Award Recipients

PhD Candidate, Yale University

Tamara Beetham is a PhD candidate at Yale School of Public Health. Her research focuses on improving access to evidence-based behavioral healthcare for underserved populations. She is the PI of a NIDA-funded Dissertation Award to evaluate effects of the 1115 Medicaid SUD IMD Waivers. She received her MPH from Harvard School of Public Health, and previously provided clinical care in an inpatient psychiatric unit for seven years. She has presented work from ‘secret shopper’ studies on addiction treatment access and quality to policymakers, regulatory bodies, and accreditors including the US Senate, FTC, DOJ, and The Joint Commission.

Assistant Professor, University of Washington School of Medicine

Brittany Blanchard is a licensed clinical psychologist, Assistant Professor, and Director of the Division of Population Health Analytics Team and NIMH-funded P50 ALACRITY Center Methods Core in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Her research interests include harm reduction, psychometrics, measurement-based care, and human-centered design. Currently, she is an NCATS-funded UW Institute of Translational Health Sciences (ITHS) KL2 Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Career Development Program scholar. Her research focuses on implementation of harm reduction strategies in primary care for patients who use stimulants and opioids.

PhD Candidate, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Lauren Caton is a PhD candidate in UNC’s Department of Maternal and Child Health and current AHRQ National Research Service T32 Trainee in Health Services Research. Her dissertation is focused on developing a systems dynamics model of state-level maternal substance use policies. She has held prior research roles at the National Association of Substance Abuse Directors (NASADAD), Stanford University, UC San Francisco (UCSF), and UC Berkeley. She holds a BS in Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology from the University of Texas at Austin and a MPH in Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health from UC Berkeley.

PhD Candidate, University of Washington

Bulat Idrisov is completing his PhD in Health Services Research at the University of Washington School of Public Health. He holds an MD from Bashkir State Medical University and an MSc from Brandeis University. Bulat’s research focuses on health care spending effectiveness, HIV, HCV, and substance use care, supported by a CHERISH pilot grant. His studies span from digital therapeutics for substance use to the HIV and addiction care cascade in Eastern Europe. He has previously been awarded the Fulbright Scholarship and the NIDA INVEST Research Fellowship.

PhD Candidate, New York University

Mehrdad Khezri is a PhD Candidate at the New York University School of Global Public Health. He is also affiliated with the WHO Collaborating Center for HIV Surveillance (HIVHUB) in the Middle East and North Africa. His research focuses on prevention and treatment services for polysubstance use, overdose, HIV, and HCV among people who inject drugs in New York City, Vietnam, and Iran.

MD/PhD Candidate, Virginia Commonwealth University

Sarah Marks is an MD/PhD candidate in the Department of Health Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her dissertation research, supported by an NIH Individual NRSA Fellowship (F30), examines the impact of health disparities and substance use disorders on Virginia Medicaid members experiencing an intensive care unit stay. She also serves as a research assistant evaluating Virginia Medicaid’s 1115 demonstration waiver for substance use disorder treatment. Previously, she received a master’s in biostatistics and worked as a biostatistician in clinical research. She hopes to work as a physician scientist in critical care medicine, integrating clinical practice and health policy research.

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Suffolk University

Maha Mian is an Assistant Professor at Suffolk University. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University at Albany, SUNY, completed her clinical internship at VA Palo Alto, and was a postdoctoral scholar in the NIDA T32 Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Services Research fellowship at University of California, San Francisco, and Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. Dr. Mian’s research is grounded in the principles of harm reduction, and aims to enhance novel and accessible protective strategies to help people reduce risks associated with substance use, specifically cannabis and
psychedelics through community collaborations and mixed methods approaches.