Dr. Stephen Goldfinger is a community psychiatrist whose career has focused on the treatment and rehabilitation of the most seriously disabled psychiatric patients. He is currently a Professor and Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY.

Dr. Goldfinger trained at Harvard College, Yale Medical School, and did his psychiatric residency at the University of California, San Francisco/Mt. Zion Hospital. During his twelve years in San Francisco, he served as the Director of the Emergency, Outpatient and Inpatient Services at San Francisco General Hospital and as the Mental Health Director of S.F. Health Care for the Homeless. Dr. Goldfinger has been an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, the Clinical Director of the Massachusetts Mental Health Center (Harvard's largest public psychiatry program) and the Principal Investigator of a $13 million grant examining models of housing for homeless individuals with severe mental illness.

Dr. Goldfinger is the author or editor of over 100 books, monographs, journal articles and abstracts, and on the editorial boards of numerous publications. He is an extremely active figure in a number of professional organizations, among them the APA's Committee on Chronic Mental Illness, Committee on Poverty, Homelessness and Psychiatric Disorders, the Institute on Psychiatric Services and many subcommittees of the Scientific Program Committee. He currently chairs the Committee on Commercial Support, which oversees the relationship between the APA and the pharmaceutical industry. He is also on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Community Psychiatrists, the Sapling Project, and the Irwin Foundation Recovery Initiative. Dr. Goldfinger is an advocate for the most severely ill patients, serving as an active member of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill where he has been the clinician covering their annual meeting for the past 18 years.

Areas of expertise
homelessness; schizophrenia; treatment adherence and case management for the mentally ill

Recent professional activities

American Association of Community Psychiatrists, Board of Directors

Committee on Commercial Support, Chair

Irwin Foundation Recovery Initiative, Board of Directors