Chair, Department of Health Behavior, Society, and Policy
Rutgers School of Public Health
paul.duberstein@rutgers.edu, (732)-235-4752
Dr. Paul Duberstein is a psychologist, gerontologist, and social justice advocate with expertise in geriatric mental health. He is chair of the Department of Health Behavior, Society, and Policy at the Rutgers School of Public Health. He serves on the Board of the Goals of Care Coalition NJ, the Person & Family Centered Care Steering Committee of the Cancer Support Community-Central NJ, and the Biomedical Ethics Committee of Penn Medicine-Princeton.
Prior to joining the Rutgers faculty, Dr. Duberstein was a Professor at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry where he held appointments in the Departments of Psychiatry (primary), Medicine, and Family Medicine. At Rochester, he served as Co-Director of both the Rochester Center for Mind-Body Research and the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide. More recently he has served as Director of Research in the Department of Medicine’s Division of Palliative Care. Dr. Duberstein has published more than 240 scientific papers and has received awards in recognition of his contributions to personality psychology, suicidology, faculty mentorship, and community outreach. Having mentored eleven Level 1 K-awardees, Dr. Duberstein brings extensive mentorship experience to the Rutgers School of Public Health.
Dr. Duberstein’s current research aims to improve the lives of older adults and their caregivers; he is particularly interested in mitigating disparities related to race, educational attainment, and poverty. His collaborative research projects have been funded by many public and private sources, including the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the US Department of Defense, the National Cancer Institute, the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
A native of the NY metropolitan area, Dr. Duberstein received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD from SUNY Buffalo. He completed a clinical psychology internship at Harvard Medical School and postdoctoral research training in geriatric mental health at the University of Rochester.