UC Davis psychologist Stanley Sue, the leading national voice for ethnic mental-health services, is the winner of the 2003 UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement.

The $30,000 prize, funded by the UC Davis Foundation, is believed to be the largest prize of its kind in the nation.

Sue is a national pioneer in helping therapists learn to deal effectively with cultural differences and ethnic groups to overcome shame and stigma over mental health problems. Since arriving at UC Davis in 1996, he has branched out into teaching students how to cross their own cultural borders to better understand race, ethnicity and prejudice.

"Stanley easily clears the bar set by his UC Davis prize predecessors," Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef said. "His students describe him as demanding, but fair and caring. His research colleagues describe him as a visionary. The 2003 UC Davis Prize recognizes, in particular, Dr. Sue's ability to help his students create the intellectual and interpersonal tools to be culturally competent in a global community."

Speaking on behalf of the UC Davis Foundation Board of Trustees, Dr. Michael Sugawara congratulated Sue and expressed pride at helping the campus recognize one of its best.

"We feel this award -- which honors a top-rank teacher and scholar each year -- is one way to express our pride in UC Davis, its wonderful faculty and students, and its outstanding commitment to excellence in undergraduate education," Sugawara said.

According to Elizabeth Langland, dean of the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies, Sue embodies the attributes of the ideal scholar-teacher envisioned when the award was established.

"Not only is he a superb teacher," she said, "but also the distinctive nature of his scholarly expertise has enabled him to participate in developing a new area of scholarly inquiry, which is embodied at UC Davis in a new undergraduate program, Asian American studies."

According to Nolan Zane, a colleague in psychology and Asian American studies, Sue has emerged as one of the most influential voices in the nation on issues related to ethnic minority groups and mental health services.

With more than 120 papers published on the topic, he has been tapped for national leadership roles such as being the editor for the Asian Americans mental health report that supplemented the 2001 U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health.

Sue has received a number of other national accolades in his career. These include the 2000 Outstanding Mentorship Award from the Division of Clinical Psychology of the American Psychological Association; the 1999 Dalmas A. Taylor Award for Pioneering Leadership, Scholarship and Aggressive Advocacy for Ethnic Minorities from the 1999 National Multicultural Summit; the 1998 Award for Distinguished Scientific Achievements in Psychology from the California Psychological Association and the 1996 Distinguished Contribution Award for Research in Public Policy from the American Psychological Association.

He will also receive the 2003 Distinguished Contributions to Applied Research Award from the American Psychological Association, which is going to only two recipients from the association's 160,000 members.

"Professor Stanley Sue has truly been an outstanding and unusual teacher and scholar," said Wendy Ho, director of Asian American studies, in her program's joint nomination with the Department of Psychology. "He has achieved great influence through his mentorship and teaching of students and through his leadership in research on ethnicity and culture."

Through his classes at UC Davis, Sue helps students examine their own values regarding what he calls the "hot button" topics of race, ethnicity and culture. Students are challenged to assess whether some races are more intelligent than others or what is "white privilege."

"We talk about different cultural values. Students have to figure out where they stand and, at first, they don't know why," Sue said. "I have them look at the biases and rationales we've been taught."

Using the tools of social science, Sue teaches students the intellectual rigor to examine methods of communication, differences among people and ways to resolve related conflicts that arise. He said his goal in teaching is to help students integrate an intellectual understanding about cultural differences with their personal experiences and emotions so that they can be what he calls "culturally competent."

"We live in one of the most multi-ethnic societies in the world," Sue said. "To be effective as human beings means you can deal with different people well."

Students have grown through his classes. "I'm a lot more aware of where my values come from and how my personality is shaped by the mix of two pictures," wrote one student in a recent class evaluation.

"Cultural competency" is a set of skills Sue has been interested in as a clinical psychologist since he first started studying differences in mental health delivery for various ethnic groups at the University of Washington. It's also something he personally needed to develop as a first-generation American-born Chinese who wanted to participate in what was a very mainstream, white profession in the 1960s.

A native of Portland, Ore., Sue graduated from the University of Oregon and then attended UCLA for his doctorate in psychology.

He began his career at the University of Washington, where he taught and did research for 10 years before moving to UCLA for another 15 years. When Sue came to UC Davis in 1996 to chair the Asian American studies program, he brought with him the National Research Center on Asian American Health, established in 1988 with a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Devoted to Asian Pacific American mental health concerns, the center conducts both theoretical and applied research with the aim of impacting mental health policy and service delivery.

UC Davis undergraduate students have benefited from Sue's affiliation with the center. Relying on assistance from his graduate students, he has sponsored 157 students in independent research for the center.

Sue teaches classes of 75 to 200 students on such subjects as ethnic self and identity, psychosocial issues of Asian Americans and clinical psychology. His students consistently rate him as excellent and compliment him as a teacher who enjoys teaching, is able to communicate well and is well-prepared.

"The three adjectives used most in describing his teaching are 'interesting,' 'knowledgeable' and 'enthusiastic,'" Ho said.

Moreover, students recognize Sue as an expert in his field who shares the most current information with his classes.

"The opportunity to learn from Dr. Sue is amazing, and I wish he taught more courses within the Asian American studies subject matter so that as many people as possible could learn from his expert experience," concluded one student in a recent evaluation.

Editor's Note: An electronic photo suitable for magazines and newspaper reproduction is available for download.