Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD, is a research psychiatrist at New York State Psychiatric Institute and a professor of clinical psychiatry and public health at Columbia University. She was educated at Bryn Mawr College (AB, 1971) and Columbia University (MS, 1971; MD 1978).
She is a board certified psychiatrist, having received her training at New York Hospital-Westchester Division (1978-1981) and Montefiore Hospital (1981-1982). She has conducted research on AIDS and other epidemics of poor communities, with a special interest in the relationship between the collapse of communities and decline in health.
From her research, she has published Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What We Can Do About It, and The House of Joshua: Meditations on Family and Place. She is co-author of Ernest Thompson's Homeboy Came to Orange: A Story of People's Power (1976) and Rodrick Wallace's Collective Consciousness and Its Discontents (2008).
She has received many awards, including inclusion in many “Best Doctors” and two honorary doctorates (Chatham College, 1999, and Bank Street College of Education, 2002). Her work in AIDS is featured in Jacob Levenson’s The Secret Epidemic: The Story of AIDS in Black America. Her current work focuses on the connection between urban function and mental health.
Psychology of Place
This group of studies examines the relationship of people to their local environments. These include studies of the effects of violence on neighborhood life, the ways in which rebuilding energizes a neighborhood, etc.
Urbanism and Health Collaboration
This collaboration between the Community Research Group and the Department of Urbanism and the Environment at the National Conservatory of Arts and Trades in Paris examines the ways in which we can build health-promoting cities.
Dr. Fullilove is currently developing a study of Main Streets in New Jersey. There are 556 municipalities in the state. Many have a functioning Main Street. What are these streets like? What is their function in today's city? This project will examine these questions and others.
Building a Youth Anti-Violence Center
This study examines the building of a youth center by Fresh Youth Initiatives, a community organization in Washington Heights.
Family to Family
This project teaches family strengthening to families in the New York city area. Founded in 1996, the program adapted the Family Home Evening program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for secular use.
