Alvin Francis Poussaint

Not to be confused with Allen Toussaint.

Alvin Francis Poussaint (born May 15, 1934 in New York City) is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the author of numerous books on child psychiatry, with a particular focus on the raising of African-American children.

Biography

Poussaint is a Haitian-American, born to Haitian immigrants in New York City's East Harlem neighborhood. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1952. As a youth, he took ill with rheumatic fever, which left him unable to engage in the physical activities of his peers. He graduated from Columbia University in 1956 and earned an M.D. from Cornell University in 1960. Poussaint completed postgraduate training at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied psychopharmacology and served as chief resident in psychiatry.

After his initial academic accomplishments, Poussaint took part in the civil rights movement, which solidified his notion that racism resides at the core of mental health problems in the black community. Later in life, Poussaint served as a consultant for The Cosby Show and currently combines an advocacy for responsible media programming with his academic work.

Along with Bill Cosby he co-authored the 2007 book Come On, People: On the Path from Victims to Victors.

External links

• Profile at Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History
• Alvin Poussaint's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project
• Harvard Medical School Biography