Dr. Michael Lindsey

Mental Health Advocate

As a trailblazer in research development, Dr. Michael Lindsey has dedicated his career to studying the contributing factors of child and adolescent mental health problems, specifically within the Black community. Lindsey is the executive director of the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research and has analyzed the gap of suicidal rates between Black and white youth. 

“The signs of suicide in Black youth are too often overlooked and not well understood,” said Lindsey said in an interview with NBC News. “And so we must have more research that helps in finding answers to this growing epidemic in the Black community.”

Dr. Lindsey’s current research, which is funded by the Robin Hood Foundation, involves innovative intervention aimed at decreasing PTSD and depression symptoms and improving positive parenting skills in child-welfare involved mothers with trauma-related disorders. 

He is an Aspen Health Innovators Fellow, a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academies of Practice (NAP) in Social Work and the leader of the working group of experts supporting the Congressional Black Caucus Emergency Taskforce on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health.Moving forward, Lindsey is making efforts toward increasing awareness of Black youth who suffer from depression, traumatic stress or anxiety.