American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare

Michael A. Lindsey, PhD

Active | Inducted in 2021

Current Position

Board Member, President

Bio

Dr. Michael A. Lindsey is a noted scholar in the fields of child and adolescent mental health, as well as a leader in the search for knowledge and solutions to generational poverty and inequality. He is the Dean and Paulette Goddard Professor of Social Work at NYU Silver School of Social Work, and an Aspen Health Innovators Fellow.

Additionally, Dr. Lindsey led the working group of experts supporting the Congressional Black Caucus Emergency Taskforce on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health, which created the report Ring the Alarm: The Crisis of Black Youth Suicide in America. He is the President of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare and a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academies of Practice (NAP) in Social Work. Dr. Lindsey was also appointed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF). In 2023, he was appointed to the New York City Board of Health.

Prior to being named NYU Silver’s Dean, Dr. Lindsey was the Constance and Martin Silver Professor of Poverty Studies and Executive Director of the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research.

Dr. Lindsey serves on the editorial boards of the following journals: Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Psychiatric Services, and School Mental Health. The politics news outlet City & State New York has recognized him in the 2024 Health Care Power 100 list, the 2022 and 2023 Higher Education Power 100 lists, and the 2021 Mental Health Power 50 list. He is a Life Member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

He holds a PhD in social work and MPH from the University of Pittsburgh, an MSW from Howard University, and a BA in sociology from Morehouse College. Dr. Lindsey also completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in public health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

To learn more visit his NYU Silver profile page.