Elyn Saks

Elyn R. Saks is the Orrin B. Evans Distinguished Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. She serves as an associate dean at the university and is the founder and faculty director of the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics. Saks is also an adjunct professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and a faculty member at the New Center for Psychoanalysis. She holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a Ph.D. in psychoanalytic science from the New Center for Psychoanalysis, and a Master of Letters from Oxford University, where she was a Marshall Scholar. Saks is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and an affiliate member of the American Psychoanalytic Association.

Saks has published extensively in the areas of mental health law, psychiatry, and psychology, authoring more than 50 articles and book chapters as well as five books. Her autobiography, "The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness," explores her experience living with schizophrenia and has received significant recognition. Saks was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, using the fellowship award to establish the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics.

Saks is recognized for her advocacy in mental health, contributing opinion pieces and interviews to The New York Times, delivering a TED talk titled "A tale of mental illness -- from the inside," and addressing members of the American Psychiatric Association. She has also served as a graduation speaker at William James College. In acknowledgment of her work, a hospital ward at Pelham Woods Hospital in Dorking, England, bears her name. Saks is also a cancer survivor, balancing her academic, legal, and advocacy work with personal health challenges.