Steven Levy, MD, Bernard C. Holland Professor of Psychiatry, landed his very first job by accident. Fortunately, it worked out well; he's been at his first job for more than 30 years, and he's still happy with it. "I love it here," he says. Two of his children went to Emory. His wife, who has three degrees from Emory, is on the faculty. Both of his nephews went to Emory. "We're a very Emory family," Levy comments. Ironically, Levy originally had no plans to apply for a position. He did so at the suggestion of a friend who interviewed for an Emory job. The friend did not end up at Emory, but Levy did.

Since joining the faculty in 1974 Levy has worn many hats: teacher of psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic clinician, and administrator. His past and present positions include Chief of Psychiatry at Grady Memorial Hospital, head of the Psychiatry section of the Emory University Clinic, Vice Chair for clinical services and academic affairs in the Department of Psychiatry, and director of Emory's Psychoanalytic Institute. Early in his career, Levy worked in schizophrenia research; his interest in schizophrenia led to a position at Grady Hospital. Today he oversees the psychiatry program at Grady, and holds numerous other administrative positions in the Departments of Psychiatry.

At Grady, Levy is involved with the Central Fulton Community Mental Health Center, which he helped found and develop to provide high quality mental health care to individuals who would not otherwise receive it. He was a driving force behind what has become one of largest and best public community mental health centers in the Southeast. Says Levy: "We have developed a large array of services-inpatient, outpatient, outreach services to the homeless, the aged, substance abusers, children and adolescents. It is a very comprehensive program. We are housed in seven buildings. We have the best HIV mental health program in the United States, in my judgment." Levy speaks proudly of the center's altruistic mission, and emphasizes the importance of maintaining and improving the services offered there-particularly in the face of financial and other challenges that public hospitals like Grady currently are struggling to overcome.

In addition to his work at Grady, Levy's scholarly work focuses on psychoanalysis. His research examines theories of therapeutic technique, and he is very involved in the development of psychoanalytic empirical research in his role as editor of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JAPA). He serves on the Emory President's Task Force for Mental Health-part of his effort to increase the availability of mental health services on campus and reduce the stigma and expense involved in accessing such services. More than anything else, Levy considers himself an educator. He regularly teaches courses on psychoanalysis in the health sciences, at Emory College, and in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He works with medical students, and trains house officers at the medical school, hospitals and clinics. Levy enjoys working with all groups, especially with young people. Among his many accomplishments, he insists that he is "probably better at teaching than anything else".

As an educator, Levy is particularly enthusiastic about his newest project, developing Emory as an interdisciplinary center for psychoanalysis. Traditionally, psychoanalytic study has been conducted outside the university setting, within free-standing institutions that trained clinicians. Levy is working to change traditional training in psychoanalysis to a university based model that can educate both clinicians and scholars in many areas of study.

The new model marks a sea change for psychoanalysis as a discipline. Levy assumes that his efforts will meet with some skepticism; but he is emphatic that "Emory has a better chance of making it work.than any other major university because of the fortuitous confluence of people that we have here, both in the health sciences and also in the College and graduate schools." According to Levy, Emory has the intellectual and financial resources to become the foremost center for psychoanalytic study in the country.

When the center is fully operative, students and faculty across departments at Emory will have access to a psychoanalytic education that will allow them to augment their teaching and research in new ways. Similarly, as they become part of the university environment, clinical psychoanalysts will enjoy access to resources that they did not have as members of freestanding institutions. Eventually there will be advanced degrees available to students. As Levy states, "it is a terrific opportunity to develop an educational model that isn't a guild based training system, and that is open to people from many different backgrounds with interest in using psychoanalytic knowledge in new and creative ways".

While Levy has distinguished himself as a leader at the university, he also stands out for another reason. Simply put, he has had only one job. He started his career at Emory and has remained for 34 years. But that one job has been anything but static. His commitment to the university and to the Atlanta community has led to involvement in numerous projects aimed at improving the mental health of individuals and communities. He has watched the university change and grow, and says he has enjoyed his tenure at Emory so much that he has never been tempted to leave. As the university continues to strive for excellence in new arenas, it's a pretty safe bet that Levy will be there helping, contributing, and taking on leadership roles.