Current Addiction Reports - Meet The Editors
Marc N. Potenza
Editor-in-Chief
Dr. Potenza is a board-certified psychiatrist with sub-specialty training in addiction psychiatry. Currently, he is a Professor of Psychiatry, Child Study and Neuroscience at the Yale University School of Medicine where he is the Director of the Yale Division of Addictions Research, the Center of Excellence in Gambling Research, the Women and Addictive Disorders Core of Women's Health Research at Yale and the Yale Research Program on Impulsivity and Impulse Control Disorders. He is on the editorial boards of over fifteen journals and has received multiple national and international awards for excellence in research and clinical care. He has consulted to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Registry of Effective Programs, National Institutes of Health, American Psychiatric Association and World Health Organization (WHO) on matters of addiction. He has participated in two DSM-5 research work groups and six annual WHO meetings relating to internet use and addictive behaviors in the ICD-11, addressing topics relating to gambling, gaming, impulse control, and addiction.
Dr. Potenza's research has focused on the neurobiology and treatment of substance and non-substance (behavioral) addictions and other disorders characterized by impaired impulse control and reward-related motivations. The majority of this work has focused on understanding clinical and neurobiological underpinnings of these disorders, and their co-occurrences with other mental health disorders, in order to advance prevention and treatment strategies. Dr. Potenza's research has applied brain imaging, genetic, epidemiological and clinical trials methodologies to gain knowledge and improve prevention and treatment strategies for addictive disorders.
Robert Leeman
Section Editor: Alcohol
Robert Leeman, Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Sciences in the Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Clark University, followed by an M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. After his Ph.D., Dr. Leeman spent a decade at Yale, first as a post-doctoral fellow, then as faculty, followed by seven years at the University of Florida where he was Associate Professor and Mary Lane Endowed Professor in the Department of Health Education and Behavior, Associate Director of the Southern HIV and Alcohol Research Consortium (SHARC) and co-director of a T32 training program in alcohol and HIV.
His research interests are addictive behaviors, sexual health behavior and difficulties with self-control (e.g., impulsivity). Dr. Leeman tests novel interventions and attempts to learn more about risk factors for these behaviors, particularly among adolescents and young adults.
Dr. Leeman has over 100 peer-reviewed publications and has been funded from the NIH continuously since 2010. He has served in leadership roles locally, as well as in national and international professional societies including the American Psychological Association (APA), the Research Society on Alcoholism and the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism. Dr. Leeman is a fellow of the APA.
Liana Hone
Section Editor: Alcohol
Dr. Hone is an Assistant Professor of Health Education and Behavior, director of the RIISC (Reducing Intoxicant Involved Sexual Consequences) Lab at the University of Florida, and co-director of the SHARC (Southern HIV and Alcohol Research Consortium) Professional Development Program. Her research interests include characterizing the role of drinking venues in sexual aggression, specifically examining (1) how alcohol and cannabis use in high-risk drinking venues contribute to sexual aggression perpetration, as well as (2) which dispositional characteristics (e.g., sociosexuality—attitudes, behaviors, and desires related to casual sex) predispose certain individuals to frequent these venues, and (3) which contextual characteristics of these venues make them particularly risky. Her aim is to identify novel individual- and environmental-level targets for sexual aggression prevention. In service of this aim, Dr. Hone’s recently completed NIH-funded alcohol administration study was designed to test alcohol’s effects on antecedents of sexual aggression, and she is interested in improving the generalizability of these studies. Dr. Hone is also interested in the application of evolutionary theory to examining sex differences in binge drinking, alcohol-related cognitive deficits, and alcohol-related regretted sex, in line with NIH’s directive to consider sex as a biological variable. Dr. Hone’s other research interests span predictors of sexual morality and stigma, and mHealth interventions for substance use and sexual consequences.
Before joining the University of Florida, Dr. Hone was a Research Assistant Professor of Psychology affiliated with the Research Institute on Addictions at the University at Buffalo, where she received her MPH with a focus on Strategies for Eliminating Health Inequities. Prior to joining RIA, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Missouri – Columbia, affiliated with the Alcohol Health and Behavior Lab and the Social Cognitive and Addiction Neuroscience Lab. She received her MS and PhD with an Emphasis in Evolution and Human Behavior from the University of Miami’s Health Division of Psychology. She received her BA in Physical Anthropology from the University of California – Santa Barbara, where she worked at the Center of Evolutionary Psychology.
Cassandra Boness
Section Editor: Alcohol
Dr. Cassandra L. Boness is a licensed clinical psychologist and Research Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico’s Center on Alcohol, Substance Use, and Addictions (CASAA). Dr. Boness conducts federally-funded research guided by the primary goal of reducing harm and suffering in the lives of people with substance use disorders. She is particularly interested in using mixed methods and community-engaged approaches to develop and refine assessments of alcohol use disorder etiologic and maintenance mechanisms with the eventual goal of facilitating mechanism-based precision medicine. In addition to her research, she is also the co-Medical Director of the New Mexico Alcohol Use and Mental Health Project ECHO which aims to bring evidence-based knowledge and skills related to alcohol use to health care professionals around the world. Dr. Boness is passionate about health equity and inclusion in addiction science and psychology more broadly.
Lab Website: bal.unm.edu (this opens in a new tab)
Twitter: @Cassie_Boness (this opens in a new tab)
Brian Sherman
Section Editor: Cannabis
Dr. Sherman earned his PhD from Columbia University and currently is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Sherman’s program of research involves human laboratory studies and clinical trials investigating mechanisms and treatment development for substance use disorders – primarily cannabis use disorder. Mechanisms of interest include cognitive bias, incentive-motivation and reward processing, and stress. Cross-cutting Dr. Sherman’s research is the consideration of sex and gender factors, which is critical to understanding and effectively treating addiction. Dr. Sherman is currently PI on a National Institutes of Health (NIH) K23 career-development award investigating whether cognitive bias modification can enhance the efficacy of a brief MI/CBT intervention for cannabis use disorder. Dr. Sherman is also co-investigator on multiple NIH-funded grants investigating mechanisms and treatments for cannabis use disorder. Dr. Sherman is a licensed psychologist in South Carolina and New York.
Rachel Tomko
Section Editor: Cannabis
Rachel Tomko is a clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina. She received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Missouri. She completed her predoctoral internship and postdoctoral training at the Medical University of South Carolina/Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. Her research focuses on the role of age, sex/gender, and individual differences in cannabis use disorder (CUD) and CUD treatment response. Methodologically, she is also interested in 1) developing treatment decision-making algorithms and 2) removing barriers to conducting rigorous and generalizable research across a variety of substance use disorders through the development and evaluation of screening assessments, outcome measures, and tools to measure adherence with treatment and trial procedures. She is particularly interested in assessment in naturalistic settings (e.g., ambulatory assessment and ecological momentary assessment).
Dustin Lee
Section Editor: Cannabis
Dr. Lee received undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Philosophy in 2005 from the University of New Mexico, followed by a two-year research training award in the Nicotine Psychopharmacology Research Section at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore. Dr. Lee completed his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology in 2013 at the University of Kentucky, followed by postdoctoral training focused on development of behavioral interventions for cannabis and tobacco use in the Department of Psychiatry at Dartmouth College from 2013 to 2016. Dr. Lee is currently an Assistant Professor in the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Dr. Lee’s research experience and interests involve use of laboratory and clinical approaches to examine effects of acute cannabis impairment, identify risk factors that contribute to the progression and maintenance of problematic cannabis and tobacco use, and apply insights gained from that work to develop targeted treatment interventions.
Elizabeth Aston
Section Editor: Cannabis
Elizabeth Aston received her PhD in Neuroscience (2012) from Wake Forest School of Medicine during which she investigated estimation of breath alcohol concentration and simulated driving behavior among those who engage in heavy episodic drinking. She went on to complete a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies (CAAS) in the Brown University School of Public Health. During her fellowship, she examined predictors of cannabis use disorder severity among those endorsing regular cannabis use, as well as the relative reinforcing value of cannabis using a behavioral economic Marijuana Purchase Task. Dr. Aston joined the faculty at CAAS where she is currently an Associate Professor. She conducts qualitative and quantitative research on behavioral economic cannabis demand, laboratory cannabis administration, and potential medical applications of cannabis.
Stephanie Antons
Section Editor: Compulsivity in Behavioral Addictions
Dr. Stephanie Antons is a postdoctoral research fellow at the department of General Psychology: Cognition and the Center for Behavioral Addiction Research (CeBAR) at the University of Duisburg-Essen and at the Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Essen, Germany. Her main research topics address affective and cognitive mechanisms including impulsivity and compulsivity involved in behavioral addictions (e.g., gaming disorder and problematic pornography use). She is particular interested in using mixed methods including neuroimaging and machine learning methods. Using these methods, she aims to identify mechanisms that can explain and predict moments of impaired control in behavioral addictions.
Matthias Brand
Section Editor: Compulsivity in Behavioral Addictions
Dr. Brand is Full Professor of General Psychology: Cognition at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. He is also Director of the Center for Behavioral Addiction Research (CeBAR), University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, and Director of the Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Essen, Germany. His research interests concentrate on neurobiological and psychological mechanisms underlying behavioral addictions with a focus on specific Internet-use disorders, such as gaming disorder, social-network use disorder, pornography use disorder, and buying-shopping disorder. He is speaker of the DFG-funded Research Unit FOR2974 “Affective and Cognitive Mechanisms of Specific Internet-Use Disorders (ACSID)”. He is Board Member of the International Society for the Studies of Behavioral Addictions and Associate Editor of several journals, such as the Journal of Behavioral Addictions. He has published more than 300 articles in international peer-reviewed journals.
Kathleen Garrison
Section Editor: Digital Health Technology
Dr. Garrison is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Division of Addictions at Yale. Her training and graduate work were in Neuroscience at UCLA and University of Southern California, both in Los Angeles. Dr. Garrison’s research program aims to develop innovative treatments for addiction by understanding the underlying neurobiological processes, designing novel interventions, and testing these in randomized clinical trials. Her work uses methods in mobile health and neuroimaging which are generalizable. This enables her research program to be dynamic, highly collaborative, and responsive to often urgent issues in addiction. Dr. Garrison serves as Section Editor in Mobile Health. Her work in mHealth involves developing and testing digital therapeutics for addictions including apps and wearables.
Tony George
Section Editor: Dual Diagnosis
Dr. Tony George is Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and is based at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Canada, where he directs a program of research focused on understanding the biological basis of addiction co-morbidity in serious mental illness, with a focus on schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. He served as Chief of the Schizophrenia Division (2008-2016), Medical Director of the Complex Mental Illness Program (2012-2016) and Chief of Addictions (2016-2019) at CAMH. He was also inaugural holder of the Chair in Addiction Psychiatry at the University of Toronto (2006-2012). His research is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the CAMH Foundation and the National Institutes of Drug Abuse (NIDA). He completed his undergraduate and medical school training at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada graduating with his M.D. degree in 1992. Dr. George then completed psychiatry residency training (1992-96) and a fellowship in Translational Neuroscience (1996-98) at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, joining the psychiatry faculty at Yale in 1998. He was Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University before coming to the University of Toronto as a Full Professor in the Fall of 2006. Dr. George has over 300 peer-reviewed publications, and is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP). Since 2013, he has served as Deputy Editor of the ACNP’s journal Neuropsychopharmacology (NPP). In 2023, he became Co-Principal Editor of NPP with Dr. Lisa Monteggia. He is also serves as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Canadian Council on Substance Abuse (CCSA). Dr. George wrote the chapter on Nicotine and Tobacco in Cecil Textbook of Medicine in 2011, 2015, 2019 as well as for the newest edition to be published in 2023.
Victor Tang
Section Editor: Dual Diagnosis
Dr. Victor M. Tang is a scientist at the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, and an addictions psychiatrist within the Addictions Division at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). He is also an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He completed a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Master of Science in Neuroscience at the University of British Columbia, his medical training at Queen's University, and his psychiatry residency in the Clinician Scientist Program at the University of Toronto. He recently completed a clinical research fellowship with joint training between the Addictions Division and Temerty Centre for Therapeutic Brain Intervention at CAMH and was a NIDA-funded Research in Addiction Medicine Scholar through Yale University and Boston University.
Kristen Morie
Section Editor: Emotion & Addiction
Kristen Morie is an Assistant Professor at Yale University. Her expertise lies in mental health and emotional regulation in SUDs, with a specific focus on how alexithymia contributes to mental health in this population. In addition, she has a body of research on long term effects of prenatal substance exposure on neural correlates of reward and inhibitory control.
Food Addiction
Section Editor: Erica LaFata
Dr. Erica LaFata is an Assistant Research Professor at the Drexel University Center for Weight, Eating, and Lifestyle Science and a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of Pennsylvania. Dr. LaFata earned her doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan. She completed a predoctoral internship at the Medical University of South Carolina and a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship with the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. LaFata's program of research applies a cutting-edge perspective to understanding overeating and obesity by examining 1) how ultra-processed foods may be reinforcing in a manner that directly drives overeating, 2) whether core mechanisms of addictive disorders (e.g., withdrawal) may contribute to eating-related problems for vulnerable individuals, and 3) how ultra-processed food addiction may be a novel, clinically useful presentation to inform individualized interventions. Dr. LaFata has investigated these empirical questions using a multi-method approach, including neuroimaging, scale development, food consumption paradigms, and self-report.
Dr. LaFata has published over 40 academic papers and 5 book chapters related to ultra-processed food addiction. She is the Primary Investigator on a K23 Career Development Award, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), investigating whether ultra-processed foods high in added fats, refined carbohydrates, or both are most associated with biobehavioral indicators of addictive-like reinforcement. She is also the Primary Investigatory on a pilot study, funded by the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement (CURE) Program, which involves the development and feasibility testing of a new smartphone application that uses just-in-time adaptive intervention technology to reduce ultra-processed food consumption. Dr. LaFata also contributes as a Co-Investigator to several other NIH-funded clinical trials and one additional CURE project. Finally, Dr. LaFata is presently contributing to efforts to propose adding ultra-processed food addiction as a condition for further study in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and as a novel clinical presentation in the International Classification of Diseases.
Gambling
Section Editor: Nicki Dowling
Dr. Nicki Dowling is a professor of psychology at Deakin University in Australia. She is a registered clinical psychologist who has had considerable experience in the treatment of gambling problems in specialist gambling services. She leads a research team at Deakin University that focuses on three strategic areas of programmatic clinical gambling research: the identification, prevention, and treatment of people with gambling harm and their affected others. These programs focus on the development and evaluation of screening and assessment instruments across a range of settings, creation of a platform for prevention science initiatives for gambling harm, and development, evaluation, and translation of innovative evidence-based interventions. Principles underlying each of these programs of research include scientifically rigorous methodologies and trial designs; co-design and end-user involvement; advanced statistical analysis; research appraisal and synthesis; and knowledge impact, dissemination and translation.
Stephanie Merkouris
Section Editor: Gambling
Dr. Stephanie Merkouris is a Lecturer in the School of Psychology at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. She obtained her Ph.D. at Monash University, where she investigated predictors and moderators of treatment outcomes in a randomized controlled trial evaluating psychological interventions for people experiencing gambling harm. Her main research interests relate to the examination of factors associated with the development, maintenance and treatment of gambling-related harm, and the development, evaluation, and translation of evidence-based treatments for gambling. She is particularly interested in how advances in technology can be used for assessment, intervention, and dissemination purposes, with her recent research focusing on the application of e-mental health and m-health in the gambling field. She is currently the recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship, funded by the New South Wales Office of Responsible Gambling, in which she aims to develop and evaluate an e-health intervention for family members and friends impacted by someone else’s gambling.
Antonio Verdejo-Garcia
Section Editor: Impulsivity and Addiction
Antonio Verdejo-Garcia is a Professor (Research) and NHMRC Leadership Fellow at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health. Antonio’s research seeks to unravel the neural and cognitive mechanisms that underpin addiction, obesity, and compulsive eating. Antonio leads the Addiction and Impulsivity Research (AIR) group within the Turner Institute, which merges discovery science and clinical translation and aims to generate and apply neuroscience discoveries into better help-seeking opportunities and therapeutic interventions for people living with addictive and eating disorders and those living in larger bodies. He is also Co-Chair of the Neuroscience Interest Group of the International Society of Addiction Medicine, and Lead of the Translation stream of The Australian Eating Disorders Research and Translation Centre, funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health.
Justin Mahlberg
Section Editor: Impulsivity and Addiction
Justin Mahlberg, Ph.D., is a Research Officer with the Impulsivity & Addiction Lab at Monash University, and an Adjunct Fellow with the MARCS Institute at Western Sydney University. The primary focus of his current research is the study of how people make choices and food, alcohol, and drugs, and how the cognitive mechanisms that underpin these decisions are altered in addictions and eating disorders.
Miguel Pinedo
Section Editor: Inequities and Addiction
The goal of Dr. Pinedo's research is to inform new paradigms for health policies and programs aimed at reducing health disparities among Latino populations. To meet this goal, he has developed two highly focused lines of research that examine critical social determinants of health that are salient among Latino populations (e.g., immigration-related stressors) that may help explain and address existing health disparities related to substance misuse and use of treatment services. His first line of research examines how stressors stemming from immigration enforcement policies (e.g., deportations, fear of deportation) shape vulnerability to substance misuse among Latinos. His second line of work investigates factors that discourage Latinos in need from using substance use treatment services. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, his research underscores the importance of structural (e.g., immigration policies, deportations), social (e.g., anti-immigration discrimination), and cultural (e.g., cultural perceptions surrounding substance use) factors in influencing the health behaviors, risk practices, and health outcomes of Latinos.
Prior to joining UT, Dr. Pinedo received his PhD in Public Health (Global Health) from UC San Diego and completed his postdoctoral training at UC Berkeley. He also previously earned his Master in Public Health from UC Berkeley.
Alejandra Fernandez
Section Editor: Inequities and Addiction
Dr. Alejandra Fernandez is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Health Houston School of Public Health in the Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences. Her research generally focuses on the health of Hispanic adolescents and their families. Her research is centered around improving family functioning between Hispanic adolescents and their family members in order to prevent and reduce substance use behaviors, adverse sexual health outcomes, adverse mental health outcomes, and obesity related outcomes. The mechanism primarily used in Dr. Fernandez’s research to improve health outcomes is the development and testing of family-based interventions. Dr. Fernandez received her PhD in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of Texas at Austin and completed a post-doctoral associate position at the University of Miami. Her postdoctoral position was funded through the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) via a Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research.
Hans-Jürgen Rumpf
Section Editor: Internet Use Disorders
Hans-Jürgen Rumpf is psychologist and Associate Professor at the University of Lübeck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. He is Associate Professor and head of the Research Group S:TEP (Substance use and related disorders: Treatment, Epidemiology and Prevention). In his research, he has a focus on behavioral addictions, substance use disorders, and mental disorders. He is especially interested in brief interventions, e-health interventions, screening and classification, as well as the natural course of addictive behavior. He is member of the expert group on Public Health Implications of Addictive Behaviors of the World Health Organization (WHO). He is engaged in further international cooperation such as with Children and Screens, Institute for Digital Media and Child Development as well as the International Council on Health Outcome Measures (ICHOM). He has published about 300 journal articles.
Joël Billieux
Section Editor: Internet Use Disorders
Joël Billieux is Associate Professor of clinical psychology, psychopathology, and psychological assessment at the university of Lausanne, and Research Unit Director of the Cognitive and Affective Regulation Lab (CARLA), Institute of Psychology (IP), University of Lausanne (UNIL). He is also associated researcher at Center for Excessive Gambling (Lausanne University Hospitals). In the past years, he has been working at the University of Luxembourg (2017-2020) and University catholique de Louvain (2011-2017). He earned his PhD in Psychological Sciences and accomplished his postgraduate CBT training at the University of Geneva. His main area of research regards the psychological factors (cognitive, affective, motivational, interpersonal) involved in the etiology of addictive behaviors, with a particular focus on self-regulation-related processes.
Oliver Grundmann
Section Editor: Kratom
Oliver Grundmann holds a B.Sc. in Pharmacy from the Westfälische-Wilhelms-Universität in Münster, Germany, a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences and an M.Sc. in Forensic Toxicology from the University of Florida. He has been a faculty member at the University of Florida, College of Pharmacy since 2008 and currently serves as the program director of the Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Clinical Toxicology graduate programs as well as Clinical Professor in the department of Medicinal Chemistry. Dr. Grundmann’s primary research interest is in natural products with CNS activity. Since 2016, he has been involved in a number of research initiatives on Mitragyna speciosa (Kratom) resulting in more than 25 publications on patterns of use, chemical composition, pharmacology, and therapeutic applications. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and 5 book chapters.
Kirsten Smith
Section Editor: Kratom
After receiving her Master’s degree in clinical social work from the University of Kentucky and working directly with people with substance use disorders, Dr. Kirsten Smith pivoted to a scientific career to better understand what she observed in the clinic. After earning her Ph.D. at the University of Louisville, Dr. Smith began her postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program (NDIA IRP) in the Translational Addiction Medicine Branch. At NIDA IRP, Dr. Smith continued earlier investigations into kratom using survey and social media data but also expanded methodology to include ecological momentary assessment, kratom product assay, and observational laboratory studies which can inform an interdisciplinary line of kratom research ranging from observational work to randomized behavioral-pharmacology experiments. Dr. Smith recently concluded a clinical trial on kratom and is currently developing protocols for the study of kratom, opioids, stimulants, and opioid use disorder, which she plans to implement in her new appointment as Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine beginning August 2023.
Declan Barry
Section Editor: Pain and Addiction
Dr. Barry is a clinical psychologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and in the Child Study Center at Yale School of Medicine. He is the Founding Director of the APT Foundation Pain Treatment Services, a research-based training clinic that offers interdisciplinary treatment to individuals with opioid use disorder and chronic pain. He has trained and supervised psychiatry, psychology, and nursing fellows as well as social workers and addiction counselors on behavioral and integrated treatments for opioid use disorder and chronic pain. His research is currently funded by two NIH grants (1U01HL150596-01; RM1 DA055310) and is aimed at: (1) developing and evaluating treatments for patients with opioid use disorder and chronic pain, and (2) examining the role of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors in the occurrence and treatment of pain and addictions. Dr. Barry is Co-Section Editor of the Co-Morbid Pain and Substance Use Disorders Section at Pain Medicine and is Associate Editor of the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health.
Lara Dhingra
Section Editor: Pain and Addiction
Lara Dhingra, PhD is a clinical psychologist with advanced training in pain, palliative care and health services research. Dr. Dhingra is the Director of Health Disparities and Outcomes Research at the MJHS Institute for Innovation in Palliative Care and an Associate Professor of Family and Social Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology at the Illinois Institute of Technology, followed by a Clinical Psychology Residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center/Veterans Administration Medical Center Consortium and a National Cancer Institute-sponsored Research Fellowship in Psycho-Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Following her fellowship, she joined the Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, where she became Co-Chief of Research. She has served as the Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator of multiple grant-funded studies on pain and symptom management with an emphasis on improving health disparities. Her published work has evaluated the epidemiology of chronic pain in populations with substance use disorders (SUDs) and the association between pain experience and illicit drug use behaviors in patients with SUDs.
Gustavo Angarita
Section Editor: Psychedelics
Experiencing the impact of the cocaine epidemic in my native Colombia led me to pursue a career dedicated to the improved understanding and treatment of cocaine and stimulant use disorders. Since completing clinical training and becoming U.S board certified in Adult Psychiatry and Addictions Psychiatry, I have developed academic interests in medication development efforts for these conditions. As part of this work, I use tools such as PET imaging to identify neurobiological underpinnings and to interrogate potential novel interventions. With the pressing need to address the opioid epidemic, I also pursue similar translational studies and collaborations investigating opioid use disorder in order to facilitate bench to PET imaging/human laboratory pilot studies, and ultimately to clinical trials to test novel interventions.
Anahita Bassir Nia
Section Editor: Psychedelics
Anahita Bassir Nia is an Addiction Psychiatrist and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, Connecticut, USA. She is currently working as the Assistant Clinical Unit Chief and Assistant Director for Training and Education at the Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit (CNRU), Connecticut Mental Health Hospital (CMHC). Dr. Bassir Nia has focused her research on translational science to understand the neurobiology of substance use disorders in relation to chronic stress, trauma and other contributing social factors. She is a scholar at the Clinician Scientist Training Program (CSTP) at Yale University and has received her career development award to study the endogenous cannabinoid system (eCB) in opioid use disorder (OUD) with the ultimate goal of targeting this system to develop novel therapeutic options in OUD treatment. Her research interest broadly is in translational research in the neurobiology of substance use disorders. Recently, she has focused on the eCB system alterations and eCB response to stress in OUD. She is also interested in developing novel options such as psychedelic compounds in treatment of substance use disorders, particularly alcohol use disorder and opioid use disorder.
Giulia Testa
Section Editor: Sex Addiction and Compulsive Sexual Behavior
I obtained a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology (2013) and a Master's degree in Clinical Neuropsychology (2014) at the University of Padua. In 2019, I completed my Ph.D. at the Department of Human and Social Sciences of Bergamo University (2019). From 2019 to 2022, I joined the Psychoneurobiology of Eating and Addictive Behaviours group at the University Hospital of Bellvitge (Barcelona). I am currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR).
My primary research interest is in the field of behavioral addictions, with ongoing current projects related to prevention and intervention for problematic use of pornography and mental health in youths. Another research topic of interest is the investigation of neurocognitive correlates of eating and weight disorders, using neuropsychological tasks and EEG methods.
Gemma Mestre-Bach
Section Editor: Sex Addiction and Compulsive Sexual Behavior
Gemma Mestre-Bach is a Graduate in Psychology from the University of Barcelona with a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology and in Sexual and Couple Therapy from the European Foundation, a Master's degree in Third Generation Therapies from the Valencian International University, and a Master's degree in Criminological and Victimological Intervention from the Miguel Hernández University, as well as a Ph.D. in Medicine and Translational Research from the University of Barcelona. She is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the International University of La Rioja (Spain).
Lisa Fucito
Section Editor: Sleep, Addiction and Substance Use
Dr. Lisa Fucito is an Associate Professor and Licensed Clinical Psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and Director of the Tobacco Treatment Service at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven Hospital. She is also a Board Member of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, a global professional society dedicated to the generation and dissemination of knowledge related to tobacco and nicotine. Her research seeks to understand the bio-behavioral underpinnings of substance use and to develop more effective interventions. To these aims, she utilizes various research designs and methods including daily experience sampling/biosensors, qualitative studies, laboratory-analogue models, clinical trials, and implementation science frameworks. She is interested in how technology can increase the reach and effectiveness of interventions and improve diagnostic precision. Of particular relevance to her Editorial role, Dr. Fucito is an expert in sleep-substance use associations. She has developed and tested integrated sleep and substance use interventions for cigarette smoking and heavy alcohol use.
Kelly DeMartini
Section Editor: Sleep, Addiction and Substance Use
Dr. Kelly DeMartini is a Research Scientist and Licensed Clinical Health Psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. She is an expert in the development and evaluation of alcohol interventions. Her program of research focuses on the application of state-of-the-art statistical modeling to identify predictors and sequelae of heavy drinking, the development and validation of psychological assessments, and the development of technology-based alcohol interventions. Her current interests center on the utilization of mobile technology (e.g., smartphones and wearables) to understand the development of AUDs and how technology can increase the utilization of treatments that can be accessed outside of a traditional in-person treatment setting. Other current work focuses on the development of interventions that concurrently target multiple health behaviors, namely alcohol use and sleep problems. Her clinical work has focused on the treatment of alcoholic liver disease in liver transplant and end-stage liver disease patients. She current serves as a Board Member of a Working Group for the Alcoholic Hepatitis Network project (AlcHepNet), a clinical and translational research initiative funded by NIAAA. The goal of this Working Group is to develop guidelines for clinical trials in patients with co-occurring alcoholic hepatitis and alcoholic liver disease.
MacKenzie Peltier
Section Editor: Women and Alcohol
Dr. MacKenzie Peltier is an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine where she studies sex differences in substance use disorders, with specific focus on the role of stress-reactivity, hormones, and medication response in alcohol use disorder. Dr. Peltier is also a Staff Psychologist at the Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, specializing in treating Veterans with co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorders. She obtained her doctorate in clinical psychology from Louisiana State University in 2017 and completed her postdoctoral work in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine.
Sherry McKee
Section Editor: Women and Alcohol
Dr. Sherry McKee is a Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, where she is the Founder and Director of the Yale Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory, and the Clinical Director of the Forensic Drug Diversion Clinic. Dr. McKee’s research over the past 25 years has been directed at developing effective treatments for addiction, with a particular focus on women and more recently, criminal justice populations. Her translational work spans human laboratory paradigms, clinical trials, and epidemiological research to uncover the mechanisms underlying poor outcomes and to translate these findings into improved interventions for women and men. As the PI of the NIH-funded Yale-Specialized Center of Research Excellence on Sex Differences in Alcohol Use Disorder, she directs an interdisciplinary team conducting cross-species research focused on expediting the development of gender-sensitive therapeutics, mentoring junior faculty, and providing a national resource on women and alcohol. Dr. McKee’s research achievements have been recognized by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Research Society for Alcoholism, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, and the American Psychological Association.