Eleanor's Legacy

One of the leading child and adolescent psychologists in Manhattan, Dr. Gail Furman is well known to the psychiatric, humanitarian, and educational communities for her unique contribution of clinical, educational and theoretical expertise. Dr. Furman has been in private practice treating children, adolescents and their families for over 35 years.

A frequent guest speaker at professional conferences, Dr. Furman serves on the executive boards of the Women’s Refugee Commission, Human Rights First and The Brennan Center for Social Justice NYU Law School. She is also an advisor to the Auburn Seminary Faith to Faith Program (which works with teenagers from conflict-zones eg. Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine, etc.) and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Furman is an assistant clinical professor at New York University, where she is a consultant to the Child Study Center.

For over 25 years, Dr. Furman served as the school psychologist at the Dalton School and the Fieldston School, as well as the Harbor School for Girls and Boys, a full-service charter school, Family Academy, a model experimental school in Harlem providing academic, social and mental health services for students and their families. The Family Academy was a comprehensive public/private partnership designed to create a “one stop shopping” model.

Dr. Furman has been instrumental in developing collaborations and innovative partnerships between schools, mental health service providers, law clinics, and programs together that provide more competent, comprehensive service to inner-city children and families. Many of these are currently active in and across the United States. One, The Furman Initiative, was cited in 1995 as an examplar by Tipper Gore.

Dr. Furman’s op-ed articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Times and other periodicals. She has written extensively on the issues of parenting and children in schools as well as more global issues affecting children and adolescent’s emotional status world-wide. “Children of War, Children of Hope,” a children’s drawing and photography exhibition assembled Dr. Furman’s work with children in emergency refugee situations, has been mounted in the House of Representatives, the US State Department and the United Nations General Assembly.

Dr. Furman has also co-authored a book, “TURBULENT TIMES PROPHETIC DREAMS: Art from Israeli and Palestinian Children,” which consists of Palestinian and Israeli children’s drawings as well as stories written by the children, and commentary by professionals in the field of children’s mental health.

Dr. Furman is a certified social worker and earned her doctorate in psychology from New York University. She lives in New York City and is the mother of two grown sons and, a grandmother of five.