Home DBSA Celebrates its 40th Year!

DBSA Celebrates its 40th Year!

What started as a small meeting in DBSA co-founder Rose Kurland’s living room has grown into the nation’s leading peer advocacy organization supporting those with mood disorders.

DBSA 40th Anniversary

DBSA has grown tremendously since its inception, now connecting more than 1.5 million people each year with peer support, education, and resources. DBSA supports more than 20,000 support group meetings, both online and in person, through our 80 local chapters, allowing more than 250,000 people to attend support groups each year. Through our advocacy efforts, we amplify peers’ voices and work toward systemic change in the delivery of mental health care. As we reflect on the past 40 years of supporting peers, we also look ahead to the coming decades of making peer support available to all, when and where they need it. We look forward to building brighter futures together.

This year, we’ll recognize and honor special awareness months such as:

To celebrate, DBSA is hosting three events:

Gerald L. Klerman Awards

In May, DBSA hosted the Gerald L. Klerman Award and Scientific Advisory Board Reception in Los Angeles. The Gerald L. Klerman Award is the highest honor that DBSA gives to members of the scientific community. Presented each year, this award recognizes researchers whose work advances knowledge of the causes, diagnosis, and treatment of depression and bipolar disorder. Awards are given annually in each of the following two categories: DBSA Gerald L. Klerman Award, Senior Investigator, and DBSA Gerald L. Klerman Award, Young Investigator.

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This September, DBSA will host the 2025 Peer Leadership & Education Convening—an inspiring in-person gathering designed to empower, educate, and celebrate our peer leaders. Chapter Leaders, Support Group Facilitators, Peer Specialist Training Graduates, Advocates, and other key stakeholders from across the country will come together for two days of connection, learning, and strategic visioning. Highlights include a keynote address from Kay Redfield Jamison, dynamic speakers and panels tailored to the peer leader experience, and opportunities to collaborate with peers, partners, and sponsors. Together, we’ll celebrate the accomplishments of our Peer Leaders, reflect on the power of peer support and the growth of the peer workforce, and honor DBSA’s journey—where we’ve been, what we’ve achieved, and where we’re headed as a community.

Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison

Keynote Speaker
Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison

Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison is the Dalio Professor in Mood Disorders, Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center. She is also Honorary Professor of English at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She is co–author of the standard medical text on manic–depressive (bipolar) illness, which was chosen as the most outstanding book in biomedical sciences by the American Association of Publishers, and author of Touched with Fire, An Unquiet Mind, Night Falls Fast, Exuberance, Nothing Was the Same, and Fires in the Dark. Dr. Jamison has written more than 125 scientific and clinical articles about mood disorders, suicide, creativity, and lithium.

DBSA Mental Health Equity Convening

On November 13–14, DBSA will proudly host its inaugural in-person Mental Health Equity Convening in Chicago. Centered on the theme Radical Hope, Sustainable Collaboration, the gathering will bring together senior staff and volunteer leaders from smaller, national mental health organizations dedicated to supporting historically marginalized communities.

Our goals are to:

  • Share resources and identify opportunities for collaboration
  • Elevate collective impact across organizations
  • Lay the groundwork for future convenings and ongoing connection

Keynote Speaker
Altha Stewart, MD

Altha J. Stewart, MD, Senior Associate Dean for Community Health Engagement at UTHSC, is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in community and public mental health, trauma-informed care, and health equity. She is the founding director of the Center for Youth Advocacy and Well-Being and director of Public and Community Psychiatry at UTHSC, where she leads efforts to expand the behavioral health workforce, increase access to family and peer support, and build systems of care for children’s mental health. Over her nearly 40-year career, Dr. Stewart has led major public mental health systems in New York, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, and in 2017 became the first African American president of the American Psychiatric Association. She continues to shape the field through leadership roles, groundbreaking initiatives addressing trauma and health disparities, and service on numerous national and local boards, earning widespread recognition and prestigious awards for her impact.

DBSA would like to thank the following sponsors for making DBSA’s 40th Anniversary events and activities possible:

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