Skodol received his psychiatric training at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he worked as an assistant professor until 1979, when he transferred to Columbia.
From 2007 to 2008 he was the president of the Institute for Mental Health Research, and from 2008 to 2011 he helmed the Sunbelt Collaborative.
While writing the DSM-5 he argued for the removal of Narcissistic personality disorder.
[5][6] From 2000 to 2003 he was the deputy director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
He also is the chair of the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study.