Main Discipline(s):
Main Professional Societies:
Affiliation(s):
- Epidemiology
- College on Problems of Drug Dependence
- Wayne State University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences
With a lot of detours! My first academic appointment was in Biostatistics (Washington University in St. Louis) where I served on multiple grants, most notably in the fields of geriatrics and diabetes. I then made the jump to submitting and directing my own project on diabetes. This grant led to an appointment in Internal Medicine, in a center with an emphasis on health behaviors and community involvement. From there I moved to WSU in psychiatry and worked with Dr. Schuster, the former head of NIDA.
What we consider “substances” is changing rapidly with the proliferation of illegal laboratories and the existence of vast trafficking networks. I would love to be more involved in examining the spread of these novel substances and what policies affect the spread.
That is a difficult question as there have been many seminal articles. However, I keep coming back to one article that started changing my and others’ attitudes and policies towards substance use disorders. It was published in 2000 and called Drug Dependence, a Chronic Medical Illness: Implications for Treatment, Insurance, and Outcomes Evaluation. It compared what we now call substance use disorder with other chronic diseases to highlight that SUD is a chronic disease that can be treated.
I was inspired to research alcohol and drug use by two excellent and very different role models (former NIDA director Bob Schuster and international alcohol researcher Robin Room) as well as strongly influenced by the co-director of our division, Chris-Ellyn Johanson, a strong advocate for women researchers.
I love getting together with family and friends! Before the pandemic, we would attend WSU and community theater, and at least once a year the Stratford Festival in Ontario. Also, I went on walking tours, such as to Iceland and Sicily. The pandemic has damped the frequency but not the enjoyment when I can see live theater or walk.