• Danielle Dick

    Director

    danielle.m.dick@rutgers.edu
    Danielle Dick

    Danielle Dick, Ph.D.

    Director

    Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

    danielle.m.dick@rutgers.edu

    My research focuses on how genetic and environmental influences contribute to the development of patterns of substance use and related behaviors, such as child behavioral and emotional challenges, and how we can use that information to inform prevention and intervention. My work integrates developmental and clinical psychology, behavior genetics/twin studies, and statistical genetics/gene identification. I am particularly interested in impulsivity and behavioral/emotional regulation.

  • Emily Balcke

    Emily Balcke, M.Sc.

    Program Manager

    emily.balcke@rutgers.edu
  • Associate Director, Basic/Translational Science

    Associate Director, Basic/Translational Science

    The Brain Health Institute (BHI) and Rutgers Addiction Research Center (RARC) are recruiting a tenured or tenure track faculty member at the Assistant/Associate/Professor level to expand our research portfolio in the basic/translational science of substance use disorders, broadly defined to include preclinical or human subjects-based research programs. The specific area of research is open, and can include but is not limited to animal behavior, animal or human psychopharmacology, neuroimaging, biomarker development, and/or interventions development/therapeutics.

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  • Associate Director, Epidemiology, Etiology & Prevention

    kristina.jackson@rutgers.edu

    Kristina Jackson, Ph.D.

    Associate Director, Epidemiology, Etiology & Prevention

    Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School , Psychiatry

    kristina.jackson@rutgers.edu

    Dr. Jackson’s research largely centers on the etiology and course of substance use among adolescents and young adults. She is currently funded by NIAAA and NIDA to examine individual- and contextual-level risk factors for substance use initiation and progression to increasingly severe use, including in vulnerable populations and youth with mental health comorbidities. Her work also involves understanding the sources of messaging surrounding cannabis and people’s motives for using cannabis and the context of their use. She has conducted work on the remission of substance use disorders in college students and across young adulthood, and employs fine-grained approaches to study co-use of alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis.

  • Associate Director, Treatment & Recovery

    Associate Director, Treatment & Recovery

    The Brain Health Institute (BHI) and Rutgers Addiction Research Center (RARC) are recruiting a tenured or tenure track faculty member at the senior Assistant/Associate/Professor level to expand our research program in clinical trials of interventions to treat substance misuse and addiction.

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  • Associate Director, Public Policy

    Associate Director, Public Policy

    The Brain Health Institute (BHI) and Rutgers Addiction Research Center (RARC) are recruiting a tenured or tenure track faculty member at the Assistant/Associate/Professor level to expand our research program in public policy implications of addiction.

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Executive Board

  • Headshot of Alexandria Bauer

    Chair, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

    agb133@gsapp.rutgers.edu
    Headshot of Alexandria Bauer

    Alexandria Bauer, Ph.D.

    Chair, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

    Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology

    agb133@gsapp.rutgers.edu

    Dr. Bauer’s research interests include understanding and addressing health disparities that burden Black/African American and other minoritized populations, particularly using community-based participatory research strategies. Her work focuses on three main outcomes: (1) Improving health and well-being for people in diverse and minoritized communities, particularly in the mental health conditions that impact them most (e.g., trauma, substance use), (2) Understanding and addressing social determinants of health that contribute to, or maintain, those disparities, and (3) Improving available treatments for mental health conditions, so that all people have access to treatment that recognizes and values their identities and experiences.

  • Headshot of Tammy Chung

    Chair, Epidemiology, Etiology & Prevention

    tchung@ifh.rutgers.edu
    Headshot of Tammy Chung

    Tammy Chung, Ph.D.

    Chair, Epidemiology, Etiology & Prevention

    Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

    tchung@ifh.rutgers.edu

    My research focuses on adolescent and young adult substance use: assessment and diagnosis, clinical course, prevention and early intervention. Current projects evaluate the use of mobile technology for substance use assessment and intervention. Another line of research examines social determinants of health and racial/ethnic disparities in substance use risk across multiple levels of analysis (e.g., individual, interpersonal, neighborhood) in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study, a large longitudinal national sample of youth to inform prevention efforts and advance health equity.

  • Headshot of Nina Cooperman

    Chair, Treatment & Recovery

    cooperna@rwjms.rutgers.edu
    Headshot of Nina Cooperman

    Nina Cooperman, Psy.D.

    Chair, Treatment & Recovery

    Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

    cooperna@rwjms.rutgers.edu

    My research focuses on developing and evaluating novel interventions for substance use and other health behaviors. I am currently conducting research on a mindfulness-based intervention for opioid use and chronic pain among people in methadone treatment, peer recovery support for opioid overdose survivors in the emergency department, and an intervention to link people impacted by opioid use to employment. I also oversee a program to educate the public on the opioid overdose and distribute naloxone to professionals and community members across the state. The National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, the state of New Jersey, and Arnold Ventures have funded my research.

  • Morgan James

    Chair, Junior Faculty & Trainee Engagement

    mhj32@rwjms.rutgers.edu
    Morgan James

    Morgan James, Ph.D.

    Chair, Junior Faculty & Trainee Engagement

    Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

    mhj32@rwjms.rutgers.edu

    Our lab examines the neural basis of substance use and eating disorders, as well as a range of related sequelae (e.g. anxiety, depression, sleep dysregulation). We take a mechanistic approach to these questions, combining animal behavioral models with modern neuroscience techniques. We also have a strong interest in drug-development, and thus place a specific emphasis on carrying out discovery research that can directly guide and inform clinical outcomes. Most of our current work focuses on the hypothalamic orexin/hypocretin system, which we believe holds significant promise as a target for new medications to manage substance use disorder and food overconsumption.

  • Chair, Special Programs

    manowitz@rwjms.rutgers.edu

    Paul Manowitz, Ph.D.

    Chair, Special Programs

    Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

    manowitz@rwjms.rutgers.edu

    Dr. Paul Manowitz is interested in the biochemistry and genetics of mental illness. One of his main interests is the identification of a gene involved in susceptibility to alcohol use disorder. His research has identified an abnormal protein, an enzyme (arylsulfatase A) which occurs much more frequently in individuals with alcohol use disorder. Tissue culture experiments have shown that this protein is much less stable metabolically than the normal protein. Molecular biological studies have determined the site of the nucleic acid change which produces the abnormal protein.

  • Photograph of Dice with Double Sixes

    Chair, Public Policy and Behavioral Addictions

    lnower@rutgers.edu
    Photograph of Dice with Double Sixes

    Lia Nower, Ph.D.

    Chair, Public Policy and Behavioral Addictions

    School of Social Work

    lnower@rutgers.edu

    My research is focused on the etiology of problem gambling across gambling subtypes and the prevalence of and incidence of gambling disorder and other comorbid addictions. My work also includes designing effective screening tools and treatments to address problem gambling, as well as conducting analyses of big-data from online gambling and sports wagering environments to identifying trends with implications for harm reduction and responsible gambling. Finally, a key component of my work is to drive public policy innovations by translating knowledge from my empirical and theoretical findings to enhance the lives of those suffering from addictions and their families.

  • Headshot of Chris Pierce

    Chair, Basic Science and Training

    chris.pierce@rutgers.edu
    Headshot of Chris Pierce

    Chris Pierce, Ph.D.

    Chair, Basic Science and Training

    Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

    chris.pierce@rutgers.edu

    Currently, there are no effective therapies for cocaine addiction, which directly affects over two million people in the United States alone. This reality is the driving force for our research program. The major hurdle for abstaining from abuse of cocaine is intense drug craving, which can be triggered months and even years following the cessation of drug use. The most widely accepted model of craving in animals involves self-administration followed by extinction and the subsequent reinstatement of drug seeking. Using this animal model, our research team pursues a strategy to identify novel neurobiological adaptations produced by cocaine and then uses this information to formulate potential cocaine addiction therapies.