suzanmwalters

I am a Research Assistant Professor in the School of Global Public Health at New York University and founder of Walters Consulting, LLC. My research focuses on the social and structural drivers of health and how intersectional stigma processes negatively impact health outcomes. I mainly work with drug using populations, focusing on how varying intersections, such as gender, sexualities, race and ethnicity, criminal justice involvement, rurality, and poverty create unique experiences that influence access to resources and health outcomes. My research takes a strengths based approach where I explore ways to harness social networks and harm reduction to improve health outcomes. I have completed two grants that explored the feasibility of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for persons who inject drugs living in rural Illinois and New York City. I currently am the Principal Investigator of a K01 grant funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse entitled “Intersectional Stigma Experiences, Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), and Other Service Use Among People Who Inject Drugs.” I have 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. My research has been supported by the American Sociological Association, Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research, National Institutes for Health, New York University Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Sociology AIDS Network, Stony Brook University, Society for the Study of Social Problems, and Sociologists for Women and Society.