Senior Staff Psychologist

Adeyinka M. Akinsulure-Smith, Ph.D., ABPP, is a licensed psychologist and a tenured Professor in the Department of Psychology at the City College of New York, the City University of New York (CUNY) and at the Graduate Center, CUNY.  Dr. Akinsulure-Smith has cared for forced migrants, including survivors of torture, armed conflict, and human rights abuses from around the world at the Bellevue Program for Survivors of Torture since 1999. 

Dr. Akinsulure-Smith has participated in human rights investigations in Sierra Leone and served as a Joint Expert on Gender Crimes and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for the International Criminal Court.  She provides forensic evaluations, human rights consultations, and mitigation services on capital cases for private legal firms and public entities such as the US Office of the Federal Defender.

In addition to her teaching and clinical work, Dr. Akinsulure-Smith is the recipient of several grants and Fellowships, including a 2014-2015 Fulbright Africa Regional Research Program award.  Currently she is the PI of an NIH-funded project to examine Female Genital Cutting among African immigrants and service providers in the United States.  Her work has included developing and examining mental health interventions in Sierra Leone and Nigeria.  Dr. Akinsulure-Smith has written extensively about service provision to and mental health challenges facing forced migrants, including recent scholarly publications in Journal of Traumatic Stress, Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, Journal of Child and Family Studies, Human Development, PLOS, Journal of Immigrant & Minority Health, American Journal of Community Psychology, and Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma.