John Young

Thomas and Frances Gambino Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, Zucker School of Medicine; Chair and Senior Vice President for Behavioral Health at Northwell Health

Dr. John Young is the Thomas and Frances Gambino professor and chair of the department of psychiatry at the Zucker School of Medicine and chair and senior vice president for behavioral health at Northwell. He is also chair of the department of psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital. Previously, he served as vice chair for education in the Department of Psychiatry at the Zucker School of Medicine and the Zucker Hillside Hospital. He also directed the Psychiatry Residency Training Program at Zucker Hillside and chaired the Curriculum Committee, which oversees the four-year curriculum at the School of Medicine.

Dr. Young’s research has focused on improving quality and patient safety in the clinical learning workplace. In particular, he has made important contributions to multiple literatures, including cognitive load, handoffs, and patient safety; the “July Effect”; professional identity formation; and workplace-based assessment in psychiatry. Throughout his career, he has participated in local patient safety committees and led efforts to incorporate quality improvement processes into ambulatory settings.

Prior to his career in medicine, he did human rights work in southern Africa and Asia, community development work in the South, and served as legislative director for an assemblywoman in the California State Legislature, where he helped lead several important and high-profile health policy initiatives.

He received a B.A. (magna cum laude) from Harvard University with a double concentration in social studies and the comparative study of religion. He earned a master’s degree in public policy from the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy and a Ph.D. in health professional education from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He obtained his M.D. from the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine, where he also completed residency training in general adult psychiatry.