The Summer Institute
July 12-17, 2009 at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

Our special guest and member of the faculty this year is author Dr. John Ratey, M.D.

Dr. John J. Ratey, M.D., is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and has a private practice in Cambridge, MA.

For more than a decade he taught residents and Harvard medical students as the Assistant Director of Resident training at Massachusetts Mental Health Center. He continues to teach psychiatrists as a regular instructor in Harvard’s Continuing Medical Education program. As a clinical researcher he has published more than 60 papers in peer-review journals in the fields of psychiatry and psychopharmacology.

Dr. Ratey co-authored Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood through Adulthood (1994), the first in a series of books that demystify the disorder and Shadow Syndromes (1997) where he describes the phenomenon of milder forms of clinical disorders. He authored the bestselling book, A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention and the Four Theaters of the Brain (2000) which translates how neuroscience affects emotions, behavior and overall psychology.

Dr. Ratey’s latest book, SPARK: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (January 10, 2008) is a groundbreaking and fascinating investigation into the transformative effects of exercise on the brain. SPARK embarks upon a fascinating and entertaining journey through the mind-body connection, presenting amazing case studies, such as the revolutionary fitness program in Naperville, Illinois, which put this school district of 19,000 kids first in the world of science test scores. SPARK is the first book to explore comprehensively the connection between exercise and the brain. It will change forever the way you think.

Since 1998 Dr. Ratey has been selected each year as one of the best doctors in America by his peers. Most recently, Dr. Ratey was the recipient of the 2006 Excellence in Advocacy award from the non-profit group PE4Life, for his work to promote the adoption of regular, aerobic-based physical education.

For additional information about Dr. Ratey, please visit his website: http://www.johnratey.com/site/default.aspx