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Criminology professor elected to
NAMI national board of directors

LAKELAND, Fla. (Sept. 20, 2004) - Dr. Risdon N. Slate, criminology professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Florida Southern College, was elected to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) national board of directors in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 10. Others elected include Dr. Steven Feinstein of Kansas, Mindy Grieling of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Frederick Sandoval of New Mexico, and Dr. Suzanne Vogel-Scibilia, a clinical psychiatrist from Pennsylvania. late joins, among others on the board, Dr. Xavier Amador of Columbia University, Dr. Anand Pandya, an assistant professor of psychiatry at New York University, and Dr. Fred Frese of Ohio. 

Slate was a gubernatorial appointee to Florida's Mental Health and Substance Abuse Commission. He has been an outspoken advocate for persons with mental illness who encounter the criminal justice system and has testified on that topic before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime. He has published academic articles on mental health courts and the training of federal probation officers as mental health specialists. Slate has served as past president of the Polk County chapter of NAMI and is currently on the board of directors of that affiliate as well as a member of the NAMI Florida board.


About Florida Southern College
Founded in 1885, Florida Southern College is a private, comprehensive United Methodist college with a liberal arts core. The college maintains its commitment to academic excellence through 38 undergraduate majors and distinctive graduate programs in business administration, education, and nursing. Florida Southern has a 14:1 student/faculty ratio, provides strong student/faculty mentorship programs, boasts 24 NCAA Division II national championships, and is ranked by U. S. News and World Report as one of the top ten Southern Comprehensive Colleges-Bachelors. Located on scenic Lake Hollingsworth, Florida Southern is the home of the world's largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.

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