Leadership
On September 1, 2008, Professor Dr. med. Dipl.-Psych. Susanne Walitza assumed office as the new Chairholder and Medical Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Service of the Canton of Zurich (KJPD). In doing so, she became the first full professor at the KJPD and at the PUK, the first holder of a chair in child and adolescent psychiatry in Switzerland, and the first female Medical Director at the University of Zurich.
Prior to this, the child and adolescent psychiatrist and psychologist worked at the University Hospital of Würzburg, where, following her specialization in child and adolescent psychiatry, she held senior positions in both clinical practice and research. Following the merger in 2016, the KJPD became the Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (KJPP) of the Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich (PUK), and Susanne Walitza became Director of the KJPP. From May 2022 to May 2024, she also served, on a rotating basis, as Chair of the Medical Directorate. Her political and scientific engagement spans a broad range of activities and positions, including serving as founding president of the Association of Swiss Chief Physicians for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, which she chaired from 2013 to 2018, Vice Dean for Teaching at the Faculty of Medicine in Zurich, Vice President of the World Federation of ADHD (2011–2015), and Vice President of the World Association of Stress and Anxiety Related Disorders (WASAD, since 2021).
Promoting young academic talent is, alongside clinical care, one of Susanne Walitza’s most important goals and a matter very close to her heart. Each year, numerous interdisciplinary master’s theses and doctoral dissertations (in medicine, psychology, neuroscience, and biology) are completed at the KJPP. Graduates and postdoctoral candidates have received numerous awards and funding grants.
The “Specialized Study Track in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy,” the first study track established by the Faculty of Medicine in Zurich and a model for other specialized study tracks, was initiated in 2010 with the involvement of S. Walitza and has since become firmly established.