Susan B. Sorenson

Susan B. Sorenson, Ph.D., is a professor of Social Policy and Health & Societies at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also serves as a Senior Fellow in Public Health. She is also Director of The Evelyn Jacobs Ortner Center on Family Violence. Her primary areas of research include public health, epidemiology and prevention of violence, including homicide, suicide, sexual assault, child abuse, firearms and violence against women. Sorenson has over 150 publications to her credit. A primary focus of her work is the social context in which violence occurs, specifically, the norms that shape whether and how violence is tolerated. 

Sorenson was a member of the National Academy of Science’s Panel on Research on Violence Against Women, a consultant to President Clinton’s National Advisory Council on Violence Against Women, a consultant to UNICEF’s May 2000 report on Domestic Violence Against Women and Girls, a member of the advisory panel for the 2001 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Youth Violence, and the author of a 2008 WHO report on health indicators of violence against children in low- and middle-income countries. ​