Departmental Affiliations
Center & Institute Affiliations
Pamela Surkan, PhD, ScD, MS, is a social epidemiologist working in the areas of mental health, child health, and development and testing of interventions to reduce health disparities.
Contact Info
Research Interests
Social epidemiology; social conditions; social support; social justice; mental health; maternal health; reproductive health; child growth and development; child cognition; behavioral interventions, international health
Experiences & Accomplishments
My main research objective is to study how social determinants influence health. My interests are largely cross-disciplinary. They focus on examining interactions between social conditions and other factors that impact health, such as dietary behaviors and environmental exposures. To date, much of my work has been about the role of maternal mental health, social support and familial environment on early growth and childhood development. International collaborations have included work in Brazil, Sweden, Haiti, Nepal, and Pakistan.
Honors & Awards
Fulbright Grant to Colombia, US State Department - Institute of International Education (1994-1995)
David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Term-time Research Grant to Brazil (1999)
Frederick Sheldon Fellowship to Brazil, Harvard University (2000-2001)
Thord-Gray Memorial Fellowship to Sweden, American Scandinavian Foundation (2002-2003)
“Best Paper of the Year”, Editorial Board of the Journal of Nutrition, Education, and Behavior (2017)
Global Research Fellow, University of Fortaleza Brazil/Institute of International Education (2019-2021)
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship, Institute of Advanced Studies- Paris (2021–2022)
Select Publications
Selected publications.
Surkan PJ, Malik A§, Perin J, Atif N, Zaidi A, Rowther A, Rahman A. Anxiety-focused cognitive behavioral therapy delivered by non-specialists to prevent postnatal depression: a randomized, phase 3 trial. Nature Medicine 2024; 30(3):675-682.§Co-first authors
Surkan PJ, Dong L, Ji Y; Hong X, Kimmel M, Tang W, Ji H, Wang X. Paternal involvement and support and risk of preterm birth: Findings from the Boston Birth Cohort. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology 2017; 16:1-9.
Surkan PJ, Tabrizi MJ, Lee RM, Palmer AM, Frick KD. 'Eat Right - Live Well!' supermarket intervention impact on sales of healthy foods in a low-income neighborhood. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 2016;48(2):112-121.
Surkan PJ, Ettinger AK, Ahmed S, Minkovitz CS, Strobino D. Impact of maternal depressive symptoms on growth of preschool- and school-aged children. Pediatrics 130(4):e847-55, 2012.
Surkan PJ, Mukherjee JS, Williams DR, Eustache E, Louis E, Jean-Paul T, Lambert W, Scanlan FC, Oswald CM, Smith Fawzi MC. Perceived discrimination and stigma towards children affected by HIV/AIDS and their HIV-positive caregivers in central Haiti. AIDS Care 22 (7):803-15, 2010.