Fitzhugh Mullan was born in 1942, raised in New York City, and attended medical school at the University of Chicago in the late 1960s. While at Chicago, Mullan became active in the Student Health Organization, a nationwide group of medical students seeking to improve the quality of health care and medical education. He directed the Chicago Student Health Project in 1968, and served as chairman of the Student Health Organization of Chicago in 1969. After completing medical school, Mullan returned to New York City and served his internship and residency in pediatrics at Lincoln Hospital in South Bronx. While there he continued his interest in health service reform. He was an active member of the Lincoln Collective, which sought to restructure care distribution within the hospital, and headed up the budget protests and billing action of 1971 when, as a protest against cuts in services interns and residents withheld patient medicaid forms so the hospital could not be compensated. The same year, Mullan also served as president of the Committee of Interns and Residents of New York City. Mullan completed his training in 1972 and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico to practice at La Clinica, a free health clinic. He later served as director of the National Health Service Corps, and also began to write a book about his experiences at Lincoln Hospital. White Coat, Clenched Fist was published in 1976.
