Our Faculty

Ezra S. Susser, MD, DrPH, focuses on two main areas. One is examining the role of early life experience in health and disease throughout the life course. He heads the Imprints Center for Genetic and Environmental Lifecourse Studies, which fosters collaborative research and intellectual exchange among investigators studying developmental origins in birth cohorts across the globe. As one example, the findings from a series of studies have suggested that exposure to famine in early gestation is associated with increased schizophrenia among offspring. The other is global mental health. He is a co-founder of the Global Mental Health Program at Columbia University. Much of Dr. Susser's early work focused on the course of schizophrenia and especially on social outcomes. In his early research career he was involved in follow-up studies of psychoses in the United States and across the globe, including the WHO International Study of Schizophrenia. He also conducted studies of homelessness and its prevention among patients with schizophrenia. This work included the development and testing of the initial version of Critical Time Intervention (CTI) for prevention of recurrent homelessness. Currently CTI is being adapted for use in low and middle income countries, and a version is being piloted for a regional trial across three countries in Latin America. Dr. Susser is also involved in work on schizophrenia in other regions, for example, in South Africa he and colleagues are laying the groundwork for the first study of the incidence of psychoses in Africa, and have undertaken the first large study of genetics of schizophrenia in a population of African ancestry. Dr. Susser is editor of the International Journal of Epidemiology, lead author of the main textbook on psychiatric epidemiology, and former chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health (1999-2008).

DrPH, Columbia University, 1992

MPH, Columbia University, 1982

MD, Columbia University, 1982

BA, Columbia University, 1974

Mailman School Affiliations:

• The Imprints Center for Genetic and Environmental Lifecourse Studies  Executive Committee
• Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) 
• Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health 

University Affiliations:

• New York State Psychiatric Institute   Professor

Additional Affiliations:

• Member, American Epidemiological Society
• Member, American College of Epidemioloy
• Member, Society for Epidemiologic Research
• Member, American Psychopathological Association
• Scientific Advisory Board Member, Autism Speaks
• Scientific Advisory Board Member, EHESP

• Annual Winchell Lecturer, Department of Anesthesiology, Columbia University, 2009
• Cassel Distinguished Lecturer, University of North Carolina School of Public Health, 2004
• Keynote Speaker, Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Epidemiological Association, 2003
• WG Armstrong Lectureship Award, Univerisity of Sydney, School of Public Health and Australian Health Policy Institute, 2007
• Fellow, American Psychopathological AssociationRobins/Guze Distinguished Lecturer, Washington University in St. Louis, 2005

Selected Editorial Boards

• International Journal of Epidemiology, Assoc. Editor
• Public Health Reports
• Journal of Chronic Illness

Critical Time Intervention (CTI)
Dr. Susser led the initial development and testing in New York City of the Critical Time Intervention (CTI) for prevention of recurrent homelessness among people with schizophrenia. CTI has subsequently been adapted and tested for related purposes in New York City, other areas in the United States, and other countries, under the leadership now of Dan Herman.

Columbia Center for Homelessness Prevention Studies (CHPS)
Dr. Susser helped develop and served up to 2009 as co-Director of the Center for Homelessness Prevention Service and Research (Director Carol Caton). This Center helps initiate and support an array of research and services for prevention of homelessness, with Dr. Susser's focus primarily on prevention among people with severe mental illness.

CAPS
Dr. Susser play a key role in the current adaptation and testing of the Critical Time Intervention for people with severe mental illness in Rio de Janeiro.

Countries: Brazil

AUSTRAL
Dr. Susser has been an advisor over a 15 year period to the development of treatment and rehabilitation services for people with severe mental illness in Neuquen, Argentina.

Countries: Argentina

CAPRISA
Dr. Susser has had a long-term connection to Universities (especially UKZN)and other institutions in South Africa. This has included training programs in epidemiology, development of mental health services, and exploring connections between HIV and mental illness. He also played a key role in the establishment of CAPRISA, a major HIV/AIDS collaboration led by Dr. Karim at UKZN, of which Columbia is one of the Centers.

Countries: South Africa