Largest Individual Pledge Ever for Sargent
Alumna donates $1.5 million to Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences
Gayle R. Berg (SAR’74), an alumna of Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, has committed $1.5 million to the college to create an endowed fund for interdisciplinary research in psychiatric rehabilitation, the largest individual pledge in Sargent’s history, President Robert A. Brown has announced.
Berg earned a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling at Sargent. In April, she was elected to BU’s Board of Overseers.
“The establishment of this fund allows Sargent College to maintain its world-class reputation in the area of psychiatric rehabilitation,” says Brown. “We are extremely grateful to Dr. Berg for this generous gift.”
Berg, a practicing psychologist, also serves on the Sargent College Dean’s Leadership Board and on the Advisory Council for the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation.
“The value of these flexible funds, which cannot be readily obtained from traditional research funding sources, cannot be overestimated,” says Gloria Waters, dean of Sargent. “This pledge will underwrite pilot projects and new research collaborations and assist especially talented research trainees or junior faculty members working in this area.”
Berg earned a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University and in 1983 a doctorate in psychology from New York University. In 1984 she established a private practice, Psychological Solutions, in Roslyn, N.Y.
Committed to mental health advocacy, she has been chair of PLANY (Psychologists for Legislative Action in New York), the state’s political action committee for psychology, since 1998, and chair of the Nassau County Psychological Association’s Legislative Committee. She is also an active board member of the New York State Psychological Association’s Council of Representatives.
“I am very excited to be a part of the process of establishing a permanently endowed research fund at Sargent College that will promote research into the use of psychosocial approaches in the recovery from severe mental illness,” says Berg. “This fund will support and make viable the continued development of multifaceted, interdisciplinary research which is the critical next phase of its growth, while at the same time ensuring Boston University’s and Sargent College’s coveted position at the cutting edge of this important research.”
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