Research Psychologist, Friends Research Institute, Inc.
Leslie Amass received her Ph.D. in Experimental/Physiological Psychology from Boston University in 1990, completing her studies in Dr. Scott E. Lukas' Neuropsychopharmacology Laboratory. A Research Fellowship in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School with Dr. Jack Mendelson, and PHS postdoctoral training in human behavioral pharmacology and therapy at the University of Vermont College of Medicine with Dr. Warren K. Bickel led to her long-standing interests studying novel pharmacotherapies for opioid dependence and transfer of behavioral strategies to community treatment. During faculty appointments at the Addiction Research Foundation in Toronto and the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Dr. Amass developed research/clinical programs for substance abuse and secured two NIDA ROI's to study buprenorphine-naloxone and contingency management for real-life drug treatment. This year, Dr. Amass joined Dr. Walter Ling in Los Angeles, CA, where she is a Research Psychologist in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and a Principal Investigator with the Friends Research Institute, Inc. While continuing NIDA-funded studies on contingency management, Dr. Amass became the Project Director of the Buprenorphine-Naloxone Detoxification Protocols for the NIDA Clinical Trials Network. She has authored or co-authored over 70 scientific reports, review articles and monographs, serves on Advisory Boards for buprenorphine and buprenorphine-naloxone in both the U.S. and Canada, and serves as an Ad Hoc member of the NIDA-K committee. Dr. Amass has been a CPDD member since 1993. She is a former NIDA and CPDD Travel Awardee and a member of CPDD's Human Research Committee (1995- 1997), and is on CPDD's Industry Relations Committee.