Brentwood, TN (February 16, 2021) - The College on Problems of Drug Dependence is pleased to announce the election of the 2021-2022 President-Elect Amy Janes, PhD and new Board of Directors Members Qiana Brown, PhD, Albert Garcia-Romeu, PhD, Angela Heads, PhD, and Michael Taffe, PhD.
“The CPDD Board of Directors is comprised of dedicated scientists focusing their research on substance use disorder,” stated 2020-2021 CPDD President-Elect William Stoops, PhD, University of Kentucky. “We are excited to welcome and onboard Drs. Janes, Brown, Garcia-Romeu, Heads and Taffe as the newest class of CPDD leaders.”
President-Elect
Amy Janes, PhD, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Amy Janes, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School’s McLean Hospital where she directs the Functional Integration of Addiction Research Laboratory. Dr. Janes completed her graduate training in the Brain, Behavior, and Cognition division of Psychology at Boston University under the guidance of Drs. James Cherry and Kathleen Kantak. While her initial work focused on the molecular mechanisms of cocaine dependence, she transitioned to using clinical neuroimaging methods for her post-doctoral training at McLean Hospital. Since 2008, she has received continuous career development support from NIDA in the form of a postdoctoral T32 fellowship under the direction of Dr. Scott Lukas (DA015036; 2008-2011), a K01(DA029645; 2011-2017) and her current K02 (DA042987; 2017-2022). She also holds an R01 and R03 focused on the neurobiology of nicotine dependence and neuroscience-guided potential cessation aids. In 2019, she was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Dr. Janes is an Associate Director for the NIDA-funded T32 training program focused on research in Substance Use Disorders and Brain Imaging. She has trained individuals at various career stages and was the 2020 recipient of the Anne M. Cataldo Excellence in Mentoring Award at McLean Hospital. Dr. Janes is strongly committed to supporting CPDD. She has regularly attended CPDD since 2008 and her service to CPDD includes membership on the Finance (2012-2016), Media (2016-2018), and Nominating Committees (2018-2019), as well as on the Board of Directors (2017-2020) and Board of Directors Liaison to the Early Career Members Committee (ECMC, 2019-2020). Due to her translational training, Dr. Janes brings substantial experience and a deep appreciation for all research domains embraced by CPDD and a desire to foster translational research. Finally, she brings her dedication to supporting junior scientists as they navigate their professional careers and become more involved in CPDD
Board of Directors
Qiana L. Brown, PhD, MPH, LCSW, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Dr. Qiana L. Brown is an Assistant Professor at the Rutgers School of Social Work and School of Public Health, Department of Urban-Global Public Health. She is an epidemiologist, social worker, and clinical and translational scientist. Previously, she was an Army nurse. From a health equity lens, her research focuses on system-level change to improve maternal and child health, centering on preventing prenatal substance use and examining the role of the built and social environment and health and social policy in shaping substance use and other health outcomes among women, youth, and families. Dr. Brown also serves on the editorial boards of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Substance Use and Misuse, and the Journal of Substance Use. Additionally, she founded and directs a community-based substance abuse treatment center focused on helping women, families, and communities address substance use and related problems. Dr. Brown has held membership and regularly attended annual meetings since 2010. She has served as a member of the Publications Committee (2017-2018) then as its chair (2018-2020), and as a member of the 2019-2020 Nominating Committee, and Social Media Committee (2018-2019). Currently, she co-chairs the Communications Committee. Serving on different CPDD committees has allowed her to collaborate with many members of the College and develop a strong appreciation for the breadth of research interests within the CPDD. As a Board member, she will use her interdisciplinary expertise to help disseminate and translate knowledge between researchers, practitioners and the community, which will help the College’s membership identify community- and practice-based needs and develop research responsive to these needs.
Albert Garcia-Romeu, PhD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Albert Garcia-Romeu, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a Guest Researcher at the National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program. His research examines the effects of psychedelics in humans, with a focus on psilocybin as an aid in the treatment of addiction. He received his doctorate in Psychology in 2012 from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, where he studied self-transcendence and meditation, and their relationship to mental health. His current research interests include clinical applications of psychedelics, mindfulness, and altered states of consciousness and their underlying mechanisms. He additionally studies real-world drug use patterns and impacts on public health, and the role of spirituality in mental health and addiction. He is a founding member of the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research and has been active in the College on Problems of Drug Dependence since 2013, including serving on the Underrepresented Populations (URPOP) Committee.
Angela M. Heads, PhD, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) McGovern Medical School
Dr. Heads is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) McGovern Medical School. She received her PhD from Texas A&M University in College Station, TX in 2009. She is a licensed psychologist and researcher focusing on substance use disorders treatment, HIV prevention, health disparities, and cultural determinants of mental and physical health in underserved populations. She is the Project Director (PD/PI) for two SAMHSA-funded programs providing substance use and HIV prevention services to underserved populations. She is also the PD/PI for a SAMHSA-funded program providing training in the delivery of medication assisted treatment for opioid use disorders to medical students, psychiatry residents and nurse practitioner students. She is the current project evaluator for a SAMHSA-funded program providing psychiatric treatment and housing services for individuals experiencing homelessness with serious mental illness and the former project evaluator for an HIV prevention and substance use prevention program for college students attending an Historically Black University (HBCU). She is actively involved in clinical training and research mentorship of psychology interns, postdoctoral fellows and psychiatry residents. In her role as Research Coordinator for the Texas Mental Health Equity Mentor Network (TMHEMN), she is actively involved in mentorship and professional development for trainees in medical schools in the Texas Gulf Coast region. She is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Connections scholar. She has presented and published research in the areas of substance use disorders prevention and treatment, health disparities, and barriers and facilitators of mental health and addiction treatment engagement. She is a member of the American Psychological Association and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. She has regularly attended CPDD meetings since joining in 2013. She has served on the Underrepresented Populations Committee since 2018.
Michael Taffe, PhD, University of California, San Diego
Dr. Michael A. Taffe obtained his bachelor’s degree from the Colorado College in 1990 and went on to complete doctoral studies in Experimental Psychology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in 1995. Following a brief postdoctoral stint in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD, he joined The Scripps Research Institute as a post-doc and was appointed to the faculty of TSRI in 2000. Dr. Taffe was then recruited to join the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD in 2019. Dr. Taffe’s work has focused on the potential harms and health risks that attend both acute and chronic exposure to recreational drugs, including MDMA (“Ecstasy”), alcohol, ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and the designer cathinone psychostimulants (“bath salts”), heroin and the prescription opioid oxycodone. The therapeutic work in the laboratory extends to evaluating anti-drug vaccines for potential use against methamphetamine, oxycodone and cathinone abuse and dependence.
On behalf of the CPDD Community, please welcome the new leadership taking office at the end of the CPDD 83rd Annual Scientific Meeting.