Since 2008 Susanne Walitza, MD, MSc, is a Full Professor and Chair of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich of the University of Zurich (UZH) Switzerland.

Her research focuses on the understanding of multi-dimensional underlying and interacting factors for the development of psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents, including life-course epidemiological research, to contribute to a better understanding of prevention, prediction, and clinical phenotyping with the aim of early detection and early interventions.A further aim is to use clinically oriented but also translational and basic research strategies (genetics, epigenetics, and neuroimaging) within a multimodal research approach.

She has lectured in the field of medicine, psychology and allied professions and published widely within the field, with over 300 publications, particularly for ADHD, anxiety, depression, OCD and tic disorders, pathological media usage, and specific learning disorders (dyslexia) in various peer-reviewed journals, guidelines/recommendations and books.

She was founder and president of the Association of Chief Physicians of the Swiss Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (2013 to 2018) and has been a board member of the Swiss Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy since 2012. Since becoming president of the Zurich Society for Children and Adolescents of disadvantaged families suffering from psychiatric disorders in 2010 she has also been active outside institutional work. Her international engagements include for instance her active role as Vice President in the World Federation of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder from 2011 to 2015, as a board member in the International College of Obsessive Compulsive Spectrum Disorders since 2019 and Co-Chair since 2022, as Vice President for the World association of Anxiety and Stress Related Disorders (WASAD) since 2021. In 2022 she became an non-elected member of the IACAPAP Executive Board as the WHO Liaison.