People

Suzan Walters
Suzan M. Walters, PhD
NYU Langone Health - Assistant Professor
Email: Suzan.Walters@nyulangone.org
Education
PhD, Sociology, Stony Brook University
MA, Sociology, St. John’s University
BA, Philosphy, University of California, Riverside
Research Interests
Medical sociology, social determinants of health, substance use, intersectional stigma, gender, sexualities, HIV/AIDS, social networks
BIO
Suzan Walters is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Epidemiology in the Department of Population Health at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and an affiliated researcher at the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research at New York University (NYU).  She has completed two postdoctoral fellowships focused on interdisciplinary drug use research: the Behavioral Sciences Training in Drug Abuse Research program at NYU and the Interdisciplinary Research and Training Institute on Hispanic Drug Use at the University of Southern California. Her mixed-methods research focuses on the social and structural determinants of health among drug using populations.  In particular she focuses on awareness, knowledge and access to biomedical interventions as part of larger social processes of exclusion. Her current K01 grant focuses on how intersectional stigma experiences affect health outcomes among people who use drugs. She has worked as an ethnographer for the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance System, a program director for the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities, and a research fellow for AIDS Foundation Chicago. Her research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, American Sociological Association, Sociologists for Women and Society, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, Sociology AIDS Network, and Stony Brook University.
Projects
Principal Investigator, Community-Driven Exploration of PrEP, Harm Reduction, and OPC Service Use among Spanish-Speaking People Who Inject Drugs in NYC. Active
Principal Investigator, Intersectional Stigma Experiences, Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), and Other Service Use Among People Who Inject Drugs. Active
Principal Investigator, Feasibility of PrEP for Persons Who Inject Drugs. Completed
Principal Investigator, Qualitative Assessment of the First Government Sanctioned Overdose Prevention Center in the United States. Completed
Publications

Recent

Jenkins WD, Walters S, Phillips G, Green K, Fenner E, Bolinski R, Spenner A, Luckey G (2024).
Stigma, mental health, and health care use among rural sexual and gender minority individuals
Health Education and Behavior, 51 (3), 477-489. doi: 10.1177/10901981221120393. PMCID: PMC10064479.

Baker R, Fredericksen RJ, Rudolph AE, Stopka TJ, Walters SM, Fadanelli M, Bolinski RS, Sibley AL, Stack E, Crane HM, Korthuis PT, Seal DW (2024).
Overdose responses among rural people who use drugs: A multi-regional qualitative study
Harm Reduction Journal, 21 (1), 107. doi: 10.1186/s12954-024-01007-9. PMCID: PMC11140975.

Chong N, Azwa I, Hassan AA, Mousavi ME, Wong PL, Ng RX, Saifi R, Basri S, Omar SFS, Walters SM, Collier ZK, Haddad MS, Altice FL, Kamarulzaman A, Earnshaw VA (2024).
HIV Activist Identity, Commitment, and Orientation Scale (HAICOS): Psychometric evaluation to assess clinician’s propensity towards HIV activism in Malaysia
AIDS and Behavior [Epub 2024 May 28]. doi: 10.1007/s10461-024-04381-4.

Ezell JM, Pho MT, Simek E, Ajayi BP, Shetty N, Walters SM (2024).
How do people who use opioids express their qualities and capacities? An assessment of attitudes, behaviors, and opportunities
Harm Reduction Journal, 21 (1), 79. doi: 10.1186/s12954-024-00981-4. PMCID: PMC11000313.

Sibley AL, Klein E, Cooper HLF, Livingston MD, Baker R, Walters SM, Gicquelais RE, Ruderman SA, Friedmann PD, Jenkins WD, Go VF, Miller WC, Westergaard RP, Crane HM (2024).
The relationship between felt stigma and non-fatal overdose among rural people who use drugs
Harm Reduction Journal, 21 (1), 77. doi: 10.1186/s12954-024-00988-x. PMCID: PMC10998326.

Dr. Walters' Google Scholar Profile
Selected Press