Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Morehouse School of Medicine
Founder and Principal Consultant – Lorio Forensics

Dr. Sarah Y. Vinson is a triple board certified physician who specializes in adult, child & adolescent, and forensic psychiatry. Along with Dr. Ruth Shim, she is the co-editor of the text Social (In)Justice and Mental Health. In addition to providing clinical care to a culturally and socioeconomically diverse clientele, she is the founder of Lorio Forensics, a multidisciplinary culturally and structurally informed forensic mental health consultation company. Dr. Vinson graduated Summa Cum Laude from Florida A & M University. After graduating from medical school at the University of Florida with Research Honors and as an Inductee in the Chapman Humanism Honors Society, she completed her general psychiatry training at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School. While there, she also received specialized training in trauma through the Victims of Violence Program. She then returned to the South to complete fellowships in both child & adolescent and forensic psychiatry at Emory University School of Medicine.

Dr. Vinson is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Morehouse School of Medicine, where she was the lead architect and is the Program Director for the Child Psychiatry Fellowship, the first and only at an HBCU medical school. She is also adjunct faculty at Emory School of Medicine. She has been elected and/or appointed to national and statewide office by her professional peers. She serves on the boards of the American Association of Community Psychiatry and of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. She is also one of two National Psychiatric Advisors for the Judges Psychiatry Leadership Initiative, a collaboration between the Council of State Governments and the American Psychiatric Association that designs and delivers trainings for Judges regarding mental health and criminal justice. Additionally, at the invitation of the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA), she serves on the National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts’ Response to Mental Illness.