ATLANTA — Mercer University School of Medicine will host Rick Weinberg, Ph.D., ABPP, as part of the 2025 Armour Lecture Series. Co-hosted with the Georgia Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (GAMFT), this annual event highlights current topics in marriage and family therapy and is open to students, faculty, staff and community members.
This year, guest speaker Dr. Weinberg will present his lecture “Using Neurobiology and Positive Psychology to Reawaken Love and Advance Couple and Family Therapy” in the Administration and Conference Center Auditorium on Mercer University’s Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus in Atlanta on Sep. 26. The event begins at 9:30 a.m. and continues until 3:30 p.m. Lunch will be provided for all attendees. Students and Mercer faculty may attend the lecture at a discounted price. Tickets are available online.
Dr. Weinberg is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies at the University of South Florida. He earned a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from the University of Michigan; Ph.D. in clinical-community psychology from the University of South Florida, and completed a clinical fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Currently, Dr. Weinberg teaches marital therapy, family therapy and group therapy at the graduate level, and behavioral health and the family for undergraduates. He is a couple and family psychologist, has been licensed in Florida since 1984, and maintains a clinical practice in Tampa.
“The GAMFT and School of Medicine have a long-standing partnership and a shared commitment to provide exceptional education and training opportunities for students and members throughout the state,” said Elizabeth Bizzell, LMFT, a therapist at Mercer Medicine, faculty member in Mercer’s Master of Family Therapy (MFT) program and vice president of the GAMFT. “We are fortunate to learn from such an experienced clinician and educator as Dr. Weinberg. I look forward to learning how to incorporate his work into my practice with couples and family.”
Students in Mercer’s MFT program are encouraged to attend the lecture to learn about how recent findings in fMRI research from interpersonal neuroscience, relationship science, and positive psychology is applicable to couple and family therapy.
About the Armour Family Therapy Lecture
The Armour Family Therapy Lecture series is made possible by a gift to Mercer University School of Medicine from retired faculty members Drs. Mary Anne and Rollin Armour, made upon their retirement in 1998. Dr. Mary Anne Armour came to the School of Medicine in 1982 when the first medical school class entered. She retired as associate professor in 1998. While at Mercer, she established with colleagues the medical student program in family and psychological issues and served as co-director of the master’s program in family therapy, which she founded at Mercer in 1983. Dr. Rollin Armour, former dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, retired in 1998 as professor in the Department of Christianity, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Armours were generous supporters of the University and were named Life Members of The President’s Club in 2005.
About Mercer University School of Medicine (Macon, Savannah, Columbus and Valdosta)
Mercer University’s School of Medicine was established in 1982 to educate physicians and health professionals to meet the primary care and health care needs of rural and medically underserved areas of Georgia. Today, more than 60% of graduates currently practice in the state of Georgia, and of those, more than 80% are practicing in rural or medically underserved areas of Georgia. Mercer medical students benefit from a problem-based medical education program that provides early patient care experiences. Such an academic environment fosters the early development of clinical problem-solving and instills in each student an awareness of the place of the basic medical sciences in medical practice. The School opened additional four-year M.D. campuses in Savannah in 2008 and in Columbus in 2021, and a clinical campus in Valdosta in 2024. Following their second year, students participate in core clinical clerkships at the School’s primary teaching hospitals: Atrium Health Navicent The Medical Center and Piedmont Macon Medical Center in Macon; Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah; Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital and St. Francis Hospital in Columbus; and SGMC Health in Valdosta. The School also offers master’s degrees in preclinical sciences and family therapy and Ph.D.s in biomedical sciences and rural health sciences.
