About

Kimberly Sue, MD, PhD, is the Medical Director of the National Harm Reduction Coalition, a national advocacy and capacity-building organization that promotes the health and dignity of individuals and communities impacted by drug use and the racialized War on Drugs. She is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine where she practices board certified addiction medicine and primary care. She is core faculty in the Yale Program in Addiction Medicine.

Dr. Sue is a graduate of the Harvard Medical School Social Science MD-PhD Track. Her PhD work was completed in sociocultural (medical) anthropology where she studied the intersection of US prison systems, addiction policy, mental health and drug treatment. This research is the foundation for her book, Getting Wrecked: Women, Incarceration and the American Opioid Crisis, published by University of California Press in September 2019. 

Dr. Sue completed her medical training at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, in Internal Medicine-Primary Care with a clinical focus on substance use disorders and addiction medicine. She has seen patients in a diverse array of contexts, including providing low threshold buprenorphine treatment in syringe service programs, methadone/OTP programs, and has worked as an Attending Physician at Rikers Island Correctional Health Services providing primary care, chronic disease management, HIV, STIs, substance use disorders and transgender care with incarcerated patients.

Dr. Sue’s areas of expertise include examining the intersections of anthropology and clinical medicine, medicine and social justice, and health advocacy for and in solidarity with structurally vulnerable communities. Her work draws attention to how structural violence, oppression and stigma operate in medicine and healthcare settings and particularly can harm or damage the health and well-being of people who use drugs. She believes in centering the expertise and knowledge of people who use drugs, engage in sex work and experience stigma in many other ways. She also has experience in global public health research and implementation in health care delivery and HIV and reproductive health in Tanzania and South Africa.

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