Spero M. Manson, Ph.D., (Pembina Chippewa), a medical anthropologist and Professor of Psychiatry, heads the American Indian and Alaska Native Programs (webpage) at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center (webpage). His programs include 9 national centers, totaling $65 million in sponsored activities which entail research, program development, and training among 102 Native communities, spanning rural, reservation, urban, and village settings.

Dr. Manson has published 160 articles on the assessment, epidemiology, treatment, and prevention of physical, alcohol, drug, as well as mental health problems in this special population.

A member of the Institute of Medicine, he has received numerous awards including 3 Distinguished Service Awards from the IHS (1985; 1996; 2004), the prestigious Rema Lapouse Mental Health Epidemiology Award from the APHA (1998), two Distinguished Mentor Awards from the Gerontological Society of America (2006; 2007), the Herbert W. Nickens Award from the AAMC (2006), and the George Foster Award for Excellence from the Society for Medical Anthropology (2006).