Jessica Fletcher

Jessica Fletcher (she/her/hers) is a doctoral candidate in the Art History PhD program at the CUNY Graduate Center, and is currently working on a dissertation about the architecture of district health centers in New York City. Reformers – many of whom were women – first established these centers in storefronts, former public baths, and converted hospitals in the Progressive Era to provide free and low-cost health care to working-class mothers and children. Following decades of local activism, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia allotted New Deal funds to build modern district health centers across the five boroughs in the late 1930s. Her academic interest in how architects and reformers shaped the urban built environment in response to pressing public health issues of the early twentieth century led her to get involved with the Mindscapes research team. She looks forward to contributing to thoughtful public programs that bring histories of mental health care in New York City to broad audiences.