Our Team
Diane L. Kaufman, MD
(Retired from seeing patients at MMPC)
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Dr. Kaufman is a child psychiatrist, poet, and artist who is dedicated to preventing suicide. Her passion is arts and healing. In 2019 Dr. Kaufman was the honored recipient of the Dr. Frank L. Babbott Award by the SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University Alumni Association in recognition of her distinguished service to both the medical profession and the general community.
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.
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. Dr Kaufman is board certified in both Pediatrics and Psychiatry. For the next 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.
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Dr. Kaufman served there as Medical Director of Preschool Services, Medical Director of the Crisis Intervention Mobile Outreach Program, and received honors for her practice of humanism in medicine. Especially concerned for the emotional well-being of children who experienced abuse, Dr. Kaufman obtained grants for special projects to better meet their emotional needs such as the grant-funded Therapeutic Foster Home Project and the “Parents are People Too!” parenting program.
Dr. Kaufman's passion for arts and healing led to her establishing Poetry in Medicine Day at UMDNJ and in collaboration with the Nursing Department at University Hospital (Newark, New Jersey), she was the guiding leader and benefactor of Creative Arts Healthcare which provided service to patients, students, and staff.
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Dr. Kaufman is the founder-director of the Arts and Healing Resiliency Center at Mind Matters, PC. She is a published poet and workshop facilitator who has expertise in the therapeutic use of poetry and story. 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. The actor Danny Glover narrates Bird That Wants to Fly on the audible.com opera recording.
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Dr. Kaufman was the keynote speaker at the 2016 National Association for Poetry Therapy Conference and has presented internationally on arts and healing.
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Dr. Kaufman is the author of 15 Poems to Healing and Recovery, Missing Mommy on a 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 song, “Don’t Give Up” was awarded “Best Lyric Video” in August 2021 by the Tracks Music Award Festival. See the Arts and Healing Resiliency Center for details.
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LICENSURES & CERTIFICATIONS
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American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology in General Psychiatry
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American Board of Pediatrics
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Graduate, Internship, Residency, Fellowship (Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry with board eligibility), New York University Medical Center/ Bellevue Hospital
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Graduate, Medical School, Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York
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Expressive Arts Educational Facilitator, Salve Regina University, Newport, Rhode Island
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
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American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
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Oregon Council of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
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Oregon Medical Association
