A doctor known as the “nation’s psychiatrist” will make a house call on Broncos this winter — and it’s likely he’ll deliver a strong dose of actionable advice during the College of Health Sciences’ next Carl and Jean Grosz Health Sciences Lecture.
Neuroscientist and psychiatrist Thomas Insel is a national leader in mental health research, policy and technology. He served as director of the National Institute of Mental Health from 2002 until 2015 before going on to lead technology development for mental health care at Verily Life Sciences. He is chairman of the board at Steinberg Institute and co-founder and executive chair of Vanna Health, which works with community partners to help people with serious mental illness in their recovery.
About the event
Carl and Jean Grosz Health Sciences Lecture Series with distinguished speaker Thomas Insel will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 5 at Velma V. Morrison Center for the Performing Arts. The event starts at 6 p.m.; doors open at 5 p.m. The event is free and everyone is welcome. While RSVPs are encouraged, the seating is general and open.
About Thomas Insel
Insel authored the book “Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health,” published by Penguin Random House, and was a founder of MindSite News, a non-profit digital publication focused on mental health issues.
Insel is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has received numerous national and international awards.
Timing for his visit could not be better, as the College of Health Sciences, Boise State and Idaho’s clinics, hospitals, healthcare systems and numerous organizations partner to provide mental health and resilience services, fill gaps in the clinician workforce and meet the needs of multiple populations, significantly among them Idaho’s children and young adults. The state has long grappled with troubling rates of depression, suicide, substance abuse and other markers and social drivers that point to mental health challenges and illnesses.
About the Carl and Jean Grosz Health Sciences Lecture Series
Insel is the featured distinguished speaker in the free series, made possible through the generosity of the Grosz family; Jim Yong Kim, former president of the World Bank Group and co-founder of non-profit medical organization Partners In Health, inaugurated the Carl and Jean Grosz Health Sciences Lecture Series in 2022.
Carl Grosz was a retired surgeon who practiced medicine at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center and St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center. He did not attend Boise State but benefited from students who trained in the College of Health Sciences; he and his wife, Georgina (known as “Jean”), established the endowment to support inspiring talks by distinguished lecturers far into the future for the benefit of students, faculty and staff, and the community. Carl Grosz, who in his lifetime was also an Air Force officer and commercial fisherman, died in 2021.