Phyllis Vine

Phyllis Vine, Ph.D., is a historian and author who has written about mental health policy and reform, racial and social inequities, and political activism. Her first book, Families in Pain (1982), was the first to discuss family relationships of people struggling with mental illness. Her latest is Fighting for Recovery: An Activists’ History of Mental Health Reform (Beacon Press, 2022). Her writing has most recently appeared on The Washington Post Online and Slate.com.

Between 2007 and 2012, Vine edited MIWatch.org to aggregate news about mental illness. She is a member of the College for Behavioral Health Leadership, the mental health section of the American Public Health Association, and is the current President of the Board of Directors of Gould Farm, the oldest farm-based residential treatment program for people with mental illness in the U.S.

With a doctorate in history from the University of Michigan, and an MPH from Columbia University, Vine has taught at Sarah Lawrence College and Union College. She is also the author of One Man’s Castle: Clarence Darrow in Defense of the American Dream (2004).