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Dr. Diane Kaufman at the 2019 NAMI Walk holding a poem poster and wearing a t-shirt with a poem she’d written celebrating NAMI.

DR. DIANE KAUFMAN, MD

Child Psychiatrist, Humanism in Medicine Awardee, and Founder and Director, Arts and Healing Resiliency Center, Mind Matters PC

Dr. Diane Kaufman is a child psychiatrist, poet, and artist dedicated to preventing suicide. In recognition of her distinguished service to both the medical profession and general community, Dr. Kaufman was the honored recipient of the 2019 Dr. Frank L. Babbott Award by the SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University Alumni Association. She has also been recognized for her practice of "humanism in medicine" by the New Jersey Healthcare Foundation and the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. 

A fervent poet whose passion is arts and healing, Dr. Kaufman has extensive training in the therapeutic use of poetry, art, and story, and was the guiding leader of Creative Arts Healthcare at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey. 

Dr. Kaufman is now the Founder and Director of the Arts and Healing Resiliency Center at Mind Matters, PC. She is a published poet and workshop facilitator who has extensive expertise in the therapeutic use of poetry and story. Dr. Kaufman presents internationally on arts and healing, appearing as the keynote speaker at the April 2016 National Association for Poetry Therapy Conference.

Dr. Kaufman is the author of Bird That Wants to Fly, a healing from trauma story that inspired an opera composed by Michael Raphael and performed by Trilogy: An Opera Company. Actor Danny Glover narrates the story on the audible.com opera recording. 

She is also the author of 15 Poems to Healing and Recovery, Missing Mommy on child's bereavement, and Three Objects Spoke To Me on being lost and found on life’s journey.  

Dr. Kaufman collaborates with artists, song writers, composers, and videographers creating works on mental health themes such as bullying, domestic violence, addiction, depression, and suicide. Her latest songs, “Don’t Give Up” was awarded “Best Lyric Video” in August 2021 by the Tracks Music Award Festival, while  "Wishing You Were Still Here" received Honorable Mention in the category of Best Song Lyric in the Rome Music Video Awards.

Originally from Long Island, New York, Dr. Kaufman is a Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Mount Holyoke College. Dr. Kaufman received her medical education at Downstate Medical Center followed by six and a half years of training at New York University Medical Center/ Bellevue Hospital in pediatrics, adult psychiatry, and child psychiatry. After receiving her board certification in both Pediatrics and Psychiatry, for 28 years, she provided outpatient psychiatric care at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ, Newark campus), which is now known as Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. ​