Sally K. Severino received her M.D. from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. She spent seventeen years in academic psychiatry at New York Hospital–Cornell Medical Center before becoming Professor and Executive Vice-Chair in the Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, where she is currently Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry. Certified by the American Psychoanalytic Association, she served as the first woman president of the American College of Psychoanalysts. She is nationally and internationally known for her research on emotional changes in women related to the menstrual cycle and her contributions to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Illness. For decades she was an active member of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, Committee on Psychiatry and Religion. She is grounded in the Christian contemplative tradition and has served on the Board of Directors for the Contemplative Center of St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Together with Dr. Nancy Morrison of the University of Colorado, she leads retreats and workshops based on their collaborative work.