Podcast

Faith, Fatherhood and Men’s Mental Health With Dr. Sidney Hankerson, MD

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Dr. Hankerson is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Community Engagement in the Department of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is also the Mental Health Equity Research Director at Mount Sinai Institute for Health Equity Research (IHER). His research focuses on reducing racial/ethnic disparities in mental health treatment. He is a nationally recognized expert at engaging faithand community-based organizations to increase access to culturally relevant mental health care. Dr. Hankerson has presented at the White House (President Obama’s White House Dialogue on Men’s Health and the ‘Making Healthcare Better’ Series), United Nations, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Gracie Mansion (NYC Mayor’s Office), and numerous national academic conferences. He currently serves on the National Football League’s (NFL) Mental Wellness Committee. The National Academy of Medicine selected Dr. Hankerson as one of 10 physicians in the U.S. for its Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine Program in 2021. He was an inaugural member of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Council of Faith and Community Partnerships and served on the APA Council of Minority Mental Health and Health Disparities. He has been featured on several TV series: the PBS Documentary Mysteries of Mental Illness; a Pix11 News Special focused on mental health in the Black community, and a CBS segment about Mount Sinai’s partnerships with faith-based organizations. Dr. Hankerson completed a dual MD/MBA program from Emory University, where he was Medical School Class President. He completed his psychiatry residency at Emory and was appointed Chief Resident of Psychiatry at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. Dr. Hankerson then completed an NIMH-funded research fellowship at Columbia University Medical Center. He was on faculty at Columbia for 12 years before transitioning to his current leadership roles at Mount Sinai.

Dr. Hankerson joins us on The Vault to discuss his research on how faith and mental health can work in synergy to help communities to thrive. He also focuses on ways that men can support their mental health and ways that fathers can break patterns of generational trauma.