Eric F.
Wagner, Ph.D.
Dr.
Wagner is a Professor in the Stempel College
of Public Health and Social Work at Florida
International University, where he directs
the Community-Based Intervention Research
Group (C-BIRG). Dr. Wagner earned his
Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the
University of Pittsburgh, completed a
post-doctoral fellowship at the Brown
University Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, and is a
licensed psychologist in the States of
Florida and Rhode Island. Dr. Wagner’s
interests are in the areas of adolescent
substance abuse, the empirical evaluation of
community-based psychotherapeutic
interventions, and developing and testing
developmentally sensitive interventions for
minority teens. His research has been
supported by grants from the National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
Dr. Wagner was recognized for his early
career achievements with the New
Investigator Award from the Sixth
International Conference on Treatment of
Addictive Behaviors, as well as being
selected to present at the Symposium in
Honor of Enoch Gordis at the 25th
Annual Scientific Meeting of the Research
Society on Alcoholism. Dr. Wagner is the
creator and director of the DIONYSUS
meeting.
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Joseph West,
Ph.D.
Dr.
West is Dean, School of Hospitality and
Tourism Management, Florida International
University. He received his Bachelor of
Science in Hotel Administration from Cornell
University, Master of Science in Systems
Management from the University of Southern
California, and Doctor of Philosophy in
Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional
Management from Virginia Polytechnic and
State University. He has consulted for such
varied organizations as the United Nations
(strategic planning for tourism in emerging
countries), the U. S. Army (morale and
recreation facilities management), Kentucky
Fried Chicken Corporation (franchise
operations), Barnett Bank, Inc. (foodservice
facilities design and operation), and the
St. Augustine (Florida) Tourism Development
Council (service employee development). Dean
West has made many international, national,
and regional presentations, and has
published numerous articles in leading
industry and academic journals, including
chapters in three books:
Hospitality
Management: An Introduction to the Industry;
International Hospitality Management:
Corporate Strategy in Practice; and
Service
Quality in Hospitality Organizations.
In 2004 he was honored as the Educator of
the Year by the Florida Hotel and Motel
Association; in 2005, he was listed among
"Florida Hospitality's Most Influential
People" by the Florida Restaurant & Lodging
Association; and, in 2006 he was recognized
by the South
Florida Business Journal as a "Heavy
Hitter in South Florida Education."
Opening Speaker
Peter
Monti, Ph.D.
Dr.
Peter Monti is a Donald G. Millar
Distinguished Professor of Alcohol and
Addiction Studies, the Director of the
Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at
Brown University, a Senior Career Research
Scientist for the Department of Veterans
Affairs, and the current President of the
Research Society on Alcoholism. A recognized
leader in understanding the biobehavioral
mechanisms that underlie addictive behavior
as well as its prevention and treatment, Dr.
Monti has trained hundreds of students,
primarily psychology interns and
postdoctoral fellows. He has approximately
250 publications, and recently completed two
books: Treating Alcohol Dependence: A
Coping Skills Training Guide and The
Tobacco Dependence Treatment Handbook: A
Guide to Best Practices. He is PI on
three major NIH research grants: 1. a basic
mechanisms project concerning how a
pharmacological agent affects craving for
alcohol in the natural environment; 2. a
trauma unit assessment and brief
intervention project that incorporates
significant others into the
treatment; and, 3. an adolescent smoking
intervention project that focuses on
promotion of both intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation to change. An additional
Department of Veterans Affairs Merit Review
Program grant focuses on olanzapine and cue
reactivity. Dr. Monti was appointed chair of
NIAAA's Portfolio Review Committee - a
committee charged with helping to chart the
course for the Alcohol Institute for the
next decade; he also is a member of NIAAA's
Extramural Advisory Board and its National
Advisory Council. In 2003 he was awarded
the Distinguished Research Award from the
American Psychological Association and in
2006 he was awarded the Distinguished
Researcher Award from the Research Society
on Alcoholism.
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Invited
National Speakers
Michie
Hesselbrock, MSW, Ph.D.
Dr.
Hesselbrock is the Zachs Professor and
Director of the Doctoral Program for the
School of Social Work at the University of
Connecticut. She has more than 20 years of
experience in teaching and research, much of
it in the areas of behavioral genetics and
epidemiology of alcohol and other drugs of
abuse. Her areas of specializations include
psychiatric epidemiology, substance use
disorders, and mental health research, with
special focus in gender and ethnic
differences and co-occurring disorders, and
the evaluation of prevention and
intervention programs in substance abuse.
- Representative Publication -
Victor M.
Hesselbrock, MSW, Ph.D.
Dr.
Hesselbrock holds the Physicians' Health
Services Endowed Chair in Addiction Studies
at the University of Connecticut, and is
Principal Investigator and Scientific
Director of UConn’s NIAAA funded Alcohol
Research Center. Dr. Hesselbrock has
developed a program of research focused on
the identification of psychological and
biological factors that contribute to the
susceptibility for developing alcohol
problems, including alcohol dependence. His
current projects include a study of the
deviance-proneness model of alcoholism
vulnerability, a study of alcohol dependence
phenotypes among Alaskan Natives, and two
studies related to the genetics of substance
dependence. He serves as an associate editor
for Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental
Research, is an assistant editor for
Addiction, and is on the editorial
boards of several other addictions
journals. He has also served on and chaired
several NIH study sections and is currently
a member of the National Advisory Council of
the National Institute on Alcoholism and
Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA). Dr. Hesselbrock is
immediate Past President of the Research
Society on Alcoholism (RSA).
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James
Jaccard, Ph.D.
Dr.
Jaccard is a Professor of Psychology at
Florida International University. He was
trained as a social psychologist in the
field of attitude formation and attitude
change and has conducted extensive research
in the prevention of adolescent alcohol
use. He was a major designer/ investigator
of the National Longitudinal Study of Health
(Add Health), the largest social-science
based health survey of adolescents ever
conducted in the United States. Dr. Jaccard
has designed several effective interventions
that teach parents how to communicate with
their children about alcohol and is the
primary architect (with Dr. Robert Turrisi)
of a college program aimed at reducing binge
drinking in college youth. He has an
extensive background in psychometrics and
statistical methods, and an active research
program in statistics. Dr. Jaccard has
written numerous books and articles on the
analysis of interaction effects in a wide
range of statistical models, and teaches
advanced graduate courses on SEM and
logistic regression. The author of five
books and over 100 journal articles, he has
been awarded over $4.5 million in support
from research organizations including NIMH
and NIAAA over the last ten years. His
findings and insights are now instrumental
in defining theory and practice in efforts
to reduce adolescent pregnancy and drunk
driving by adolescents.
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Mitchell
Karno, Ph.D.
Dr.
Karno received his Ph.D. in Clinical
Psychology, University of California, Santa
Barbara. He is an Associate Research
Psychologist in the University of California
at Los Angeles’ Department of Psychiatry and
is the Director of Alcohol Studies. Dr.
Karno's primary research areas include
patient-treatment matching, mechanisms of
action in psychotherapy treatment for
alcoholism, and screening for alcohol
problems. Dr. Karno is Principal
Investigator for multiple studies funded by
the National Institutes of Health, including
a study to assess which types of therapist
interventions are most and least effective
for different patients during alcohol
treatment, and a study to examine factors
associated with help-seeking and change in
substance use in the general population.
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Alan R.
Lang, Ph.D.
Dr. Lang is
the R. Robert von Brüning Professor of
Psychology at Florida State University. His
research focuses on psychosocial aspects of
addictions, specifically the important
antecedents and consequences of drinking,
and the brain-behavior processes that
underlie them. Among his ongoing
investigations are: (a) laboratory analogue
experiments on the relation between alcohol
intoxication and emotional response,
considering attention and other cognitive
variables as mediators, (b) analysis of the
role of drinking in prejudice, (c) the
application of information about attentional
and emotional responses to appetitive
stimuli involved in addictions to
understanding of craving and relapse, and
(d) examination of alcohol effects on
visuomotor processes.
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Valerie
Knopik, Ph.D.
Dr.
Knopik is an Assistant Professor, Center for
Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Department of
Community Health at Brown University. She
received her Ph.D. in Behavioral Genetics
from the Institute for Behavioral Genetics
and the University of Colorado, Boulder, and
completed a NIAAA-funded postdoctoral
fellowship in psychiatric genetics and
genetic epidemiology at Washington
University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Dr. Knopik's primary area of interest is the
interplay of genetic and environmental
(specifically perinatal) risk factors on
childhood and adolescent disruptive
behavior, cognitive deficits, and substance
use. She has been recognized by the Research
Society for Alcoholism as a finalist for the
Enoch Gordis Research Recognition Award, by
the NIDA Genetics Workgroup, and by the
Behavior Genetics Association with the 2007
Fuller and Scott Early Career Award. Dr.
Knopik is PI of a NIDA-funded Career
Development Award as well as a NIDA-funded
R01 that examines parental contributions
(both genetic as well as pre- and postnatal
home environment) to child and adolescent
substance use initiation and
neuropsychological deficits. In addition to
developing her own research program, she is
actively involved in many other active and
pending grants involving
genetically-informative designs, both local
to Rhode Island, and across the US and
abroad.
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Christina
Lee, Ph.D.
Dr.
Lee is an Assistant Professor of Research,
Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, in
the Department of Community Health at Brown
University. She received her Ph.D. from New
York University. Prior to graduate school,
Dr. Lee worked as a substance abuse
counselor with chemically dependent and
mentally-ill patients in a hospital
setting. As a graduate student she received
a National Research Service Award (NIAAA)
for her dissertation on clinical
decision-making with minority
alcohol-involved adolescents. She completed
her postdoctoral fellowship in addictions
studies at the Brown University School of
Medicine. Dr. Lee's research focuses most
broadly on developing and implementing
innovative clinical treatment research to
reduce alcohol/substance use related health
disparities in underserved populations.
Other research areas of interest include
methods to enhance minority recruitment and
retention and mechanisms of change in
behavioral health treatment outcomes. Since
2005, Dr. Lee has been a Planning Committee
member for the Working Consortium on the
Inclusion and Care of the Underserved,
sponsored by the Mayo Clinic.
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Christopher Martin, Ph.D.
Dr.
Martin received his Ph.D. from Indiana
University and is currently Associate
Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at
the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
at the University of Pittsburgh. His primary
research interests are the Nosology and
clinical course of adolescent-onset alcohol
and other substance use disorders. Dr.
Martin is principal investigator (PI) on a
NIAAA-funded R01 that provides longitudinal
follow-up assessments in a large sample
recruited from addictions treatment during
adolescence. He is the recipient of an NIAAA
Independent Scientist Award and has been a
PI and Co-I on several other NIAAA and NIDA
grants. He is a fellow in the American
Psychological Association Division 28
(Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse),
and is a task force member for NIAAA’s
underage drinking initiative.
- Representative Publication -
Sara Jo
Nixon, Ph.D.
Dr.
Nixon a Professor in the Division of
Addictions Medicine within the Department of
Psychiatry at the University of Florida.
She also directs UF’s Neurocognitive
Laboratory. Born and raised in Oklahoma,
she received a B.S. in psychology at
Southwestern Oklahoma State University, and
her master's and Ph.D. degrees in
experimental psychology at the University of
Oklahoma. Dr. Nixon’s research emphasis over
the past 16 years has focused on the
long-term consequences of substance abuse
and psychosocial functions, and on the
connection between brain dysfunction and
behavior. She has worked with a variety of
populations including women, prisoners,
ethnic/minority groups and the aging. Her
interests include substance abuse effects on
cognitive processes; recovery of cognitive
and social skills. She has authored or
co-authored over 125 journal articles and
has been awarded over $4 million in grants,
primarily from the National Institute on
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the
National Institute on Drug Abuse.
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Tibor
Palfai, Ph.D.
Dr. Palfai is an
Associate Professor at Boston University.
Dr. Palfai is one of a handful of alcohol
researchers who works across human
laboratory and applied intervention
research. Dr. Palfai received his Ph.D.
from Yale University in 1994 and completed a
post-doctoral fellowship at the Brown
University Center for Alcohol and Addiction
Studies. His primary research interest is
the role of cognitive processes in addictive
behaviors. He is particularly interested in
understanding how conscious and
non-conscious processes are involved in
efforts to control craving for substances,
and developing cognitive-behavioral
treatments for problem drinking. Dr. Palfai
also conducts research on how mood states
influence evaluative judgment and reasoning.
- Representative Publication -
Michael
Sayette, Ph.D.
Dr.
Sayette is a Professor of Psychology and
Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh,
where he directs the Alcohol and Smoking
Research Laboratory. He received his Ph.D.
in Clinical Psychology from Rutgers
University and completed his internship at
the Brown University School of Medicine.
His research examines social, cognitive,
emotional, and neurobiological processes
that affect the use and abuse of alcohol and
tobacco. He has been particularly interested
in the association between alcohol and
stress and in cigarette craving. Dr.
Sayette’s research is supported by the
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism and by the National Institute on
Drug Abuse. He is a fellow in the
Association for Psychological Science and
the American Psychological Association
(Division 50), and serves as an associate
editor at Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
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Mark B.
Sobell, Ph.D., ABPP
Dr.
Sobell is a Professor at the Center for
Psychological Studies at Nova Southeastern
University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. He
is also Co-Director of the Healthy
Lifestyles Guided Self-Change Program at NSU.
He received his Ph.D. in psychology from the
University of California at Riverside and
holds a Diplomate in Behavioral Psychology
from the American Board of Professional
Psychology. A major focus of his work has
been on developing brief motivational
interventions for people who have alcohol or
drug problems that are not severe. In
recognition of his research accomplishments,
he has received the Distinguished
Scientific Contribution Award from the
American Psychological Association, Society
of Clinica Psychology, Lifetime
Achievement Award from Addictions
Special Interest Group, Association for
Behavioral and Cognitive and Therapies, and
the Jellinek Memorial Award for
outstanding contributions to knowledge in
the field of alcohol studies. Dr. Sobell’s
publications include 6 books and over 250
articles and book chapters, and he has given
over 170 invited presentations and clinical
workshops/institutes nationally and
internationally. He was Acting Editor of
the Journal of Consulting and Clinical
Psychology and is on the editorial board
of 5 other journals. He is a Fellow in the
American Psychological Association and
nationally and internationally recognized
for his work in the area of addictive
behaviors.
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Anthony
Spirito, Ph.D.
Dr.
Spirito is a Professor of Psychiatry
and Human Behavior at the Warren Alpert
Medical School of Brown University, and
Director of Clinical Psychology Training at
the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown
University. His research interests include
adolescent suicidality, depression, and
substance abuse. Currently, he is involved
in several major projects including: a
longitudinal study of risk factors,
particularly peer relationships, in the
transition to puberty that affect the
development of suicidal and substance use
behavior; a multisite, randomized controlled
trial of selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitors (SSRIs) alone or in combination
with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for
treatment-resistant adolescent depression;
and a study examining the effectiveness of a
family-based motivational interview for
alcohol positive adolescents seen in the
emergency department. He also has a
mid-career award from the National Institute
of Mental Health (NIMH) to mentor junior
faculty in developing interventions for
adolescents with comorbid substance use and
suicidal behavior. The Mentoring Award
supported the development of a National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)-funded
study (C. Esposito, PI) testing a CBT
protocol for these comorbid adolescents, on
which Dr. Spirito is co-investigator.
- Representative Publication -
Michael Stein, M.D.
Dr.
Stein is a Professor of Medicine & Community
Health at Brown University Medical School,
and serves as the Director of the General
Internal Medicine Research Unit at Brown
University, and Director of the General
Internal Medicine Fellowship at Brown
University. Clinically, he directs the HIV
program at Rhode Island Hospital, which is
part of Brown's AIDS Clinical Trials Unit.
He is an internationally-acclaimed authority
on the interaction of HIV disease, drug use
disorders, and primary care, and the author
of over 150 medical papers. Dr. Stein
received his undergraduate degree from
Harvard College and his medical degree from
Columbia University College of Physicians &
Surgeons. He is the Principal Investigator
of five National Institute of Health-funded
clinical prevention trials. Over the past
decade, he has been the Principal
Investigator of ten RO1's funded through
NIAAA, NIDA, NIMH and NCI. In addition, he
teaches a course on literature and medicine
in the English Department at Brown
University and is the author of four
novels. His first book of non-fiction,
The Lonely Patient (Harper
Collins/Morrow, 2007), examines the
emotional lives of people grappling with
illnesses including cancer, chronic pain,
and the complications of surgery.
- Representative Publication -
Holly
Barrett Waldron, Ph.D.
Dr.
Waldron is a Senior Scientist at the Oregon
Research Institute and is a licensed
clinical psychologist. She received her
doctorate in clinical psychology from the
University of Utah in 1987. Dr. Waldron's
primary clinical and research interests
include treatment development and the
evaluation of behavioral and family-based
interventions for adolescent alcohol and
drug use disorders, HIV risk, and other
problem behaviors. Currently, her federally
funded research examines trajectories of
change focusing on treatment response
patterns and mechanisms of change to better
understand how and why individual youth
respond to various treatment approaches. In
addition, she and her colleagues are working
to develop treatments for adolescent
methamphetamine abuse and dependence and to
prevent relapse to substance use. As a
scientist-practitioner, Dr. Waldron is also
actively engaged in dissemination efforts to
transport evidence-based practices to
community settings. She provides clinical
training and supervision to professionals
and graduate students in community and
academic settings.
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Tamara L.
Wall, Ph.D.
Dr.
Wall received her B.A. in Psychology from
the University of California, San Diego (UCSD),
and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from
the Joint Doctoral Program between San Diego
State University and UCSD. Dr. Wall is
Associate Chief of the Psychology Service
and Director of Psychological Services for
the Alcohol and Drug Treatment Program at
the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare
System. She also is Associate Director of
the Joint Doctoral Program between San Diego
State University and UCSD. Dr. Wall’s
research is focused on factors and processes
that predispose and/or protect individuals,
particularly ethnic minorities, from alcohol
and other substance involvement. She has
studied Asian Americans, Native Americans,
Hispanic Americans, and Jewish and
non-Jewish Caucasians. Dr. Wall is licensed
as a psychologist in the state of
California. She supervises doctoral
students, psychology interns, and
postdoctoral fellows who perform clinical
rotations at the Veterans Affairs San Diego
Healthcare System, Alcohol and Drug
Treatment Program.
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New
Investigator Innovations Speaker
Ana I.
Balsa, Ph.D.
Dr.
Balsa received her B.A. in Economics from
the Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo,
Uruguay, in 1996, and her Ph.D. in Economics
from Boston University in 2003. Her primary
area of research is health economics, with
interests in the economics of substance use
and the economics of health and healthcare
disparities. In the area of disparities,
she has studied the impact of statistical
discrimination on physicians' allocation of
medical resources and has worked on the
distribution of health care resources across
socioeconomic groups. Her research on
substance use and abuse includes studies of
the consequences of parental alcohol misuse
on children's use of health care services,
children’s health and labor outcomes at
adulthood; evaluations of substance abuse
treatments; and studies of the consequences
of alcohol use and misuse on health and
health care. Dr. Balsa is currently the
Principal Investigator in a National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
grant studying the associations between
popularity and alcohol use among
adolescents. Dr. Balsa's recent publications
include articles in the Journal of Health
Economics, Journal of Human Resources,
and Health Services Research.
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Press
Release
Invited
Speakers