Michael Compton, MD, MPH
Michael T. Compton, M.D., M.P.H. is Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and Research Psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. He is triple-board-certified in psychiatry, preventive medicine, and lifestyle medicine. He has maintained continuous National Institute of Mental Health research funding for 20 years, conducting research on diverse topics pertaining to serious mental illnesses, with a special emphasis on criminal legal over-involvement among those with such disorders. This includes reasons for greater police contacts and arrests, specific misdemeanor charges that are most common, and approaches in both the criminal legal system and the mental health system for reducing this unjust over-involvement. His research has led to >300 publications. Dr. Compton is interested in incorporating public health and prevention into psychiatry (and vice versa), one means of which is by addressing the social determinants of health, which are often also drivers of criminal legal over-involvement. Included among his ten books as editor or co-editor to date are: The Social Determinants of Mental Health (2015), Struggle and Solidarity: Seven Stories of How Americans Fought for Their Mental Health through Federal Legislation (2023) and Entangled: How People with Serious Mental Illness Get Caught in Misdemeanor Systems (2025).
