CONSTANCE LIEBER

LIEBER--Constance E.

March 2, 1924 - January 15, 2016. Constance Lieber transformed her family's experience with significant mental illness into a life suffused with meaning, purpose, and extraordinary effectiveness. Few people could imagine the breadth and depth of her interests, ranging from the most creative modern art to inspiring architecture, exhilarating music, and insightful studies of neuroscience and human behavior. Guided by her compassion, dedication, and curiosity - as well as her personal relationships with scores of leading psychiatrists and neuroscientists - Constance informally advised thousands of parents who were desperately seeking better treatments and cures for their mentally ill children. During their sixty-five year marriage, Constance and her husband Stephen A. Lieber shared enduring love and intense intellectual insights to transform the field of basic and clinical research into the origins of schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. Since 1980, Constance and Steve have been among the leading public advocates and philanthropic supporters of schizophrenia and depression research in the US and around the globe. Their efforts included the creation of significant clinical and scientific institutions to support emerging discoveries in the fields of biological psychiatry and patient services. For over twenty-five years, they gave exemplary leadership to the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (formerly NARSAD), the world's largest private funder of mental health research. Constance served as President from 1989 to 2007. In 2014, their activities were honored by the American Psychiatric Association with a Special Presidential Commendation, stating "Constance and Steve have provided unwavering moral and material support to unravel the mysteries of the brain, and to better understand and treat mental illness." In 1987, the Liebers established an annual award for outstanding achievements in schizophrenia research. To date, two Lieber Prize winners have gone on to win Nobel Prizes. At Columbia University, they founded two centers of excellence - the Lieber Recovery and Rehabilitation Clinic for Psychotic Disorders and the Lieber Schizophrenic Clinic. At Williams College, they were the founders of the undergraduate neuroscience program. In 2011, they created the Lieber Institute for Brain Development, affiliated with the Johns Hopkins University, to integrate new discoveries in developmental neurobiology and genetics in order to achieve clinical advances that can change lives. Constance was a graduate of Brooklyn College and attended Columbia University for her post-graduate studies. She received honorary doctorates from Williams College and Brooklyn College. She received over two dozen awards to recognize her outstanding leadership, including: the Brooke Astor Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Advancement of Science, the Women in Science Award from The Rockefeller University, the Distinguished Service Award from the Yale University's Department of Psychiatry, and the Humanitarian Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry. Survivors include her beloved husband Stephen, her children Janice and Sam (Mary Rubin), her devoted grandson, her sister Beverly, and several nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her honor to the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, 90 Park Avenue, 16th Floor, New York, New York 10016. A service will be held at Larchmont Temple, 75 Larchmont Avenue, on Tuesday, January 19th at 11:30am. Burial will be private. The family will receive visitors at the family home in Mamaroneck on Wednesday and Thursday from seven to nine o'clock in the evening. At a future time, a memorial service to celebrate Connie's extraordinary life will be held in Manhattan. Please contact the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation for details.