Susan S. Witte

Susan Witte is a social worker and professor of social work at Columbia University, where she has served on the faculty since 2001. She spent 15 years as associate director of the Social Intervention Group and remains a faculty affiliate. She is also affiliated with the International Center for Child Health and Development (ICHAD) at Washington University in St. Louis.

Dr. Witte's research advances global and community health through intervention and implementation science, with a focus on women's sexual and reproductive health, HIV prevention, partner violence, and economic empowerment. Her work has produced influential couple-based, multimedia, and combination HIV prevention interventions. She currently co-leads SUUBI4Prep, expanding PrEP access for adolescent girls and young women in Uganda, and the Anga Center for Climate Justice, Health Equity, and Community Wellbeing, which builds research capacity and partners with climate-vulnerable communities in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Her research has been continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Witte is committed to community-engaged research grounded in collaboration and shared learning, examining how systems of power shape health and well-being. She teaches foundations of social work practice, advanced practice, participatory research, reproductive justice, and social support practice, and mentors doctoral and master's students, and junior faculty pursuing careers in evidence-based research, practice, and policy. 

Dr. Witte holds a Ph.D. in Social Work from Columbia University, an M.S.W. from the University of Connecticut, and a B.A. in Public Policy Studies from Duke University. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in New York State.