderbilt.edu

Melanie Catania, (615) 322-7970
melanie.moran@vanderbilt.edu