Behavioral Science Training in Drug Abuse Research
BST Fellows
Ross Aikins, PhD. received his Ph.D. from UCLA in Education in 2011 with a specialty in Higher Education and Organizational Change. His dissertation was a qualitative exploration of the perceptions and habits of college students who use ADHD stimulant medications and other so-called "nootropic" drugs, both licit and illicitly. He is currently the Chair-Elect of the American College Health Association's (ACHA) Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drug Coalition, and he also currently manages data for ongoing projects at UCLA's Integrated Substance Abuse Program (ISAP) on treatment-seeking prescription drug users. His primarily research interests concern the functional use of drugs for enhancement purposes and broader issues related to the distribution and use of enhancement technologies in society.
Victoria Barry, PsyD. Dr. Barry received her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from La Salle University in September 2011. Her research focuses on behavioral medicine, with specific interests in women's health and illness prevention. She has contributed to a number of research initiatives in medical settings and has authored numerous presentations and publications related to primary care, oncology, HIV/AIDS, obstetrics/gynecology and tobacco cessation. Dr. Barry's doctoral dissertation investigated the relationship between disease specific knowledge of the Human Papillomavirus and consistent condom use in college aged women. She will be interning in the Center for Technology and Health on projects with Bethany Raiff and Michelle Acosta.
Stephanie Campos This predoctoral fellow is ABD in Cultural Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). Stephanie’s dissertation committee consists of CUNY Graduate Center professors Leith Mullings, Mark Edelman and Ida Susser. Stephanie has completed fieldwork on her dissertation “Small Village/Large Hell: Incarceration and Gendered Work in an Illicit Economy.” Her dissertation explores the ways in which a woman’s economic and social position in the Santa Monica prison in Lima, Perú is shaped by her labor in the global illicit drug trade. She investigates how work in the transnational cocaine commodity chain is structured by race, class, gender and nationality and how women are inserted into particular “links” of this chain based on the intersections of these systems of power. Stephanie argues that the labor a woman performs in this chain determines her pathway into the prison as well as her socio-economic position inside the prison. Through ethnographic research, she explores how these inequalities are reproduced and lived out in Santa Monica, a site where the majority of women—from a variety of countries—are incarcerated on drug trafficking charges. This project will contribute to a larger understanding of the relationship between processes of globalization and incarceration. She presented papers based on her dissertation at the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) The Society for Applied Anthropology (SFAA).
Daniel Castellanos, MPH This predoctoral trainee (appointed October, 2010) He is currently a doctoral candidate at the Department of Socio-Medical Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. He has conducted research and published work on male sex work, LGBT youth, and social movements in the Dominican Republic and on health access barriers and facilitators among LGBT immigrants in New York City. His doctoral research focuses on homelessness among young Latino gay men in NYC. He has coded the interviews and fieldnotes and is currently completing the text analysis and finishing the first draft of the dissertation. Preliminary findings indicate that homeless young gay men go back and forth between home, streets, foster care, and/or shelters as a way of moderating unbearable family situations and the harshness of street life. For some homeless youth, many decisions on substance use or sexual practices are related to day-to-day survival choices. Furthermore, they distrust staff that want to engage them in “drug/sex talk” for fear of repeating past experiences with judgmental counselors, losing urgently needed services, or being asked to stop their substance use or sexual behavior. On the other hand, organizations struggle to engage them in long-term substance use and HIV prevention interventions.
Martin Downing, PhD received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the City University of New York in 2010. In his dissertation, Dr. Downing explored potential HIV risk factors of men who have sex with men (MSM) who frequent commercial and public sex venues (e.g., bathhouses, sex clubs, bars, public parks). Specifically, he examined associations between high-risk behavior during venue attendance and the physical and social environment of sex venues, HIV risk perceptions, as well as frequency of Internet use to pursue public sexual encounters. Dr. Downing’s prospective research agenda includes an extension of this work to investigate substance use and concomitant sexual risk behaviors in the context of sex venue encounters, particularly among out-of-treatment HIV-negative patrons. This research could generate feasibility studies of venue-based interventions that augment existing programs, including outreach campaigns and HIV/STI counseling and testing.
Rachel Faulkner-Gurstein Title: "Uneasy Partnership: The Making of Drug Policy and the Politics of Addiction in New York City." My project will investigate the interaction between grassroots harm reduction organizations and New York City's Department of Health in and effort to understand the successes and failures of the drug policy reform movement at the local scale. Specifically, I am interested in examining the relationship between front line user-activist groups and the institutionalized branch of the harm reduction movement found within the DOH. I will look at how and why cooperation between differently situated groups becomes possible, how each leverages the resources and legitimacy of the other, and how data and evidence is collected and deployed. I ask, why do some harm reduction programs get supported, and not others? And to what extent are the politics of addiction changing in New York—away from battles over incarceration and abstinence, toward highly medicalized narratives of maintenance and risk management.
Nattinee Jitnarin This postdoctoral fellow (appointed July, 2010) received her doctorate in Health Psychology from University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2009. Dr. Jitnarin’s dissertation research focused on the relationships between cigarette smoking, body mass index, body weight, and dietary intake among Thai adults using data from the Thai Food Consumption Survey (TFCS). She served as a project coordinator on the TFCS prior to pursuing her Ph.D. in the US. The TFCS was a nationally representative, population-based epidemiological survey that evaluated food and nutrient consumption patterns and health status in the Thai population. Data from this study have been reported in two published papers and two that are under editorial review. Dr. Jitnarin’s research primarily focuses on both health behavior (e.g., diet, exercise) and addictive behavior research, particularly tobacco use. In conjunction with her training in the BST program, Dr. Jitnarin collaborates with researchers at NDRI’s Institute for Biobehavioral Health Research (Leawood, KS), where she is coordinating research on two NIH R01s that focus on behavioral health issues among fire service personnel (Sara A. Jahnke, PI) and military veterans (Christopher K. Haddock, PI), and as a data analyst on one NIH R01 behavioral research focusing on neighborhood context and health behaviors (Walker S.C. Poston, PI). In addition, she has been involved in an ongoing computer-based technology intervention targeting offenders with substance use disorders and HIV risk behaviors (Stan Sacks, PI). This intervention is evaluating the comparative effectiveness of the Therapeutic Education System (TES) relative to standard care. Also, she has been involved in the internet-based contingency management (CM) intervention study that observes the adherence of self-monitoring blood glucose in adolescents with Type I diabetes (Bethany Raiff, PI).
Katherine McLean, MS This predoctoral fellow (appointed September 2010) is ABD in the Doctoral Program in Sociology at the Graduate Center of CUNY. Her dissertation, “Reducing Risk, Producing Selves: Drug Use and Identity in Harm Reduction,” examines needle exchange as a site of both behavior modification and subjectivity production. It will also document the diverse messages around risk that circulate throughout a specific harm reduction site. She is using participant observation and interviewing at a needle exchange program in New York City. Her sponsor and dissertation advisor at the Graduate Center is Dr. Victoria Pitts-Taylor. Preliminary results show that participation in harm reduction shapes clients’ self-conceptions, though in manner that is hardly straight forward: where many program participants actively adopt an identity of “drug user” or “drug addict,” others may strategically slip into and out of this category, depending upon their audience. The ethnographic component of this research has further shown that clients use harm reduction programs for a multiplicity of ends that may have little to do with public health. In addition to her dissertation, Ms. McLean has been working as a research assistant in the Anthropology Department of John Jay College where she has been conducting a secondary analysis of drug user social networks for a NIDA-funded grant on the stabilization of HIV in injection drug user populations.
Sonali Rajan, MA, EdD This recently appointed (March 2010) postdoctoral trainee graduated from Columbia University's doctoral program in Health and Behavior Studies in February 2010. In her dissertation, Dr. Rajan developed an innovative evidence-based after-school curriculum for adolescent girls, entitled Girls on Track, in collaboration with the organization Girls on the Run, International. The curriculum specifically emphasizes social and emotional coping skill development in the context of pressing adolescent health issues, including substance use and abuse, mental health, and physical activity. Girls on the Run, International is currently implementing this curriculum in over 160 locations around the United States and Canada, reaching more than 5,000 adolescent girls each year. The results of this study are in submission to the Journal of School Health.
In her role as a postdoctoral trainee at the NDRI, Dr. Rajan is collaborating with Dr. Janie Simmons and Dr. James McMahon on two studies: the first, looking at the initiation of injection drug use among intimate couples, and the second exploring risk factors associated with the secondary transmission of HIV among ethnic minority men. She is also collaborating extensively with Dr. Noelle Leonard at the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research, looking specifically to understand patterns of substance use and related behaviors among adolescent boys at risk for contracting HIV. Dr. Rajan is currently working on publications stemming from each of these collaborations.
Ultimately, Dr. Rajan is interested in understanding the effects of substance use among urban minority adolescents on school health outcomes. Specifically, she hopes to integrate novel bioengineering techniques with the behavioral sciences, to measure the adverse metabolic effects of substance use among adolescents and understand the impact this plays on health learning. Dr. Rajan is also obtaining a Master of Science degree in Applied Statistics from Columbia University (expected graduation date, May 2011).
Yusuf Ransome This dissertation explores the question, what post migration adjustment factors predict HIV-related behaviors among West Indian Black immigrants? These factors include: individuals’ socioeconomic status, levels of acculturation, substance use, cultural norms about sex and gender roles, neighborhood residence, and the social and economic characteristics of those neighborhoods.
Eric T. Roberts, MPH This predoctoral trainee (July, 2010) is ABD in the Department of Epidemiology at MSPH. Eric is currently writing his dissertation proposal to study the clustering of drug use risk behaviors among a sample of individuals from New York City as part of the Inner-City Mental Health Study Predicting HIV/AIDS, Club and Other Drug Transitions Study. His project will explore the extent to which certain drug use risk behaviors (poly drug use, injection, equipment sharing, overdose, failed quit attempts, unprotected sex while using drugs) cluster within individuals and assess demographic heterogeneity of individuals across clusters. Furthermore, he will explore the association between behavioral clusters with childhood maltreatment and neighborhood contextual features. His dissertation sponsor and advisor is Sandro Galea. In addition, Eric is analyzing the association between changes in US labor markets and patterns of racial residential segregation with patterns of injection drug use with Drs. Sam Friedman and Galea.
Bright E. Sarfo, M.S.S.W. This predoctoral fellow (appointed September 2010) is a Ph.D. candidate at the Columbia University School of Social Work. His dissertation, “The impact of Criminal Justice Involvement on Resource Dependence and Sexual Risk Behaviors among Individuals in Drug using Partnerships” examines how the social and economic consequences of incarceration act as mechanisms for sexual risk outcomes among persons in drug involved sexual partnerships. Additionally his dissertation will examine how resource dependency moderates the impact of criminal justice system involvement on concurrent partnerships and sex trading. He is conducting a secondary analysis of data collected for a NIDA-funded intervention trial testing the efficacy of a couple HIV/STI intervention with men and women (seeking or enrolled) in drug treatment and their primary heterosexual intimate partners (Nabila El-Bassel, PI). Preliminary findings show that self reported life time incarceration for men is approximately three times that of women, with individuals with lifetime incarceration reporting more resource dependency than those who have never been incarcerated. Furthermore, partnerships in which men report contributing more resources to the relationship were more likely to have concurrent partners. In addition to his dissertation, Mr. Sarfo has been working part-time at the Social Intervention Group as a clinical supervisor for NIDA-funded study testing the efficacy of a Multimedia group-based intervention for drug-involved women under criminal justice supervision (Nabila El-Bassel, PI).
Skultip (Jill) Sirikantraporn, Psy.D. This postdoctoral fellow (appointed September 2010) received her doctorate in June 2010 in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Seattle. Dr. Sirikantraporn is writing an article based on her dissertation, which centered on the relationship between acculturation and resilience levels among Southeast Asian youths who have witnessed domestic violence. She is also involved in three projects funded by NIH. First, she serves as a quantitative data analyst for the Stay Safe project (Pedro Mateu-Gelabert, PI), an innovative study designed to teach long-term injecting drug users strategies and skills to help themselves and others stay uninfected by HIV/HCV. She is currently writing a paper focusing on resilience-based factors that are associated with safe practices and a decrease in risky behaviors. Second, she is involved as a treatment facilitator and researcher in the Power Source Project (Noelle Leonard, PI), an efficacy study of an intervention aimed at reducing high-risk behaviors, such as substance use and violent behaviors, among youth offenders. This intervention utilizes mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral elements to improve emotional regulatory skills and behavioral changes among incarcerated youths. She is currently working on a paper describing the intervention. Third, she is working with Dr. Stan Sacks and Michael Chapel (Co-PIs) on an evaluation of the Dual Diagnosis Capability in Addiction Treatment (DDCAT) and Mental Health Treatment (DDCMHT) projects to assess the effectiveness of training aimed at enhancing over 200 outpatient addiction and mental health facilities’ capability to serve adult patients with co-occurring disorders (mental health and addiction).
Vivian C. Smith, M.A. While a predoctoral fellow in the BST program, Dr. Smith defended her dissertation entitled: “Substance-abusing Women Offenders as Victims: Chronological Sequencing of Pathways into Criminal Behavior.” This study used Life Course Theory (LCT) and Feminist Pathway Theory. The data came from Dr. Falkin’s NIDA R01, informally called Project WORTH (Women‘s Option for Recovery Treatment and Health). The sample (n=1,209) consisted of women in the criminal justice system, classified as substance abusers. Bivariate, logistic, multinomial logistic regression and negative binomial regression found that there were eight pathways from childhood drug use and victimization and criminal involvement in adulthood. The most dominant pathway to crime among these women is one in which drug use preceded arrest without the presence of childhood abuse. The second highest populated pathway reflected the feminist pathway theory‘s main premise; childhood victimization triggers drug use and entrance into crime. The findings are consistent with prior research suggesting that women‘s paths to crime differ. Results also challenge the position of childhood victimization in women‘s pathways into crime and assert that women victimized during childhood have a greater disadvantage given additional risk factors embedded within that pathway. Ms. Pacheco has presented her findings at the American Society of Criminology and Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences conferences. She also received the Graduate Student Excellence Award from Rutgers University in 2008 and a grant from Rutgers-School of Criminal Justice to study the health patterns of women who take care of children of incarcerated parents 2009. Having earned her doctorate from Rutgers University, Dr. Smith was promoted to a postdoc in the BST program where she will write articles based on her dissertation as well as collaborate on research projects at NDRI and Rutgers.
Pacheco, V. (2009). Crack Moms. In Encyclopedia of Race and Crime. Chicago: Sage Publications.
Morris, P. and Pacheco, V. (2009). Stop Snitching Campaign. In Encyclopedia of Race and Crime. Chicago: Sage Publications.
Kelly Szott, MA is currently writing her dissertation proposal to study “The Intersection of Injection Drug Users and Medical Institutions.” This qualitative study will examine the barriers IDUs encounter when accessing medical care, especially focusing on stigmatization. It will analyze the medical discourse and health care practices that affect patients who are perceived as having “deviant” bodies. A this point, Kelly has done considerable work on her literature review. She will move from Syracuse to NYC by the end of February to begin participating in BST meetings and conducting preliminary field research to support her proposal. From 2005 to 2007, Kelly was a Senior Research Assistant at Beth Israel Medical Center with Dr. Don Des Jarlais on two NIH studies: "Community Health and Healthcare" and "Acute Hepatitits C Virus Infection in Injecting Drug Users."
Gary Yu is currently working on a dissertation in biostatistics on a model-based clustering method for application in the fields of substance abuse and HIV prevention. Currently, high dimensional data is collected where consumers report varying levels of consumption along the dimensions of count, duration frequency and intensity. This novel model-based clustering method takes into account the variable nature of the high dimensional data and tries to reduce the information into more meaningful patterns. He is interested in examining how classifying individuals based on their drug use profile can predict subsequent adverse health outcomes. He will simulate and create data sets with varying levels of exposure to a number of different substances and observe how well the model predicts and replicates the specified exposure groups. Finally, the method will be applied to a collected data set and analyzed to provide psychosocial insight into the combined effects of consumption and sexual behavior on substance abuse and HIV risk.