Dr. Sugy Choi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Sugy’s research focuses on health disparities and social determinants of health, with a focus on Asian American populations. She focuses on developing, implementing and evaluating appropriate interventions in partnership with community organizations, public health, and other government agencies to reduce inequities in treatment access and utilization.

Robert Ellis, MHA, is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health, School of Public Health, at the University of Washington in Seattle. Robert’s research interests include reducing disparities in alcohol-related health outcomes in clinical settings, intersectionality, unconscious and conscious provider bias, and improving access to and quality of treatment for alcohol use disorders (AUD). Robert received an NIH diversity supplement to support his dissertation, which focuses on understanding the association between intersectionality of sex, race or ethnicity, and socioeconomic status and the prevalence of clinically-documented AUD diagnoses in medical settings.

Kalina ML Fahey, MA is a doctoral candidate in the Health Psychology program at Oregon State University and soon to be postdoc at the Center on Alcohol, Substance use, And Addictions at University of New Mexico. Her research interests include the role of stress in LGBTQ+ substance use disparities and the complex relationship between LGBTQ+ identity and religion, specifically the effect religion can have on mental and physical health among LGBTQ+ populations.

Erin Ferguson is a doctoral candidate in Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Florida and a current clinical psychology intern at Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Her research focuses on psychosocial factors related to substance use among individuals living with chronic health conditions (e.g., HIV, pain).

Sage Feltus MS is a rising fourth year doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at Binghamton University. Her research interests include using both intensive longitudinal data collection and qualitative methodologies to study risk and protective factors for simultaneous alcohol and cannabis use and misuse among young adults.

Neo Gebru, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University School of Public Health. Dr. Gebru is a behavioral scientist with a focus on intervention development aimed towards initiating and maintaining health behavior change. His research explores basic behavioral mechanisms underlying addictive behaviors and risky behaviors, specifically unhealthy substance use and sexual risk-taking. His research applies behavioral economic concepts, and technology-based approaches to better understand, and intervene upon, substance misuse, and related negative consequences, particularly among young adults.

J.C. Gonzalez is a doctoral candidate in the department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology at University of California at Santa Barabara. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, J.C. served as a project coordinator on a NIMH-funded study investigating evidence-based practice sustainment in LA County where he gained foundational training in Implementation Science. He went on to recieve support from the Medical University of South Carolina to apply his research experience to the study of adolescent substance use. Upon completion of is doctoral studies, J.C. will begin a NIDA-funded T32 Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of California at San Fransisco.

Dr. Angela Haeny is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and leads the Racial Equity and Addiction Lab (REAL) at Yale School of Medicine. She is a licensed Clinical Psychologist with specialty in substance use disorders. Dr. Haeny is committed to eliminating racial disparities and enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, which cuts across all aspects of her work. Currently, Dr. Haeny’s research is considering how to target racial stress and trauma and other relevant constructs in drug and alcohol treatment to improve treatment outcomes, retention, and satisfaction among Black adults. This work is funded by a 5-year career development award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Hanna M. Hebden, M.S. is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of New Mexico. Her research aims to reduce harms associated with substance use in American Indian communities through personalized and culturally centered treatment.

Alexandra Hernandez-Vallant (Alex) is a 5th year doctoral candidate in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of New Mexico (UNM). She is also an NIAAA T32 Predoctoral Fellow at UNM Center on Alcohol, Substance Use, and Addictions (CASAA). Alex is passionate about conducting interdisciplinary research that bridges the gap between implementation science, health equity, and mechanisms of behavior change in substance use disorder treatment.

Gaby López, Ph.D is an NIAAA K99 funded Investigator at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University School of Public Health. Dr. López's research aims to reduce alcohol and mental health disparities among sexual minority women with histories of sexual assault.

Dr McCurdy is a neurobiologist by training who has recently pivoted to translational addiction research. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at Yale School of Medicine. Her program of research centers on uncovering neural and psychological mechanisms of addiction recovery, with a particular interest in psychosocial interventions. Relatedly, she is a certified recovery coach and a SMART Recovery meeting facilitator. She completed her PhD in neuroscience at Yale University, and her undergraduate degree in biochemistry at Columbia University.

Dr. Sam Meisel is a licensed clinical psychologist and a NIAAA K99 funded postdoctoral fellow at Bradley Hospital and Brown University’s Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies. Dr. Meisel’s research during graduate school took a developmentally informed approach to studying the initiation and escalation of adolescent substance use. Specifically, his research focused on understanding how social processes, mainly peer and parent-child relationships, contribute to the initiation and escalation of substance use during adolescence.

Ikela is 2nd year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology PhD program at the University of New Mexico under the guidance of Dr. Katie Witkiewitz. Prior to graduate school, he worked as a substance use counselor at a non-profit Level 1 Medication-Assisted Opioid Treatment Program in Northern Nevada. His primary research interests include the utilization of mindfulness and acceptance-based interventions for the treatment of substance use disorders, particularly for historically marginalized and underserved populations.

Anthony Surace received his PhD in Behavioral and Social Sciences in 2022 and is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Alcohol Research Group. His research focuses on the impact of social marginalization on alcohol use and health among the LGBT community. Anthony has used a variety of techniques to conduct this work, including qualitative methods and multi-level models. He is currently using legal epidemiology methods to investigate how laws impact alcohol-related health disparities among the LGBT community.

Jake is a clinical psychology PhD student at the University of Memphis. He is a graduate of the Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences master’s program at The Graduate Center CUNY and also earned an advanced certificate in Comparative Effectiveness & Implementation Research Training from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Jake aims to contribute to the improvement of standards of care for behavioral health issues in community settings, through the adaptation and implementation of evidence-based psychosocial interventions.

Alexander Wilkins, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at UMass Chan Medical School and recipient of a K23 Career Development Award from NIAAA. His program of research focuses on a community-engaged approach to developing resources for mental health and behavioral health care for deaf and hard of hearing individuals.