The Scientific Advisory Board includes nationally renowned experts from the fields of medicine, psychiatry, addiction treatment, research, and public health, including:
Brian Fuehrlein, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine; Director of the Psychiatric Emergency Room at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System.
Jack Stein, Ph.D., clinical social worker, health professional trainer/educator, policy analyst, and federal manager.
James H. Berry, DO, Professor and Chair, Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, Director of Addictions, West Virginia University School of Medicine.
Jean Lud Cadet, M.D., Senior Investigator,Chief, Molecular Neuropsychiatry Research Branch, Chief, Molecular Neuropsychiatry Section, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health
Marc N. Potenza, MD, PhD., Director, Division on Addictions Research at Yale, Director, Yale Center of Excellence in Gambling Research, Director, Women and Addictions Core of Women's Health Research at Yale, Director, Yale Impulsivity Research Program, Albert E. Kent Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Child Study, Yale University School of Medicine
Mark S. Gold, M.D., Former Chairman of Psychiatry at the University of Florida, Adjunct Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, School of Medicine.
Nicole Avena, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Visiting Professor of Health Psychology, Princeton University.
Valerie Earnshaw, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the University of Delaware
Scientific Advisory Board Members
Brian Fuehrlein, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine; Director of the Psychiatric Emergency Room at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System.
Dr. Fuehrlein graduated from the M.D. Ph.D. program at the University of Florida in 2008, adult psychiatry residency program at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 2012 and addiction psychiatry fellowship at Yale University in 2013. He is currently an Associate Professor and the director of the psychiatric emergency room at the VA Connecticut. Dr. Fuehrlein has a strong interest in medical student and resident education, particularly surrounding addiction psychiatry and serves on multiple local and national committees in this role. In 2017 he was awarded the Irma Bland award for excellency in psychiatry resident education through the APA. In 2018 he was awarded the Clerkship Faculty Teaching Award for Outstanding Medical Student Educator and Role Model. He is also passionate about emergency psychiatry and substance use disorders and has presented and published his work surrounding opioid use disorder in the emergency room setting. In 2019 he was inducted into the American College of Psychiatrists, an organization that recognizes excellence in clinical practice, research, academic leadership, or teaching.
Jack Stein, Ph.D., clinical social worker, health professional trainer/educator, policy analyst, and federal manager.
Dr. Stein has over two decades of professional experience in leading national drug and HIV-related research, practice, and policy. He worked for NIDA as the OSPC Deputy Director, and later as the Deputy Director for the Division of Epidemiology, Services and Prevention Research. He then left NIDA to become Director of the Division of Services Improvement, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Prior to rejoining NIDA, Stein served as the Chief of the Prevention Branch, Office of Demand Reduction, at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Dr. Stein has authored numerous articles, book chapters, and reports on HIV prevention and substance use services. He is a graduate of Union College, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in biology. He holds a master’s degree in social work from New York University and a doctoral degree in health services from Walden University. https://www.jbstherapyandcoaching.com/
Dr. James Berry, Professor and Chair of the Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry at West Virginia University School of Medicine
James H. Berry, DO is Professor and Chair of the Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry at West Virginia University School of Medicine and the Director of Addictions. He is board-certified in both General Psychiatry and Addiction Psychiatry. He received his medical degree from Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, completed a General Psychiatry residency at West Virginia University, and an Addiction Psychiatry fellowship at the University of Hawaii. He and his colleagues at WVU have developed innovative community-based treatment models in response to the addiction crisis in Appalachia and are actively engaged in novel National Institute of Drug Abuse-supported neuromodulation research related to substance use disorders through WVU’s Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute.
Jean Lud Cadet, M.D., Senior Investigator,Chief, Molecular Neuropsychiatry Research Branch, Chief, Molecular Neuropsychiatry Section, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health.
Jean Lud Cadet, M.D. came to NYC from Haiti in 1970. He attended Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons from which he obtained his MD in 1979. He did residency training in Psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University and in Neurology at the Department of Neurology at Mount Sinai Medical Center, both in New York City. He came to NIDA, IRP in 1992 where he is presently a senior NIH investigator and the Chief of the Molecular Neuropsychiatry Research Branch. Dr. Cadet has co-authored more than 300 papers, abstracts and book chapters on the molecular neurobiology of addiction and neurodegeneration. He has also written about cognitive deficits in cocaine and marijuana abusers. Presently, his laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms of stimulant-induced changes in the expression of genes and proteins in specific neuronal cells. He is also investigating the epigenetic bases of methamphetamine and oxycodone addiction.
Marc N. Potenza, MD, PhD., Director, Division on Addictions Research at Yale, Director, Yale Center of Excellence in Gambling Research, Director, Women and Addictions Core of Women's Health Research at Yale, Director, Yale Impulsivity Research Program, Albert E. Kent Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Child Study, Yale University School of Medicine
Dr. Potenza is a board-certified psychiatrist with sub-specialty training in addiction psychiatry. He has trained at Yale University receiving a combined BS/MS with Honors in Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics and a PhD in Cell Biology, the latter concurrent with the MD through the Medical Scientist Training Program. He completed an internship, psychiatric residency, and addiction psychiatry fellowship training at Yale. 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 Problem Gambling Clinic, the Center of Excellence in Gambling Research, and the Women and Addictive Disorders Core of Women's Health Research at Yale. He is also a Senior Research Scientist at the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling. He is on the editorial boards of fifteen journals (including editor-in-chief of Current Addiction Reports) and has received multiple national and international awards for excellence in research and clinical care. Recently, he has received lifetime achievement research awards from the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling and the National Council on Problem Gambling and research awards from the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health and Turkish Green Crescent Society (Phoenix Award for Addiction Research). 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 the World Health Organization (WHO) on matters of addiction. He has participated in two DSM-5 research work groups and five 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. This work has also involved
identifying potential intermediary phenotypes, like facets of impulsivity, that may in part explain the high rates of co-occurrence between psychiatric conditions and might represent novel targets for prevention and treatment strategies.
Mark S. Gold, M.D., Former Chairman of Psychiatry at the University of Florida, Adjunct Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, School of Medicine.
Dr. Mark Gold is an inventor, pioneering translational researcher, Eminent Scholar, Distinguished Professor, & Chairman whose career in translational neuroscience began in 1972. His theories have changed the field, stimulated research, and led to new treatments. Gold, while at the YSOM, proposed a novel brain mechanism and changes to explain opioid dependence and withdrawal, and discovered the anti-withdrawal efficacy of alpha-2 adrenergic agonists-clonidine and lofexidine. He has made major contributions to Naloxone in overdose and Naltrexone and agonist therapies in OUD.
He has received numerous awards for his research and translating them into new treatments. Principally, in addiction medicine, but also in endocrinology, nerve repair, and cancer. Gold’s work has been a critical part of the foundational science that established that drugs of abuse change the brain, are addicting on the basis of these changes, and can be successfully treated. He has also suggested that some changes are more easily reversed than others and that dual disorders result from drug use rather than cause them.
He is an author and inventor who has published over 1000 peer-reviewed scientific articles, 20 textbooks, popular general audience books, and physician practice guidelines. Gold was the co-inventor of the use of clonidine in opioid withdrawal and the dopamine hypothesis for cocaine addiction and anhedonia. Both revolutionized how neuroscientists and physicians thought about drugs of abuse, addiction, and the brain. He pioneered the use of clonidine and lofexidine in the late ‘70s and early '80s which became the first non-opioid medication-assisted therapies. His first academic appointment was at Yale University School of Medicine in 1978. Working with Herb Kleber he advanced his noradrenergic hyperactivity theory of opioid withdrawal and the use of clonidine and lofexidine to ameliorate these signs and symptoms. During this time Gold and Kleber also worked on rapid detoxification with naloxone and induction on to Naltrexone. Gold has studied Impaired Health Professionals since his work with oral Naltrexone at Yale in the late 70s and continued with studies of MDs in Florida. https://www.drmarkgold.com/
Nicole Avena, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Visiting Professor of Health Psychology, Princeton University.
Dr. Nicole Avena is a research neuroscientist and expert in the fields of nutrition, diet, and addiction. She is a pioneer in the field of food addiction, and it was her seminal research work that jump-started this exciting new field of exploration in medicine and nutrition. She is also an expert in diet during pregnancy and childhood nutrition.
Dr. Avena received a Ph.D. in Psychology and Neuroscience from Princeton University in 2006. She then completed her postdoctoral fellowship in 2010 at the prestigious Rockefeller University in New York City.
Dr. Avena presently is an AssociateProfessor of Neuroscience at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City and a Visiting Professor in Health Psychology at Princeton University. She has published over 100 scholarly journal articles and several academic and trade books on topics related to diet, nutrition, and overeating, and she frequently presents her research findings at scientific conferences and University symposia. Her research achievements have been honored by awards from several groups including the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Psychological Association, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She has received research funding from prestigious sources, including the National Institutes of Health and the National Eating Disorders Association. https://www.drnicoleavena.com/
Valerie A. Earnshaw, PhD is a social psychologist and Associate Professor at the University of Delaware.
Her research focuses on understanding and addressing associations between stigma and health inequities across the lifespan. Dr. Earnshaw aims to contribute to knowledge of the mechanisms whereby stigma undermines health outcomes and what moderates these relationships in protective ways, as well as contribute to interventions that improve the well-being of stigmatized children, youth, and families. Much of her current research focuses on stigma associated with substance use disorders, HIV, and mental illness. Dr. Earnshaw earned her PhD in Social Psychology in 2011 from the University of Connecticut, and then pursued post-doctoral training in HIV/AIDS at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale University as well as in child- and family-centered health outcomes research at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital. Her work can be seen on her website, earnshawlab.org.