Executive Director

Laurie Flynn was recruited to Columbia University in 2001 to move the university’s research on suicide prevention into service for teens and families. Under her leadership and vision, TeenScreen grew to become one of America’s largest adolescent mental health initiatives. Today, TeenScreen is being implemented by more than 1,450 primary care providers and in approximately 600 school and community-based sites in 46 states. In 2008, she directed the expansion of the program to include a broad range of policy and program efforts under the broadened scope of the TeenScreen National Center for Mental Health Checkups.

Prior to joining Columbia, Laurie served 16 years as the national executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). NAMI is the nation’s leading grassroots advocacy organization dedicated solely to improving the quality of life for people with severe mental illness and their families. Laurie has family experience with serious mental illness and has been deeply involved in mental health policy for 25 years.

In addition to her work at Columbia, Laurie served as a member of President Barack Obama’s Health Policy Advisory Committee during the 2008 election. Previously, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission. In 2008, she was elected as co-chair of The Mind Research Network, a national mental illness and brain disorder research organization with in-house scientists and research partners at Yale, Harvard, MIT, the University of Colorado, the University of Iowa, the University of Maryland, the University of New Mexico, the University of Minnesota and Sandia National Laboratories. She is an advisory committee member at Johns Hopkins University’s Health Services Research and Development Center. She was a member of the Interdisciplinary Advisory Board of the American Psychiatric Association’s Journal on Psychiatric Services.

Laurie was awarded the Presidential Commendation Award by the American Psychiatric Association and is a recipient of the APA’s Patient Advocacy Award, the Mental Health Section Award of the American Public Health Association, the McLean Hospital Award, and the Distinguished Service Award presented jointly by the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems and the American Hospital Association. Her other honors include the Public Service Award from the American Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation, the Decade of the Brain Award presented by the National Foundation for Brain Research, and the Albert B. Sabin Hero of Science Award from the Americans for Medical Progress Education Foundation.

Laurie served as co-chair of the Maryland Commission on Women’s Health and the National Task Force on Homelessness and Mental Illness. She also has been a board member of the Child Welfare Institute for many years. Laurie has written numerous articles and contributed to many books on mental illness and the family. She is a frequent spokesperson on mental health policy and programs.

She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia.