Louis T. Benezet Award

Gia Crecelius '91 is the recipient of the 2023 Louis T. Benezet Award.

At CC, Gia was a Barnes Scholarship recipient majoring in chemistry. She participated in student government and was a member of the Delta Gamma sorority. She earned her M.D. from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and then completed a residency in adult psychiatry and a fellowship in child psychiatry at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. For the next six years, she was the medical director of a residential treatment facility that cared for children in the Los Angeles foster care and delinquency systems. In 2008, she became the medical director of Los Angeles County Juvenile Court Mental Health Services. She is responsible for reviewing psychotropic medication regimens, handling 10,000 medication requests per year. In 2011, she was honored as Employee of the Year by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health for her leadership in developing new protocols to ensure that children in the dependency and delinquency systems receive appropriate and effective care. Both Los Angeles County and the State of California have adopted these protocols. In addition to her work for Los Angeles County, Dr. Crecelius serves children of immigrant and low economic status families at a community health clinic. She not only provides psychiatric care, but also helps families navigate the complex health system in Los Angeles.