Susan Stellin
  • Home
  • About
  • Training
  • Books
  • Contact

Susan Stellin

  • Home/
  • About/
  • Training/
  • Books/
  • Contact/
Photoville_Banner_IMG_8208.jpg

Susan Stellin

Susan Stellin

Susan Stellin

  • Home/
  • About/
  • Training/
  • Books/
  • Contact/

Susan Stellin, MPH is a writer, educator, and public health consultant focusing on health-centered responses to substance use and addiction, as well as a 2025 Reynolds Journalism Institute fellow. Since earning a master's in public health in 2019, she has worked on projects about ways to reduce overdose deaths, reform punitive drug policies, and expand access to harm reduction, treatment, and recovery support. She regularly leads training workshops for a wide range of service providers working with people experiencing substance use, mental health, and housing challenges, and has also taught undergraduate courses about media ethics, collaborative storytelling, and the history of journalism. Recent clients include NYU Langone’s Health x Housing Lab Speakers Bureau and Peer Network, the Northeast & Caribbean Addiction Technology Transfer Center, the Opioid Response Network, the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Overdose Prevention Program at Vital Strategies, and the Vera Institute of Justice.

Susan is the co-author of Chancers, a dual memoir written with her husband Graham MacIndoe about his trajectory through addiction, incarceration, and recovery, which was published by Random House – Ballantine Books. She and Graham have collaborated on many projects, talks, and exhibitions combining interviews and photography, working with participants to challenge stereotypes and broaden understanding about complex issues and stigmatized groups. In 2019, they co-curated the exhibition Beyond Addiction: Reframing Recovery, which debuted in New York City and traveled to Rochester, NY in 2020 and Oxford, MS in 2023. In 2014, Susan and Graham were awarded a fellowship from the Alicia Patterson Foundation for their project American Exile, photos and interviews documenting the stories of immigrants who have been ordered deported from the United States. That series was exhibited at Photoville in New York City and the Head On photography festival in Sydney. They’ve also facilitated an art and storytelling workshop with participants at VOCAL-NY in Brooklyn, exhibiting some of the artwork participants created in Brooklyn and the U.K.

As a reporter, Susan was a regular contributor to The New York Times for more than 15 years, primarily covering airport and border security, travel, technology, and business. Her work has also been published in New York magazine, The Guardian, TheAtlantic.com, The Los Angeles Times, Consumer Reports, Travel + Leisure, and many other publications. She earned a B.A. in political science from Stanford University, spent two years working in Argentina, and lives in New York City.

Full Bio

2025 Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellowship
2025 Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellowship
Training Workshops About Substance Use
Training Workshops About Substance Use
Art + Storytelling Group VOCAL-NY
Art + Storytelling Group VOCAL-NY
Health x Housing Lab Speakers Bureau and Peer Network
Health x Housing Lab Speakers Bureau and Peer Network
Vital Strategies Overdose Prevention Program Campaign
Vital Strategies Overdose Prevention Program Campaign
2021 Photoville exhibition - Preventing Overdose Deaths: How to Save & Uplift Lives
2021 Photoville exhibition - Preventing Overdose Deaths: How to Save & Uplift Lives
Photoville talk: Collaborative Storytelling in Art, Media and Advocacy
Photoville talk: Collaborative Storytelling in Art, Media and Advocacy
Podcast: Documenting a Life Beyond Addiction
Podcast: Documenting a Life Beyond Addiction
RIT Collaborative Storytelling Workshop
RIT Collaborative Storytelling Workshop
Beyond Addiction: Reframing Recovery Exhibition NYC
Beyond Addiction: Reframing Recovery Exhibition NYC
Vera Insitute of Justice - Changing Course in the Overdose Crisis, 2020
Vera Insitute of Justice - Changing Course in the Overdose Crisis, 2020
The New York Times - Upshot section
The New York Times - Upshot section
Nieman Reports: Summer 2019 cover feature
Nieman Reports: Summer 2019 cover feature
Nieman Reports: Winter 2019
Nieman Reports: Winter 2019
Chancers - published by Random House - Ballantine Books
Chancers - published by Random House - Ballantine Books
TEDxStanford talk: addiction, prison, and recovery
TEDxStanford talk: addiction, prison, and recovery
Nieman Reports - Winter 2018 cover feature
Nieman Reports - Winter 2018 cover feature
New York Magazine
New York Magazine
The Guardian
The Guardian
American Exile - Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship series
American Exile - Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship series
The Los Angeles Times Op-Ed
The Los Angeles Times Op-Ed
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times