Harold I. (Hank) Schwartz, M.D. is a nationally recognized psychiatrist, hospital executive, author and mental health advocate. He currently serves as Psychiatrist-in-Chief at The Institute of Living, Vice President of Behavioral Health at Hartford Hospital, and as regional Vice President of Hartford HealthCare. He is Professor of Psychiatry in the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Professor of Psychiatry, Adjunct, in the Yale University School of Medicine.

Hank has served in many capacities as an advocate for psychiatric patients, psychiatric services and the profession of psychiatry. In 2000, he served on the Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Mental Health. Following the mass murder in Newtown, Governor Malloy appointed him to the Governor's Sandy Hook Advisory Commission and he has consulted with Vice President Biden's office on the rollout of the national dialogue on mental health which followed that tragedy. He is a past-President of the Connecticut Psychiatric Society where he has served as Legislative Chair for over 20 years - testifying frequently at the legislature on matters vital to mental health and contributing to the crafting of mental health statutes in Connecticut, including our mental health parity law. Among other organizational roles, he has served as President, Tri-State Chapter of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law and on the boards of the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems, the Whiting Forensic Institute, the Mind Research Network, and Chrysalis Center, Inc. He serves on the medical advisory boards of the Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation and the Jordan Matthew Porco Foundation and as chairman of the board of Real Art Ways.

Hank graduated from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1979 and completed a fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry at New York University/Bellevue Hospital Center. He has published over 80 articles, book chapters or books, primarily on issues at the interface of psychiatry, law, ethics, and public policy. His book, Psychiatric Practice Under Fire: The Influence of Government, the Media and Special Interests on Somatic Therapies received honorable mention in the Guttmacher Prize competition. Most recently, he has focused his attention on suicide and the risk of violence, appearing frequently in numerous television, radio and print venues discussing these and other mental health policy issues. He is a Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists, a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and has won numerous awards and honors.

At The Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital, Hank leads a full service psychiatric hospital system with a broad continuum of clinical and training programs and multiple research centers. In recent years, he has founded the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, a state-of-the-art fMRI brain imaging and genetics center devoted to research on severe mental illness, and the Anxiety Disorders Center, with clinical and research programs in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and the anxiety disorders. He also serves as Chair of the Hartford Hospital Ethics Committee.

In his personal life, Hank is an avid cyclist, outdoors person and an aficionado of fine bourbons.