New York University: Michael A. Lindsey Named Dean of NYU’s Silver School of Social Work
NYU President Andrew Hamilton and Provost Katherine Fleming today announced the appointment of Michael A. Lindsey—a leading scholar of poverty, inequality, and child and adolescent mental health; the Constance and Martin Silver Professor of Poverty Studies at NYU; and executive director of NYU’s McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research—as dean of NYU’s Silver School of Social Work, effective July 1, 2022.
Shaped by his adolescence during the 1980s in the nation’s capital, which was then reeling from the effects of the crack cocaine epidemic, Professor Lindsey’s scholarship has led him to try to understand how conditions for youth, such as not being able to arrive at school safely and being educated amidst the stress of crime, poverty, hunger and family upheaval, and racism, could be permitted to persist without a strong public response.
President Hamilton said, “As the director of the McSilver Institute, Michael Lindsey has distinguished himself both within the University and outside of it. He is a leading scholar in the search for knowledge and solutions to generational poverty and inequality, as well as a widely-recognized scholar of child and adolescent mental health, especially among low-income youth and young people of color. His work epitomizes the concept of ‘ideas with impact,’ and his research and widely sought expertise have helped shape national policy in these areas. We couldn’t be happier with this appointment. He will be an outstanding dean of NYU’s Silver School of Social Work.”
Provost Fleming said, “We are so pleased that Michael Lindsey will bring his tremendous talents to the Silver School’s deanship. A careful listener who does not shy away from difficult conversations, Michael is innovative and reflective; he excels at fostering community and managing change; he is down-to-earth and politically sophisticated. He is committed to Silver and its aspirations; to research, practice, and teaching; to diversity and equity; and to making affordability and access priorities. He has a successful record as a fundraiser, an ability to see the big picture, and a vision for the school. We are confident that NYU’s Silver School of Social Work will be in excellent hands and that the school will thrive under his leadership.”
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.
President Hamilton said, “The announcement of Michael Lindsey’s appointment would not be complete without two important ‘thank you’s.’ First, I would like to thank the members of the Dean Search Committee, and the Committee’s chair, Dr. Ernest Gonzales, for their excellent work on behalf of the school. And second, I would like to thank the outgoing dean, Neil Guterman, for his hard work and devotion to the school; we are grateful to him and wish him well.”