Biographical Sketches
has led a diverse
career focused on the improvement of behavioral health services. As a
psychiatrist and administrator at St. Elizabeths Hospital from 1973-1987,
Dr. Arons served in a number of positions, including as Director of the
Dixon Implementation Office, with responsibility for the major clinical
care and deinstitutionalization plan, and, later, as Chief Clinical Advisor.
At the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Arons assisted in providing
direction for the country on mental health financing. In 1989, he was
selected as a Legislative Fellow to contribute his scientific and managerial
expertise while working in the U.S. Congress. In 1993, Dr. Arons served
as mental health and substance abuse advisor to Mrs. Tipper Gore in the
White House and co-chaired with her the National health care reform working
group on mental health and substance abuse issues. In November 1993, Dr.
Arons was appointed Director of the Center for Mental Health Services
(CMHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. CMHS
is charged with providing national leadership in improving mental health
services for all Americans. He worked closely with Surgeon General David
Satcher to publish the first-ever Surgeon General’s Report on Mental
Health, which enhanced national awareness of mental health issues. His
commitment to making a difference included work on the National Strategy
for Suicide Prevention, which brings together researchers, providers,
advocates and consumers in developing a prevention plan to reduce suicide
in the United States. From studies on parity in mental health coverage
to initiatives on school violence, CMHS became, under Dr. Arons’ leadership,
a leading voice on mental health issues for the country. From September
2002 through September 2004, Dr. Arons returned to the NIMH where he served
as Senior Science Advisor, working on issues including college and university
student mental health, suicide prevention, trauma response, and others.
Dr. Arons joined NDRI as Executive Director in October 2004. In addition,
Dr. Arons participates as a member of the MacArthur Network on Mental
Health Policy Research.
Dr. Arons continues to practice psychiatry and serves as a Clinical Professor
of Psychiatry on the faculty of the Georgetown University School of Medicine
and the George Washington University School of Medicine, and is Adjunct Professor
of Psychiatry at the Dartmouth College Medical School. Dr. Arons is a graduate
of Oberlin College and the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
, a sociologist in the Institute for Special Populations Research, is the Project Director of the NIDA study “Transient Domesticity and Violence in Distressed Households,” (Eloise Dunlap, PI). Dr. Benoit’s research has focused on social policies related to public health and social control, particularly as they affect low-income substance users. Her dissertation was a comparative analysis of changes in drug-control policies in the United States and Canada, focusing on the role of federal approaches to health insurance and social services. She has published articles on poverty and the illegal drug trade, the impact of welfare reform on drug treatment, and sociodemographic contexts of drug use and dependence. Before joining the staff of NDRI, she taught sociology at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY. She was also a postdoctoral research fellow in the Behavioral Sciences Training Program in Drug Abuse Research at MHRA/NDRI from 2001 to 2003.
joined the Center for the Integration of Research and Practice in 2004 , bringing his combined skills, of administration, negotiation, strategic planning and program design to advance the training and technical assistance capabilities of the organization. As NDRI’s Project Director of the federal Co-Occurring Center for Excellence, John is coordinating technical assistance and training to those States that are implementing service improvements for the co-occurring disorders population. In his 16 years as the General Manager of Odyssey House New Zealand, Mr. Challis led the agency through a massive expansion to its current status as the premiere provider of residential treatment in the country. Odyssey House New Zealand is an excellent example of how technology transfer can move a service, with a long history of treatment, to extend its core treatment knowledge to specialized populations. Mr. Challis has placed a high priority on workforce development and training, and has presented papers and workshops on treatment for populations with co-occurring disorders at national and international venues. He was the inaugural chair of the New Zealand Accreditation Board for Alcohol & Drug Services, which was instrumental in developing sector standards. From 1998 to 2003 , he chaired both the National Treatment Forum, an elected body for the alcohol and drug sector, and Profile, which is the regional providers’ association. Mr. Challis has shown leadership, administration and negotiation skills both as General Manager of Odyssey House and in his alcohol and drug sector leadership roles, interfacing with key leaders, including Government Ministers and the Prime Minister. He has developed strategic alliances with key researchers that have contributed to the literature on co-occurring disorders. Before joining Odyssey House New Zealand, John Challis was the Youth Services Director for Odyssey House Melbourne, was the Deputy Director of a residential service for behaviorally disturbed youth, and has worked as a senior teacher in secondary schools. As a recent transplant, John spends his spare time exploring the cultural diversity abundantly evident in New York City.
, is a quantitative social psychologist and a
graduate of the New School for Social Research. Dr. Cleland is a
co-investigator on a study funded by the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases, which examines AIDS clinical trial
participation among ethnic minorities and women. He serves as a
statistical consultant for the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research and
the Center for the Integration of Research & Practice, both at NDRI.
Previously, he taught multivariate statistics in the Psychology Department of New School University.
Selected Publications
, is a Principal Investigator with the Center for Technology and Health. He is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Florida, and a Licensed Psychologist in the state of Florida. Dr. Dallery received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Emory University in 1999, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Behavioral Pharmacology.
Dr. Dallery’s research involves novel applications of internet-based behavioral interventions for cigarette smoking. He has conducted several studies suggesting that a novel, science-based intervention can promote smoking cessation. The treatment employs breath-based measures of smoking status, which also allows objective verification of treatment effects. In collaboration with colleagues, he is involved in extending the application to high-risk groups such as adolescents, pregnant women, and rural smokers. The intervention eliminates distance as a barrier, which should allow widespread dissemination of an effective behavioral intervention. The results also encourage the application of internet-based technology to other health-related behavior. Accordingly, he is also interested in integrating breath-based diagnostic technology (for medication compliance, blood glucose monitoring, other illicit drugs) with innovations in behavioral treatments. Currently, Dr. Dallery is conducting a randomized trial investigating the short- and long-term efficacy of the internet-based treatment for cigarette smoking.
is the Director of the Institute for AIDS Research and the
Center for Drug Use and HIV Research at NDRI. She received her PhD in Social
Psychology from Columbia University. Dr. Deren has been Principal Investigator
for the New York sites of the two major NIDA-funded multi-site studies of HIV
and drug users, the National AIDS Demonstration Research Projects and the Cooperative
Agreement for AIDS Community Based Outreach Intervention Program, and has
published extensively on these and related research efforts. Her recent research
interests include multi-site comparisons of determinants of risk behaviors
among high risk drug users and the use of outreach methodologies as intervention
mechanisms. She is a member of the Joint Institutional Review Board at NDRI,
has been a member of the NIH AIDS Research Program Evaluation Working Group,
and has served on review committees for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She currently serves as Vice-Chair, Scientific Advisory Committee, American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).
Recent Publications
, is Director of the International Research Core in the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research and a Research Fellow at NDRI. He also serves as the Director of Research for the Baron Edmond de Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center, and Professor of Epidemiology with the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He began his research on AIDS in 1982. As a leader in the fields of AIDS and intravenous drug use, Dr. Des Jarlais has published extensively on these topics. He serves as a consultant to various institutions, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Academy of Sciences and the World Health Organization. He is a former commissioner of the National Commission on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Dr. Des Jarlais is currently working on research studies in 20 different countries, and has accumulated over three million frequent flier miles doing AIDS research.
is a sociologist and graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. She has extensive qualitative experience in research and analysis with African-American families, crack users, crack dealers, and with drug-abusing families and households. Her work is rooted in an attempt to understand male-female and family relations and whether and how these relationships contribute to African-American family instability. Dr. Dunlap has conducted intensive ethnographic studies, including lengthy in-depth interview and detailed observations in many African-American households. Some of her research includes: Co-Investigator of large scale ethnographic study entitled Natural History of Crack Distribution/Abuse; an examination of sex for crack in New York City as part of a seven major cities study administered for NIDA by Birch and Davis; an examination of drug dealers family life and violence entitled Violence in Crack User/Seller Households: An Ethnography; a focus upon co-occurring factors entitled Co-Occurring Drugs And Violence In Distressed Households; supplement to focus upon males entitled Males in Distressed Households: Co-occurring Drugs and Violence; an examination of the emerging practice of blunt smoking among youths, use practices, social settings and markets entitled Marijuana/Blunts: Use Subcultures and markets; and an examination of household structures and temporary males in female headed households entitled Transient Domesticity and Violence in Distressed Households. At the present time, Dr. Eloise Dunlap is Principal Investigator of a NIDA grant designed to systematically study changes in illicit drug markets (Including users and distributors) due to Hurricane Katrina in Aug 2005 and the subsequent flooding of much of New Orleans. Study focuses upon illegal drug markets in New Orleans and a comparison, Houston, before Hurricane Katrina and the following months and years. Dr. Dunlap's long-term career goal is to increase public understanding and social processes by which behavioral patterns of aggression and violence are practiced, as well as learned and passed on from one generation to another. She is also working to develop a more accurate and precise conceptual and empirical understanding of the nature, types, and severity of aggression and violence within distressed inner-city African-American families when one or more members participates in crack and/or other drug consumption and/or sales.
Selected Publications
is currently Project Director for an R01 funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Communicative Disorders to develop a computerized, self-administered HIV/AIDS Knowledge Survey in American Sign Language (ASL) for use with Deaf high school students. In addition, Dr. Eckhardt is co-investigator of an SBIR grant funded by NIDA to adapt science of addiction curriculum for Deaf high school students. Dr. Eckhardt has experience both as Principal Investigator and Project Director for NIH funded research with deaf populations. Previous related research includes the development and implementation of surveys in ASL to study substance use, tobacco use, mental health, and HIV with deaf adults. She received her doctoral degree from New York University's School of Social Work, her dissertation analyzed in-depth interviews with deaf adults conducted in ASL to study the ways that Deaf culture influences HIV-related health behaviors.
Selected Publications
(sociology) is a Senior Research Fellow and the Director of the Interdisciplinary Theoretical Synthesis Core in the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research at National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., New York City. (He is also a prior Director of the Research Methods Core in the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research.) Other appointments include Senior Research Associate at the Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Friedman is an author of over 350 publications on HIV, STI, and drug use epidemiology and prevention. Recent research projects have included a review paper (AIDS, 2006) on the social research needs of the AIDS field; a study of social factors, social networks and HIV, STI and other BBVs among youth and drug injectors in a high-risk community; research on the impact of economic and political crises on HIV risk in Buenos Aires; a study of how some long-term drug injectors remain uninfected with HIV and HCV (i.e., how they Stay Safe); a study of socioeconomic and policy predictors of the extent of injection drug use, of HIV epidemics, and of HIV prevention efforts in US metropolitan areas; and research on why women injectors who have sex with women are at enhanced risk for HIV and other infections. He has engaged in many international collaborative projects with the WHO MultiCentre Study of Drugs and HIV and with researchers in Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and other countries. He has also written on international HIV topics such as war and HIV; sociopolitical transitions and HIV; and drug users’ organizations (user groups) as actors globally against HIV. He is Associate Editor for Social Science of the International Journal of Drug Policy and is or has recently been on the editorial boards of AIDS, JAIDS, AIDScience, a Web venture for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, AIDS Education and Prevention, The Drug and Alcohol Professional, and Harm Reduction Journal. He is a published poet who often presents readings at conferences on HIV/AIDS and/or on preventing drug-related harm.
Recent Publications
is a Deputy Director of the Institute for International Research on Youth at Risk (IIRY) at NDRI; a Co-Investigator on a study of young injection drug users in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; a Co-Investigator on a study of sexually active HIV positive men who have sex with men; and a Co-Investigator on a study of the impact of Hurricane Katrina on drug users in New Orleans. Over the past several years, Dr. Goldsamt has served as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on NIH-funded studies looking at HIV risk among injection drug users, youth, and men who have sex with men. Dr. Goldsamt has also conducted numerous program and training evaluations, and serves as the Evaluator for NDRI’s Training Institute. Dr. Goldsamt is also a licensed clinical psychologist in New York State, and maintains a psychotherapy practice in Great Neck, N.Y.
Selected Publications
is a Principal Investigator in Institute for AIDS Research and the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research at NDRI. She received her MPH in Public Health Education from Johns Hopkins University and her PhD in Epidemiology from Columbia University. Her research for and about deaf individuals has involved computer based surveys in American Sign Language on drug abuse, mental health and HIV. She has also conducted intervention studies of street-recruited drug users including those who are HIV positive, aimed at improving their use of health and medical services. Dr. Goldstein who maintains a public health focus in her research, has published on these and related topics.
, is a Principal Investigator in The Institute for Special Populations Research. He received his Ph.D. in public policy analysis from Carnegie Mellon University. His research has examined the social dynamics underlying the natural course of drug epidemics, the growth in marijuana and blunt use since the 1990s, the misuse of the "gateway" theory, quality-of-life policing in New York City, the lived experience of inner-city drug users, cohabitation, and issues associated with violence, crime, poverty, and families. In collaboration with colleagues, he has been working on the integration of quantitative and qualitative research. He has received grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Substance Abuse Policy Research Program (RWFJ-SAPRP), and the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).
Selected Publications
, is a licensed clinical psychologist, a Principal Investigator, and the Deputy Director for Intervention Studies Methods and also a Deputy Director in the Theoretical Synthesis Core in the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) in the Institute for AIDS Research at the National Development and Research Institutes, Inc. She is the author of over 25 articles on HIV, mental health, drug use, or related topics. Her work concentrates largely on HIV- and mental health related interventions including those in the domains of HIV prevention and secondary prevention, adaptation to HIV among individuals and families, and the amelioration of health disparities. Her involvement with homeless, runaway and street-involved youth dates to the late 1980s. Dr. Gwadz’s projects are interdisciplinary, incorporating psychological, sociological, and anthropological perspectives.
Selected Publications
, is Deputy Director of the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research, Deputy Director of the Institute for AIDS Research at NDRI, and Director of the Research Methods Core within the Center. She is an infectious disease epidemiologist, and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Epidemiology Department, University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine. Her work has focused on the infectious disease consequences of injection drug use, particularly the etiology, epidemiology and prevention of blood-borne viral infections such as HIV and hepatitis B and C in drug injectors. She has led large longitudinal cohort studies of injection drug users, and is currently conducting two randomized clinical trials of behavioral interventions. She has also carried out clinical studies of medical treatment for infectious diseases in drug injectors.
, is Director of the North Carolina office of NDRI, the Institute for Community-Based Research (NDRI-NC). The Institute for Community-Based focuses exclusively on drug abuse treatment research. He is the principal investigator on the Clinical Trials Network (CTN); and has been principal investigator on the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study (DATOS), an ongoing national study of drug abuse treatment and the Treatment Outcome Prospective Study (TOPS), an earlier study initiated in 1976. From 1989 to 1996 he was project director for the Methadone Quality Assurance Project (MTQAS). Dr. Hubbard has demonstrated a career-long commitment to the advancement of science in the drug abuse treatment research field. He and his colleagues authored the book Drug Abuse Treatment: A National Study of Effectiveness, UNC Press, 1989, as well as numerous other studies of alcohol and drug abuse and research methodology. He served on the Institute of Medicine Committee on Substance Abuse Treatment Coverage and on the National Research Council Panel on the Evaluation of AIDS Interventions. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Governor's Institute on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. Dr. Hubbard is an acknowledged expert on alcohol and drug abuse survey research methodology, research design, and methods of validating self-reports. He has formal training and considerable experience in psychometric theory, field-based randomized clinical trial designs, survey research design, and multivariate statistical analysis, as well as qualitative case study approaches.
is Program Manager for the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research at NDRI. Ms. Hunter’s responsibilities include providing and arranging trainings on HIV and drug use and developing research to service mechanisms. With many years’ experience in the public health field, she has worked as a drug prevention counselor and trainer in a New York City High School, provided risk-reduction and contraception education to young women at Planned Parenthood and coordinated an HIV CARE Network for service providers and PLWHA’s in Brooklyn. She holds a Masters degree in Public Health from the University of Michigan in Population Planning and International Health.
, is a public health behavioral science researcher with expertise in transgender and ethnic minority health and HIV/STD risk behaviors. Dr. Hwahng received a doctoral degree in 2004 from New York University in Performance Studies (Cultural Studies emphasis). During 2004-06 Dr. Hwahng was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the NIH Behavioral Sciences Training in Drug Abuse Research Program (T32 DA007233) led by NDRI's Dr. Bruce Johnson and Dr. Greg Falkin and is currently a Visiting Scholar and Adjunct Professor at the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University. In addition, during 2006-08 Dr. Hwahng's research career at NDRI is supported by a two year NIH Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research. The supplement augments Dr. Larry Nuttbock's parent project, HIV/STD Infection in an Urban High Risk Population (R01 DA018080). The Diversity Supplement will allow Dr. Hwahng to expand scientific expertise in substance use and psychiatric epidemiology among persons who transform their gender, and to become an independent researcher in these areas. Dr. Hwahng is also expanding an ethnographic study that was initiated as a Postdoctoral Fellow on male-to-female transgendered communities in New York City and is guest editor of a special issue for the journal Women and Performance on mass rape systems during armed conflicts from World War II to the present.
Selected Publications
is a psychologist who resides in New York City.
She is the Director of the Center for Therapeutic Community Research
at NDRI. For 20 years, Dr. Jainchill has been involved with substance
abuse research involving therapeutic communities. She is a member
of the Editorial Board of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. She
is developing and editing a book, Understanding and Treating Adolescent
Substance Use Disorders (Civic Research Institute Publishers). Her
more recent research addresses juvenile justice and issues of reentry
from residential settings, correctional and community-based. Her
areas of focus include adolescents, gender issues, and co-morbidity.
Dr. Jainchill’s projects have been supported by grants from
NIDA, and her research has been widely published. She has one of
the two adolescent research centers funded under the NIDA CJ-DATS
collaborative.
Selected Publications
(PhD 1971 Columbia University) is one of the nation's authorities on the criminality and illicit sales of drugs in the street economy and among arrestees and minority populations. He directs the Institute for Special Populations Research (ISPR) at NDRI, the nation's largest nonprofit research organization focused upon drug use/abuse. The ISPR conducts about 10 federally-funded research grants annually on a wide range of topics. His research and training activities involve the use of advanced qualitative and quantitative methodologies to study drug use/abuse. He was affiliated with the National Institute of Justice's Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring program since its inception in 1987. He is a professional researcher with five books and over 150 articles based upon findings emerging from over 20 different federally funded research projects supported by NIDA, NIJ, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He also directs the Behavioral Sciences Training in Drug Abuse Research, the nation's largest pre- and postdoctoral training program in the U.S. - about half of whom are from minority backgrounds. Current research efforts include drug abuse patterns, treatment experiences, and drug markets among arrestees and criminals; the impact of police initiatives upon criminal behavior; delineate the role of drugs and violence in drug-using households; investigate marijuana/blunts subcultures and markets; analyze changes in illegal drug markets in New Orleans and Houston following Hurricane Katrina, document the value of new drug and HIV detection technologies. Previous major research initiatives include: examination of marijuana user subcultures, the criminality and economic behaviors of heroin users, impact of crack use and sales upon criminality, and the reliability of self-reports of illicit drug use, estimate the number of hard drug users and operatives in low income communities plus document the lifestyles and consequences of such involvement; assess the diffusion of new policies to provide syringes/needles through pharmacies and office based dispensing of buprenorphine upon heroin user lifestyles.
, a sociologist, joined NDRI in 1988. Dr. Kang has worked as a Principal Investigator, an Assistant Project Director, and a Senior Data Manager/Analyst. Over the years, Dr. Kang has been involved in a wide variety of projects funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. These projects have focused on drug abuse and related problems, such as HIV/AIDS, psychological status, criminal involvement, and other public health issues. Her numerous published articles include topics on HIV/AIDS risk behaviors and networks among Puerto Rican drug users, HIV risks among incarcerated populations, evaluation of drug treatment, and the validity of self-reported drug use. Her current research interest is to identify factors that are associated with gender differences in healthcare and drug treatment utilization.
Selected Publications
, is a sociologist who has worked as Principal Research Associate, Project Director and Principal Investigator on several federally-funded grants during his tenure with National Development and Research Institutes and the Center for the Integration of Research and Practice. Dr. Kressel’s main area of research has been therapeutic community (TC) treatment process, including client motivation and readiness for treatment, and the appropriate match between client and treatment modality. He has conducted cross-training in correctional facilities in several states and has actively participated in the development of the national standards for TC treatment in correctional programs sponsored by the US Office of National Drug Control Policy. His current research focuses on the development of comprehensive measures of client clinical progress in community and correctional-based substance abuse treatment. In a recent project Dr. Kressel evaluated the effectiveness of utilizing the clinical progress in treatment instruments as part of a protocol used by staff and clients at Daytop Village to enhance treatment in both residential and outpatient treatment settings. As Principal Investigator on a current NIDA-funded international research project, Dr. Kressel and colleagues are studying TC programs in China, Malaysia and the United States. The research is designed to enhance our understanding of the therapeutic community model of treatment, as it is adapted to varying cultures. Dr. Kressel has assembled an international network of scientists that, through their collaborative work on this study, will foster research, training and the exchange of scientific information; continued initiatives emanating from this new international research community may ultimately modify, improve and expand global substance abuse treatment services.
, is Director of the Center for the Study of Addictions
and Recovery (C-STAR) and Deputy Director of the Institute for Treatment and
Services Research. She is social psychologist and an NIH-funded Principal Investigator
whose research focuses on processes of addiction and recovery over time. Dr
Laudet and the staff of C-STAR specialize in the investigation of psychosocial
factors that promote the maintenance of lifelong recovery, such as social support
and affiliation with 12-step groups. Other research interests include cross-cultural
perspectives on addiction and recovery and the relationship between changes
in environment (e.g., rural vs. urban) and substance use.
Selected Publications
, is a principal investigator in the Institute for AIDS Research. Dr. Leonard’s work has focused on developing, delivering, and disseminating behavioral interventions for high-risk youth and adults. Dr. Leonard has also developed expertise in the ethical and efficient recruitment and retention of research participants particularly those from hard to reach populations. Her work with attachment theory has revolved around examining patterns of attachment among high risk youth and the clinical application of these relational styles. Dr. Leonard recently completed an exploratory study examining high-risk adolescent romantic couples’ discussions about condom use and the ways in which these discussions can be used to increase safer sex behaviors. Another research area involves health disparities in regard to the participation of HIV-infected women and people of color in AIDS clinical trials and in the mental health needs of incarcerated juveniles. Finally, Dr. Leonard is currently using participant driven intervention/respondent driven sampling methodology, in several projects, most recently with at-risk young men of color who have sex with men in the Bronx. Dr. Leonard is an adjunct assistant professor of psychology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she teaches theory and technique of psychotherapy with children and adolescents.
, is a Senior Principal Investigator in The Institute for Special Populations
Research and in Social
Science Innovations Corp., the for-profit arm of NDRI. He is a licensed
psychologist specializing in measurement of drug use by various means and
the statistical evaluation of social programs. He received his PhD in 1986
from the City University of New York. He was co-investigator on a project
that tested the efficacy of a sweat patch (which looks like a large Band-Aid™)
in detecting cocaine use. He is principal investigator of a study to test
a slightly heated sweat patch project called a Fastpatch™. This project, "Detecting
Crack and Other Cocaine with Fastpatches," is the first study to detect
unique crack pyrolysis metabolites in sweat which form when crack is smoked
or cocaine is freebased. When this product is marketed, it will allow testers
to not only determine if cocaine was used, but also if the mode of consumption
was through smoking. He is also Principal Investigator on a meta-analysis
grant comparing self-report of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use with
biological indicators (e.g. urinalysis) or collateral reports (e.g., spouse,
case worker) and will produce an accessible database available from a website.
His earlier research evaluated the effectiveness of a specialized therapeutic
community (TC) for homeless, substance abusing men operated from a public
shelter. His publication from this project "Dynamic Recovery" is
one of the more frequently sited (e.g. NIDA Notes) examples of a successful
adaptation of the TC model for a special population. Currently, he has several projects to develop online, interactive courses about topics related to substance abuse and HIV including "HIV Confidentiality Training" for New York State service providers and "Using CAI to Enhance Drug Tx Staff HCV Knowledge and Communication Skills".
Selected Publications
is the Deputy Director of the Training Institute (TI) at NDRI and the Dissemination Core of the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR). Responsibilities include disseminating appropriate behavioral science research findings to treatment and prevention practitioners and management of the Training Institute. He has over 17 years experience in training, curriculum writing, program development and management specializing in the public health fields of substance abuse and HIV/AIDS. He has developed and trained nationally BJA’s Cultural Proficiency for Drug Court Professionals 2-day training; worked extensively with the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Department of Probation in New York City on the training of Probation Officers and development of curricula for them in the areas of Substance Abuse Prevention and Assessment; conducted NDCI training in Cultural Proficiency; and trained hundreds of professionals nationwide in Presentation/Public Speaking Skills. His other areas of expertise include The HIV Confidentiality Law, Adolescent Development, Motivational Interviewing, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender populations, HIV/AIDS Medical Issues, Grief and Loss, and Child Welfare Issues. He has consulted as a trainer, program developer and curriculum writer for Gay Men’s Health Crisis, National Drug Court Institute, CASA Works for Families – National Center for Substance Abuse and Addiction, Fordham University’s Children First Program, Body Positive, Gay & Lesbian Community Services Center, ACS, University of Medicine & Dentistry in New Jersey and Covenant House.
, is a Senior Principal Investigator in
the Institute for Treatment and Services Research. His current
research involves an effectiveness trial of mutual aid groups for
persons in recovery from co-occurring substance use and psychiatric
disorders, and a randomized clinical trial of buprenorphine
treatment in jail for inmates addicted to opioids. He is the former
Deputy Executive Director and Director of Science and Research at
NDRI. In July 2007 he assumed the position of Director of the
Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University, where he also
administers the Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Evaluation.
Selected Publications
is the Director of the Center for Technology and Health (CTH) at NDRI. She is also a Research Scientist in the Department of Psychiatry at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center. Dr. Marsch received her Ph.D. degree in Experimental Psychology and Behavioral Pharmacology at the University of Vermont. Dr. Marsch has extensive research experience in the areas of substance abuse treatment with both adults and adolescents, substance abuse prevention with youth, and HIV prevention with various drug-using populations.
She has conducted numerous research studies focused on examining how technology can be used to enhance the reach of science-based prevention and treatment interventions. She has directed several projects focused on developing and evaluating interactive, computer-based systems that deliver evidence-based interventions using effective learning and informational technologies, including computer-based behavioral therapy for adult substance abusers, HIV prevention for injection drug users, HIV and STI prevention for young drug users, and substance abuse prevention for children and adolescents. This research has provided novel empirical information regarding the role that technology may play in improving substance abuse prevention and treatment in a manner that is cost-effective, ensures fidelity and enables the rapid diffusion and widespread adoption of science-based interventions.
Dr. Marsch’s research activities have also included the development and evaluation of novel behavioral and pharmacological treatments for the growing and under-studied cohort of opioid-dependent adolescents. She published the first systematic, clinical research evaluating treatments for opioid-dependent adolescents. This ongoing research continues to generate new empirical information that can be used to inform evidence-based treatment for this group of youth. She have given numerous talks about this research around the world and served as a consultant to the World Health Organization on issues related to the development of international treatment guidelines for opioid-dependent adolescents.
Dr. Marsch is a recipient of an Early Career Investigator Award from the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. She serves as a scientific reviewer for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Mental Health. Dr. Marsch is also on the editorial boards for the Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse, Substance Use and Misuse, and Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology.
specializes in the development of instruments which measure the effects of various research activities. His initial work, supported by federal funding, compared motivation and readiness for treatment across several special populations of substance abusers, and resulted in the Circumstance, Motivation and Readiness Scales, which measures motivation in different substance abuse treatment modalities. Subsequent research developed the Client Matching Protocol to characterize client referrals to outpatient and residential substance abuse treatment programs, and the Survey of Essential Elements Questionnaire (long and short forms) that measures the extent to which programs utilize the elements of therapeutic community treatment. At present, Dr. Melnick is engaged in programmatic research to evaluate the effectiveness of prison- and community-based substance abuse treatment programs through the application of the Multi-modality Quality Assurance Instrument, which he developed to generate a better understanding of organizational characteristics, program policies, and treatment goals and elements. Within this effort, he is investigating the role of organizational variables in substance abuse treatment efficacy, and is developing additional instruments to assess the use of therapeutic community treatment elements. Dr. Melnick is also making substantial contributions to two criminal justice studies, one to evaluate the effects of stigma on recidivism among first time nonviolent felons; the other a national initiative to conduct multi-site studies of the correctional system. Dr. Melnick has been on staff at the Center for the Integration of Research Practice at NDRI for 3 years.
, is a Project Director in the Institute for AIDS Research. She currently coordinates the Enhancing HIV Partner Notification (PN) through Peer Education grant, funded through the National Institute for Mental Health. The purpose of the grant is to modify an existing pilot curriculum that trains HIV+ peers to communicate about PN, based on the results of focus groups with HIV positive persons and interviews with service providers from 3 sources: a drug treatment program, an HIV primary care medical clinic, and a community service agency for HIV+ individuals. In addition, Ms. Munoz-Plaza’s professional interests also include adolescent and women’s health, health and medical service issues for the underserved, injury prevention, and utilizing qualitative methods in evaluating public health programs and services.
Selected Publications
is Deputy Director of the Institute for International Research on Youth at Risk and a Principal Investigator at National Development and Research Institutes in New York City, and is on the faculty of the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. His research interests focus on the social epidemiology of illicit drug use and its relationship to infectious diseases and other health outcomes among racial/ethnic minority groups and vulnerable populations. Over the past several years he has conducted research on HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne and sexually transmitted infections among injecting and non-injecting drug users in New York City and other locations, examining the relationship of drug users’ social and risk networks to their risk of infection, as well as research on the factors associated with the initiation and resumption of injecting among non-injecting drug users. His current research includes studies on the neighborhood and network context of HIV risk among drug users and their sex partners in New York City and Newark, NJ, and on transitions to injecting and HIV and hepatitis B and C risk among Mexican-American heroin users in San Antonio, Texas. In addition, he has conducted international research, including studies on the behavioral and network risks for HIV and sexually transmitted infections among drug injectors in Budapest, Hungary, and on the social context of injecting drug use and HIV risk in Marseilles, France. He has authored or co-authored numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Selected Publications
earned a PhD in sociology from Case Western Reserve
University, specializing in medical sociology, and completed three years of post-doctoral
training in psychiatric epidemiology from Columbia University. At NDRI since
1996, he has been Project Director on two large studies of substance abuse and
HIV/STD infection in street-based populations. He is currently the Principal
Investigator of a large cohort study of HIV/STD infection among male-to-female
transgender persons in the New York Metropolitan Area. His research interests
include applications of social psychological identity theory, the inter-relationships
among homelessness, substance use and psychiatric symptomatology, and HIV/STD
infection in high-risk groups.
Selected Publications
, is NDRI's Director of the Training and Director of the Training and
Dissemination Core of the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR). Responsibilities
include disseminating appropriate behavioral science research findings to treatment
and prevention practitioners. He has 20 years of progressive management experience
in curriculum/program design and professional in-service training in the areas
of Public Health and Employment Training. Areas of expertise include: Substance
Abuse Prevention/Intervention/Treatment, Drug Pharmacology, Assessment Interviewing,
Pregnant Substance Abusers, Drug Exposed Children, Children of Substance Abusers,
Cultural Competency, Stages of Behavioral Change, Human Sexuality, Sexually
Transmitted Infections, HIV/AIDS, and Relapse Prevention. Andrew Osborne is
the former Director of Day Treatment, N.Y.C. Department of Probation in addition
to being a consultant for the State Education Department, N.Y.C. Board of Education,
CUNY, Fordham University, Teachers College of Columbia University, the National
Drug Court Training Institute and The American University School of Public Affairs.
Selected Publications
, sociologist, is a Principal
Investigator in the Center for the Integration of Research and Practice at
NDRI. Most of his work has had a focus on statistical research evaluating
the effectiveness of treatment/intervention programs. From 1983 to 1994 he
was Associate Research Professor in the Department of Sociology at Rutgers
University, where he was Co-Principal Investigator or Study Director
of several funded research projects in criminology (with Jackson Toby). Since
joining NDRI in 1994 as a Project Director, his research work has expanded
to include evaluation research on several different treatment programs for
a variety of problems other than (or in addition to) criminality. From 1994
through 1998 he was Project Director for a federally funded review and analysis
of evaluation studies conducted between 1968 and 1994 of correctional interventions
and treatment programs for offenders (Douglas Lipton, PI); the results help
provide policy makers and social scientists with answers to the questions “what
works? with whom? and under what circumstances?” From 1999 through
2004 he was Project Director and Statistician on an evaluation of a treatment
program for homeless families, the Family & Aftercare Model (Joann Sacks,
PI). This program is a residential therapeutic community for homeless women
who have substance abuse and psychiatric problems, and who are raising dependent
children. Since September of 2003, Dr. Pearson has been Senior Project Director
for CIRP projects conducted under the Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment
Research Studies initiative at the NDRI Colorado Research Center (Harry Wexler & Stan
Sacks, PIs), one of nine national sites funded by the National Institutes
of Health to develop and apply research on effective drug treatment services
and criminal justice practices to improve offender outcomes. Another of his
current major responsibilities is that of Principal Investigator on the Evidence-based
Principles of Treatment (EPT) project [see description on this website],
which will assess the research evidence base for several recommendations
of best ways to structure and deliver treatment for drug abuse.
Selected Publications
is the Director of the Institute for Treatment and Services Research at NDRI. He has served as principal investigator, co-investigator and project director on several research projects on substance use including innovative interventions for the treatment of cocaine dependence, outreach to homeless populations, an evaluation of a treatment linkage model for street-based sex workers, and prevalence and correlates of chronic pain among drug and alcohol users. He currently serves on two medication studies: as PI on a project that will develop and test a protocol for the use of sublingual buprenorphine for the treatment of chronic pain; as Co-PI on an evaluation of buprenorphine for jailed inmates. He also serves as PI on a nationwide prevalence study of prescription opioid abuse; and on a study of attitudes toward opioid agonist therapy among jail administrators. He is also the co-investigator/project director on an experimental evaluation of a 12 step group (Double Trouble in Recovery) for persons with an addictive and psychiatric disorder.
Selected Publications
, Deputy Director of the Center for the Integration of Research and Practice at NDRI, with over two decades of clinical, programmatic, and research activities, has garnered exceptional administrative, managerial, and multi-site research expertise. She has designed and implemented innovative programs for those with mental illness, addictive disorders, and co-occurring disorders. As Deputy Executive Director of a New York City treatment agency with a staff of over 250, Dr. Sacks led the development and supervised the operation of a continuum of 22 residential and outpatient treatment programs for homeless men and women with co-occurring disorders. In her role as Director and Principal Investigator of CIRP, she is actively involved in federally-funded studies of addicted populations (with and without co-occurring mental disorders) who are also homeless, living with HIV/AIDS, or incarcerated. Her research places special emphasis on the gender-specific issues (such as trauma and abuse) of addicted women in criminal justice and community treatment, and on the effect of the sequela of substance abuse on children and the family unit. During the past decade, she has managed eight research projects conducting multi-site evaluations of treatment programs for substance abusing individuals, many with co-occurring mental illness.
, a clinical-research psychologist, is the Director of the Center for the Integration of Research & Practice at National Development and Research Institutes (NDRI), Inc. in New York City. Dr. Sacks and the staff of CIRP specialize in technology transfer that infuses evidence- and consensus-based approaches into clinical practice. He is currently the Principal Investigator on several NIDA and SAMHSA- funded studies and Co-PI on the NDRI Rocky Mountain Research Center of the NIDA-funded Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment System. The author of numerous publications, Dr. Sacks was the Chair and Lead Author for the Treatment Improvement Protocol #42, Substance Abuse Treatment for Persons With Co-Occurring Disorders. He is also Expert Leader on SAMHSA’s Co-occurring Center for Excellence, a national effort to provide training and technical assistance to States and agencies in the area of co-occurring disorders. Dr. Sacks, a baseball aficionado and weather maven, is married and the father of two children. He has four grandchildren.
, is an ethnographer who specializes in HIV prevention among poor women and drug users, and has worked extensively with urban, minority drug-using populations in the Northeast. She has been involved in research in the following topic areas: women, poverty and AIDS, intimate partner violence, drug-using couples, trauma and secondary trauma, and field-based research ethics. Dr. Simmons has worked on a variety of NIDA-funded prevention studies at the Hispanic Health Council (HHC) in Hartford, CT. While at HHC, she was awarded a development grant by the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA) at Yale University to explore the special characteristics, meaning and behavioral importance of relationships among drug-using couples. Dr. Simmons is also co-editor and co-author (with Drs. Paul Farmer and Margaret Connors) of Women, Poverty and AIDS: Sex, Drugs and Structural Violence which received the Eileen Basker Memorial Prize for outstanding scholarship in gender and health from the Society for Medical Anthropology, American Anthropological Association. During 2005-07, Dr. Simmons was a Senior Postdoctoral Fellow in NDRI’s Behavioral Science Training in Drug Abuse Research Program. Currently, she is engaged in ethnographic research at NDRI as the Principal Investigator of a NIDA-funded HIV prevention study on the interpersonal and structural dynamics which shape HIV risk and drug treatment among injecting, drug-using couples in Harlem and the South Bronx (R21DA022960).
is the Director of NDRI's Center for AIDS Outreach and Prevention. The Center, a New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services contract, has been in operation for over 22 years. The primary objective of this prevention intervention is to reach and assist active injection drug users (IDUs) in four boroughs of New York City, in accessing substance abuse treatment, medical and social services. Mr. Stepherson has been the Director for over 15 years. Mr. Stepherson, a former heroin addict in recovery for over 25 years, is a founding member of New York Harm Reduction Educators, Inc. (NYHRE). NYHRE/Bronx-Harlem Needle Exchange is the largest syringe exchange program in New York City. NYHRE offers extensive services and support for active drug users to assist this population in making positive less harmful changes in their lives. Mr. Stepherson has also served for many years on a variety of community-based organizations serving the needs of active and recovering substance abusers - the Faith Mission Crisis Alcohol Center, The HIV Law Project, Exponents/ARRIVE, New York Harm Reduction Educators and others. Mr. Stepherson obtained his Master degree in Public Health from Hunter College in New York City. He has also taken course work towards a doctorate in public health and socio-medical sciences from Columbia University's School of Public Health.
, is a Senior Principal Investigator in the Institute for Treatment Services Research (ITSR). Her current research involves an evaluation of two state-of-the-art staff trainings: one for drug treatment program staff in programs throughout the U.S. concerning hepatitis C virus infection, and the other for staff in hospital-based AIDS Centers in NYC concerning HIV patients' alcohol reduction. Some of her past studies have included the application of innovative statistical methodology to examine the validity of self-report of HIV status among out-of-treatment drug users, an examination of social support and drug treatment for women mandated to treatment through the criminal justice system, and the impact of smoking bans in prisons and jails. On September 1, 2007, Dr. Strauss assumed a position as associate professor and director of the Pless Center for Nursing Research at New York University's College of Nursing.
Selected
Publications
works as co-investigator for the Community Vulnerability
and Response to IDU-related HIV study at the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research.
She holds the MA degree from City University of New York in Geography specializing
in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Medical Geography. Ms. Tempalski's
MA thesis examined the capability of GIS in evaluating dracunculiasis eradication
policies for UNICEF in West Africa. In 1997 she was awarded an MPH in Community
Health Education. Her MPH examined the spatial distribution of sexually transmitted
diseases and mycobacterium tuberculosis strains in the New York
City and New Jersey metro areas. Ms. Tempalski received her doctorate degree
in Medical Geography at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her dissertation
research examined the geographic variability in injection drug use related-HIV
transmission and program response. Internationally, her work has focused on
vector disease control policies in Egypt, and West Africa, and women's reproductive
health policies in Nepal.
Selected Publications
is the Project Director on two federally funded studies in the Institute for Treatment Services Research at NDRI. The STOP HEP C Project, funded by NIDA, examines the nationwide drug treatment response to the hepatitis C virus. Project STAR, an acronym for “Staff Training on Alcohol Reduction,” is devoted to the development of a state-of-the-art HIV care provider training to encourage the implementation of NIAAA’s screening and brief intervention (NIAAA’s BI) in Designated AIDS Centers (DACs) in New York City. Dr. Tiburcio has been involved in drug treatment program planning, research, evaluation and outcome studies since the late 1980s. His professional expertise includes interviewer training, coordinating longitudinal follow-up studies, and locating and interviewing hard to reach populations for clinical and research purposes. His award winning doctoral dissertation in Criminal Justice (Reisenbach Foundation Award) investigated the long-term recovery process from heroin use and focused on ex-offenders who maintained abstinence for a period of five or more years. He served as an evaluator of several prison-based therapeutic communities for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and consults to various research organizations on Research Interview Design, Quality Control, and Interviewer Training and Administration. He is a Research Scientist member of the National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse (NHSN) and presently serves as Editor of the NHSN Newsletter El Faro: La Voz de la Red. He was also recently elected Chair of the Early Career Investigator Committee and a voting member of the Steering Committee for that organization. He maintains a keen interest in investigating drug abuse, crime and public health risks, particularly as they are experienced in urban areas, including the investigation and implementation of treatment approaches relevant to diverse cultures. He maintains a keen interest in investigating drug abuse, crime and public health risks, particularly as they are experienced in urban areas, including the investigation and implementation of treatment approaches relevant to diverse cultures.
Selected Publications
, is currently beginning a study of the role of social networks in methamphetamine distribution in New York City (funded by the National Institute of Justice) and serving as Co-Investigator/Ethnographer of the current National HIV Behavioral Survey (NHBS) of men who have sex with men, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. He recently served as Project Director of two previous NHBS studies of behavioral risk factors for HIV and Hepatitis C infection among injection drug users and heterosexuals at high risk for HIV. Previously he served as Project Director on the Lower East Side Trafficking study (funded by NIJ) and Senior Research Associate on the Heroin in the Twenty-First Century study (funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse). His research interests center around the social organization of the distribution and consumption of illegal commodities. Prior to entering upon a research career, he worked as a bicycle messenger, cook and nightclub bouncer.
, has acquired a national reputation in the areas
of substance abuse policy, treatment and research during the last 35 years.
He is best known for his landmark studies of the effectiveness of the therapeutic
community in the community, prisons and aftercare, which established prison
treatment programs in 20 states. Often credited with contributing to the
acceptance of prison-based drug treatment nationwide, this research demonstrated
the effectiveness of prison treatment particularly when coupled with aftercare,
and has had considerable impact on the field. The California Department
of Corrections presented Dr. Wexler with a Pioneer Award in recognition
of his role in expanding aftercare services for offenders. Dr. Wexler was
the Co-Chair of a recent Treatment Improvement Protocol, Substance Abuse
Treatment for Adults in the Criminal Justice System, and is the Principal
Investigator on two current government-funded projects studying elements
of prison treatment, community re-entry, and the effectiveness of sealing
records as a method of reducing recidivism by eliminating stigma. He has
written numerous articles, has co-authored a book on substance abuse treatment
for women, and has served as co-editor of special issues of the Prison
Journal. In June 2007 Dr. Wexler was appointed as a member of the Governor's Strike Team to help guide the process of reforming the California correctional system. Dr. Wexler has been with NDRI since 1977 and a senior staff member of the Center for the Integration of Research Practice since its inception.
Selected Publications