Phyllis Harrison-Ross, M.D.

Phyllis Harrison-Ross, M.D., Class of 1959, was a pediatrician, psychiatrist and community mental health professional who pioneered programs for developmentally disabled and mentally ill children. Her programs were introduced into public schools and helped reduce the number of institutionalized children.

Dr. Harrison-Ross, a Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health Services at New York Medical College, served as a hospital clinical administrator, researcher, academician, public health consultant, forensic and child psychiatrist, and public educator for underserved populations.

She was director and chief of Psychiatry at Metropolitan Hospital Community Mental Health Center in New York City until 1999, and also served as associate medical director and president of its medical board. Dr. Harrison-Ross was appointed by President Richard Nixon to his Drug Abuse Prevention Advisory Board and President Lyndon Johnson to the first National Minority Advisory Board of the National Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration. She served as the governor-appointed commissioner of the New York State Commission of Corrections and was a member and chair of its Medical Review Board. She wrote two books are on child and adolescent development, “The Black Child – A Parent’s Guide” and “Getting it Together,” a textbook for junior and senior high school students reading at a fifth-grade level.

Dr. Harrison-Ross immersed herself in interfaith disaster mental health services after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and Hurricane Katrina. She was a trustee and chair of the New York Society for Ethical Culture’s Social Service Board and a trustee of the Ethical Culture Fieldston Schools, which named its Dr. Phyllis Harrison-Ross Public Service Award in her honor. She served for more than 25 years as a member of the board of directors of Children’s Television Workshop, producers of “Sesame Street.”

She was appointed to the International Advisory Board of the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation. She was a distinguished life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, former president of Black Psychiatrists of America and was an elected member of the American Hospital Association’s Governing Council. She received the APA’s Solomon Carter Fuller Award for Distinguished Service in 2004, Distinguished Clinical Scholar of the National Medical Association in 2004, the Leadership in Medicine Award of the Susan Smith McKinney Stewart Society in 1978 and the Award of Merit of the Public Health Association of New York City in 1980.