Services Research Branch (SRB)

What We Do:

The Services Research Branch supports a national program of health services research to improve the quality of the drug abuse treatment system.

Research Goals:

Improve the quality of drug abuse treatment services, through research on:

• Prescription drug abuse, chronic pain management, and primary care - Program Contact: Richard Denisco
• Tobacco and nicotine services research - Program Contact: Richard Denisco
• Implementation science, organizational studies, and workforce issues - Program Contact: Lori Ducharme
• Economics and financing - Program Contact: Sarah Duffy
• Health disparities, and HIV/AIDS - Program Contact: Dionne Jones
• Drug abuse and psychiatric comorbidities; mHealth technologies; HIV testing and care - Program Contact: Shoshana Kahana
• Criminal justice, juvenile justice and child welfare systems - Program Contact: Tisha Wiley
• Methodology and measurement development- Program Contact: Tisha Wiley

Staff Biographies for Services Research Branch:

• Redonna K. Chandler, Ph.D. - Branch Chief
  (301) 443-6504
  Redonna K. Chandler, Ph.D. is currently the Chief of the Services Research Branch at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She provides scientific leadership on research intended to improve the quality of drug abuse treatment services with a special emphasis on the implementation of evidence-based interventions, data harmonization, and HIV. She has also served as the Deputy Branch Chief and Health Scientist Administrator providing guidance and oversight for a large portfolio of research grants seeking to deliver effective drug abuse treatment to individuals in the criminal justice system. Prior to joining NIDA, she worked for the Bureau of Prisons implementing and evaluating evidence-based substance abuse treatment programs federally sentenced offenders. Dr. Chandler was trained as a psychologist and received her doctoral degree from the University of Kentucky. She has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on a range of topics including measuring drug treatment process and outcomes, treating offenders with substance abuse disorders, addressing co-occurring substance abuse and mental health disorders, and substance abuse problems of adolescent girls. As a licensed psychologist she is an active member in the American Psychological Association and has served as an officer for the Society for the Psychology of Women.
• Dionne J. Jones, Ph.D. - Program Official
  (301) 402-1984
  Dr. Jones is currently the Deputy Branch Chief and Health Scientist Administrator in the Services Research Branch, Division of Epidemiology, Services and Prevention Research, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). She joined NIDA in 1998 and manages a grant portfolio that includes health disparities, women and gender issues, HIV/AIDS, criminal justice populations, co-occurring disorders. She is also the Lead Program Coordinator in NIDA’s Special Populations Office for the African American Researchers and Scholars Work Group with whom she identifies gaps and opportunities to promote the conduct of health disparities research. Dr. Jones has planned and organized meetings on health disparities-related topics, and subsequently compiled paper presentations which were published in special supplemental issues of Public Health Reports (2002) and the Journal of Urban Health (2005) where she was a Guest Editor. Before joining the federal government, Dr. Jones served in a number of administrative and research capacities at nonprofit and for profit organizations, including the National Urban League, The Lewin Group, and Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. In addition, she was managing editor of The Urban League Review, a semi-annual policy research journal of the National Urban League. She has published journal articles, book chapters, and a monograph on a number of public health-related areas.
• Richard A. Denisco, M.D., M.P.H. - Medical Officer
  (301) 594-4371
  Dr. Denisco joined the Services Research Branch in September 2005. His grant portfolio emphasizes nicotine/tobacco use, chronic pain and prescription drug abuse and primary care medicine linkages. He received his undergraduate degree from Emory University and his medical degree from the University of Florida. He completed residency at the University of Florida and Fellowship at the University of Florida and the Texas Heart Institute, receiving Board Certification in Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine. Dr. Denisco has served as an attending Anesthesiologist and Department Chair, and as the Medical Director of two Chronic Pain Management and Rehabilitation Centers. He was elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society and Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. His professional background also includes membership in ASAM and work with a community-based treatment center. He has served on state and local legislative committees, where he developed an interest in public health and medical policy and analysis. In 2005 he received a MPH degree from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.
• Lori J. Ducharme, Ph.D. - Program Official
  (301) 443-2279
  Dr. Lori Ducharme joined NIDA in 2008.  Her grant portfolio examines the variety of factors influencing the adoption of evidence-based treatment practices and service delivery models.  Projects in this area include organization and management studies; workforce training, turnover, and clinical supervision; and implementation science.  Dr. Ducharme is an organizational sociologist with a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.  Prior to joining NIDA, she was on the research faculty at UGA, where she was part of a collaborative investigator team studying the organization, delivery, and quality of addiction treatment services in the nation's specialty behavioral health care system. She has also previously worked as a project manager in contract research settings, focusing on large-scale evaluations of Federal performance monitoring systems related to drug abuse detection and treatment. Dr. Ducharme has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles on substance abuse treatment topics, mostly examining predictors of high-quality service delivery.
• Sarah Q. Duffy, Ph.D. - Associate Director for Economics Research
  (301) 451-4998
  Dr. Duffy joined NIDA's Services Research Branch (SRB), where she is responsible for NIDA's economics and performance equality measurement portfolios, in 2006. Prior to joining NIDA she spent eight years as a senior research economist at the Office of Applied Studies at SAMSHA where she used data from large national data collection project, including the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), to conduct economic and health services research on substance abuse treatment and costs. Prior to joining SAMHSA, Dr. Duffy worked for the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission and the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality where she published several articles in the substance abuse treatment, health services research, and economics literatures. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
• Shoshana Kahana, Ph.D. - Program Official
  (301) 443-2261
  Shoshana Kahana joined the Services Research Branch in 2011. Prior to coming to NIDA, Dr. Kahana was a Visiting Scientist at the National Institute of Mental Health. At NIDA, Dr. Kahana manages a portfolio of grants that focuses on HIV testing as well as access to HIV care for substance-abusing and other high-risk, vulnerable populations; mobile technologies; and the delivery of treatment services that target drug abuse and psychiatric comorbidities.  She helps to coordinate the “Seek, Test, Treat, and Retain” for Criminal Justice and Vulnerable Populations Data Harmonization initiatives.  Dr. Kahana also serves as a scientific consultant to various NIH-funded HIV networks.  She earned her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Case Western Reserve University in 2005. Dr. Kahana continues to publish peer-reviewed articles on the intersection of substance use and HIV care.
• Tisha Wiley, Ph.D. - Program Official
  301-594-4381
  Tisha Wiley, Ph.D. joined the Services Research Branch in 2012. Her grant portfolio emphasizes drug abuse treatment in criminal justice and juvenile justice settings as well as methodology and measurement development. Dr. Wiley serves as a science officer on NIDA’s Juvenile Justice Translational Interventions for Adolescents in the Legal System (JJ-TRIALS) and Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies (CJ-DATS) cooperative research programs. Prior to joining NIDA, Tisha was a Society for Research in Child Development Fellow and American Association for the Advancement of Science Policy (SRCD/AAAS) Fellow at the Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where she worked several methodological initiatives, including leading the offices’ efforts around data visualization and visual analytics. Before coming to the NIH, Tisha was the Assistant Director of Research at the Juvenile Protective Association, a non-profit social service agency in Chicago. She has served as a consultant for the Chicago Children's Advocacy Center and the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services. Dr. Wiley received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Dr. Wiley has over two dozen peer-reviewed publications pertaining to children and families involved in the justice and social service systems.