Dr. Ellen Lipman is the recipient of the 2024 James H. Graham Award of Merit . 

For more than 30 years, professor and child psychiatrist Ellen Lipman, MD, FRCPC, has made important contributions as a child and adolescent psychiatrist, educator, researcher, administrator and community advocate. She has led positive change in patient care, strategic planning, education and inclusion for children and adolescents with mental health and addictions issues.  

Since 2014, Dr. Lipman has served as chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at McMaster Children’s Hospital. She previously served as academic head of Child Psychiatry (2013-22) and as director of the internationally renowned Offord Centre for Child Studies (2016-22), where she remains a member. 

Despite the ongoing shortage of psychiatrists nationally, Dr. Lipman has built and sustained an effective network of comprehensive clinical services at the children’s hospital, with new and innovative program components added during the tenure of her leadership. 

“These include the short-stay medical assessment unit in the emergency room, the expansion of programs for children and youth with eating disorders, the establishment of a new inpatient unit for children, and a rapid expansion of the services for children with autism spectrum disorders,” says McMaster psychiatrist Karin J. Neufeld, MD, FRCPC. 

“She also, after consultation with her team, introduced new models for the way psychiatrists work and are remunerated, which has been an important factor in physician recruitment and retention.” 

Leading in assessment, evaluation and research 

Dr. Lipman played a leadership role in the introduction of standardized assessment and evaluation tools within the Child and Youth Mental Health Program at the hospital, supported by electronic data gathering. 

“We’ve been able to really embed systematic data collection as a measurement-based care type of approach, which I think is really important,” says Dr. Lipman. “It’s brought together systematic data collection thinking with the clinical program. It gathers a lot of information that is not easily available in the medical record, even the electronic medical record, in a way that's really helpful to our program.” 

As a researcher, Dr. Lipman has published 92 peer-reviewed articles and collaborated on over 75 research grants. She emphasizes the importance of evidence-informed clinical practice and the need to evaluate services.  

Dr. Lipman has fostered excellence in research, “both as an outstanding clinician-scientist exploring such important issues as the link between poverty and children’s mental health, and as a supervisor of graduate students and trainees in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact,” says Harriet MacMillan, MD, FRCPC, a psychiatrist at McMaster. “Both Dr. Lipman’s individual research as well as her activities as an educator have emphasized the importance of the social determinants of health, including adverse experiences in childhood.” 

Nurturing careers and navigating change 

As a mentor, Dr. Lipman is described as approachable, fair and equitable. 

“In nurturing careers, Dr. Lipman has curated an environment that supports our learners as they train within our Child Division,” says fellow McMaster psychiatrist Laura Rosato, MD, FRCPC. “Her pivotal contributions to our Residency Program Committee and her support in implementing competency-based medical education have laid the groundwork for a diverse and enriching training experience.” 

Dr. Lipman is lauded for deftly navigating change during the COVID-19 pandemic. She adapted services to meet patient needs while abiding by pandemic restrictions and brought together regional pediatric and psychiatric leaders to address common challenges. 

She also prioritizes the advancement of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). “Her attention and support of faculty in supporting Indigenous mental health and global mental health initiatives has expanded community-based care,” says Dr. Rosato. “Her participation in the anti-Black racism initiatives within the department has helped model the importance of EDI in all the work we do.” 

Dr. Lipman’s longstanding commitment to postgraduate education is demonstrated in her service as English co-chair of the Royal College’s Psychiatry Examination Committee from 2017-22, in addition to her membership on the Psychiatry Multiple Choice Question Committee (2014-22) and the Psychiatry OSCE Committee (2015-22).  

Dr. Lipman says her career path has been impacted by societal changes, including an increased openness in talking about mental health issues.  

“I think another shift is that people have understood that many adult mental health problems have their origins in childhood and youth, and teenage years,” she says. “And it's really important to start to look at difficulties that are happening with them then. We need to understand these challenges and provide some treatment. Then perhaps you can really make a difference in the trajectory of a young person's life and for their family.” 

Dr. Lipman says winning the James H. Graham Award of Merit is “a huge honour.”  

“I feel like many things have come together in the past five years or so, with opportunities for leadership in the hospital, in the university, in the Royal College – all of those things. And this seems to be kind of a recognition of that nice coming together of opportunities.”