Irene S Levine Ph.D.

Irene S. Levine, Ph.D., is a psychologist and award-winning freelance journalist and author who has written hundreds of articles-covering a range of topics, including health, mental health, relationships, and lifestyles-that have appeared in leading publications including Ladies' Home Journal, Reader's Digest, Self, AARP, Better Homes & Gardens, Health, Prevention, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and The Dallas Morning News.

As The Friendship Doctor, in addition to this blog, she is a regular contributor to the Living, Travel, and Relationships sections of The Huffington Post. She also produces a popular blog about female friendships called The Friendship Blog and pens an online bi-monthly career column for the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Levine spent the major portion of her career in senior policy roles at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) in Rockville, Maryland, where she was one of the chief architects of the NIMH Community Support Program and created and directed the NIMH Program on Homelessness and Mental Illness. She was appointed the first Deputy Director of CMHS, part of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Since 1994, she has held a faculty appointment as a professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine. She has lectured locally, nationally, and internationally about the educational and support needs of families coping with severe mental illnesses, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. She co-authored Schizophrenia For Dummies (Wiley, 2008) with her psychiatrist-husband, Jerome Levine, M.D.

She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Association for Health Care Journalists, the Authors Guild, the National Association of Science Writers, and the American Psychological Association. She resides in Chappaqua, New York.