Vera Paster Award

The Vera Paster Award recognizes an outstanding graduate student or a post-doctoral resident or fellow in a mental health discipline for exemplary work in research and/or public service that promises to generate or apply knowledge that may contribute to the advancement or empowerment of people of color.

2009 Vera Paster Award Recipient  
Arelis Moore de Peralta, MD, MPH, MEd
Doctoral (PhD) Student in the Clemson University Program
on International Family and Community Services 

Dr. Moore was honored for her dedication and creativity in developing and implementing services for Latino families in Upstate South Carolina.  As a part-time graduate assistant, she has led the development of a community center — Café Cultura — in an area with a dramatically increased Hispanic population and few ethnically specific services.  Café Cultura has several ambitious goals: to enhance a sense of belonging, nurture supportive relationships, increase knowledge of community resources, develop indigenous leadership, and establish partnerships for linguistically and culturally appropriate studies.  Dr. Moore has impressively engaged undergraduate Spanish-language students in services to recent immigrants.

With humanistic values, expertise in public health, and broad education in community life, Dr. Moore shows great promise as a leader in strengthening communities and promoting mental health.

Past Paster Award Winners

2007 Vera Paster Award Recipient  

Sherri Simpson, MD 
Baylor College of Medicine 

Dr. Simpson was honored for her promising early-career work to improve the well-being of people in Africa and the African Diaspora through community action to reduce health disparities and to diminish stigma associated with HIV/AIDS and mental illnesses. 

2006 Vera Paster Award Recipients  

Kelly D. Taylor-Richardson, MSW, MS

Kelly D. Taylor-Richardson was honored for her prodigious efforts to understand spiritual beliefs and practices related to the health of people in Africa and the African diaspora.  This work promises to contribute to understanding of the use of both non-Western traditional healing and Western professional mental health services. Committed to reducing disparities in health services and outcomes among people around the world and in the United States, Ms. Taylor-Richardson has undertaken an ambitious program of comparative research that has both theoretical and applied significance.  Attentive to both formal and “natural” sources of support, Ms. Taylor-Richardson has also contributed to scholarship on kinship care and caregiver strain, especially among African American grandparents rearing their grandchildren.

Janice D. Cho, MSW

Janice D. Cho was honored for her accomplishments in expanding self-advocacy and community engagement by UCLA students of Asian and Pacific Islander descent and her use of skills in community assessment to facilitate leadership by female residents of a large, predominantly Central American neighborhood.  Exhibiting exceptionally strong motivation for public service, Ms. Cho shows unusual promise to become a pacesetter in developing partnerships between human service professionals and ethnic-minority communities. 

2005 Vera Paster Award Recipient  

Rupaleem Bhuyan, MA

Rupaleem Bhuyan was honored for her application of diverse disciplines to the enhancement of the quality of life for community residents, especially those who have immigrated from other parts of the world.  Proficient in multiple research methods, expert about mental health theory, and sensitive in approach, Ms. Bhuyan has begun an ambitious program of research about intimate partner violence among South Asian immigrants and other ethnic minorities, including Native Americans.  She also has led related prevention and mutual assistance programs.  With a personal commitment to social justice and an impressive record of grants and publications undertaken during her graduate studies, Ms. Bhuyan has the potential to be a major contributor to knowledge about the situation for immigrants and other people of color.