Leadership

Dr. Christopher Surratt was recently appointed dean of the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy, He most recently served as Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Affairs for the Arnold & Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences at Long Island University. Dr. Surratt received his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from the University of Virginia.  His doctoral work there and postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley elaborated mechanisms of RNA processing and maturation. As Senior Staff Fellow at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), NIH, he participated in cloning some of the first opiate and psychostimulant receptor cDNAs. Dr. Surratt created and characterized the first mutants of the heroin/morphine (mu opioid) receptor, contributing toward elucidation of the receptor’s binding sites for abused opiates. He continued opioid receptor research and studies on the dopamine transporter (DAT), the brain’s “cocaine receptor”, as Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He moved to Duquesne University in 2001 for its teacher-scholar model, eventually attaining tenured Professor of Pharmacology rank and serving as Division Head of Pharmaceutical Sciences. His team’s virtual (computational) transporter modeling and molecular pharmacology research contributed to the identification of molecular mechanisms for discrimination of abused and non-abused psychostimulants, and discovery of hit-to-lead compounds with antidepressant and anxiolytic properties. At LIU, he launched a pharmacology/toxicology PhD curricular track, spurred the creation of several PharmD–MS shared credit degree programs, and led the College to a 40% increase in graduate enrollment. Over $7M in faculty external funding was generated via faculty recruiting and grant mentoring.  

Dr. Surratt has presented his research at top neuroscience universities including MIT, Princeton, Cal Tech, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Sydney, Victoria University – Wellington, and at international congresses in Munich, Copenhagen, Singapore, Hong Kong, Cape Town and Montreal. He is a graduate of the AACP Leadership Fellows Program. He was the recipient of several teaching awards while at Duquesne University, including its most prestigious: the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. He created the first major service-learning project for Duquesne Pharmacy, “The Neuroscience Behind Drugs of Abuse”. Over 20,000 Pittsburgh area teenagers were educated by Pharm.D. students on the subject; a DU-independent assessment indicated that the project was successful in dissuading teenage drug experimentation.