Michael Lindsey

As a mental health services and intervention scholar, Michael’s research has been funded by both the National Institute of Mental Health and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). His intervention research has focused on how best to engage youth with depression and suicide ideation in school-based counseling services. He is also currently the Principal Investigator of an NICHD-funded randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of a PTSD and parenting intervention delivered to mothers participating in child welfare prevention services. His research on adolescent suicide has led to the development of federal legislation to address the rising trend of suicides and suicide behaviors among Black adolescents.

He is the recipient of many awards, honors and distinctions. They include being selected in 2019 to lead the working group of experts supporting the Congressional Black Caucus’ Emergency Taskforce on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health; being named a distinguished fellow of the National Academies of Practice (NAP) in Social Work; being appointed a board member of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW); and being named an Aspen Health Innovators Fellow. He was also appointed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to serve on the Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF). Additionally, he serves on the editorial boards of Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Psychiatric Services and School Mental Health.

Professor Lindsey was appointed an associate professor in NYU’s Silver School of Social Work in 2014, and was promoted to professor in 2017. He was named executive director of the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research in 2016. Prior to coming to NYU, he was a faculty member at the University of Maryland, a psychotherapist in Washington DC, and a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh.

He received his undergraduate degree in sociology at Morehouse College; his master’s degree in social work for direct service practice with a concentration on mental health from Howard University; and his MPH and PhD degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. Additionally, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.