Epidemiology Research Branch

Contacts

Marsha Lopez, Ph.D.
Acting Branch Chief
(301) 443-6504

Dr. Lopez joined the Epidemiology Research Branch at NIDA in 2006. Her program areas include major epidemiological studies and secondary data analysis, studies of the co-occurrence of drug and other psychiatric disorders, issues related to diagnosis and the DSM, and etiologic studies examining the vulnerability to drug use and abuse and how it varies according to context. After receiving her B.A. in Psychology from Georgetown University, Dr. Lopez was an Intramural Research Training Associate (IRTA) Fellow at NIDA for two years in Behavioral Pharmacology in the Preclinical Pharmacology Laboratory. She subsequently attended the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, Department of Mental Hygiene, where she received her MHS with a concentration in Public Mental Health, and then Ph.D. with a focus on drug and alcohol dependence epidemiology. Her training was funded by an Individual National Research Service Award (NRSA) from NIDA, supporting research on drug related mortality. Prior to joining the Division of Epidemiology, Services, and Prevention Research, Dr. Lopez was on staff at the Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR) at the University of Maryland and led a team at Walter Reed Army Medical Center conducting medical surveillance on the United States Military population.

Tara J. Bell
Extramural Support Assistant
(301) 443-8755

Ms. Bell is an Extramural Support Assistant in the Division of Extramural Administrative Support, NIH. In this position she supports staff in the Epidemiology Research Branch on an ongoing basis, provides administrative support for the review, tracking, and monitoring of grant applications, and performs specialized activities in support of Branch, Division and Institute goals. Before joining NIH, Ms Bell served as a Management Program Analyst at both the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Education and was an operations professional at Federal Express. Ms. Bell received her education at Trinity University in Washington, D.C.

Bethany Griffin Deeds, Ph.D.
Health Scientist Administrator
(301) 402-1935

Dr. Bethany Griffin Deeds manages grants related to the social epidemiology of drug use in the Epidemiology Research Branch. Her program area covers research related to substance use, HIV and violence including: social context (e.g., school, workplace, neighborhood/community); drugs and crime; macro-social determinants of health (e.g., poverty, economics, policies); urbanicity; homelessness and housing; violent victimization; drug markets; and the impact of natural disasters. Before joining NIDA, Dr. Deeds was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland Medical School where her research focused on adolescent violence, substance use and HIV prevention. She also served as Director for Connect to Protect: Baltimore, one of 13 national sites affiliated with the Adolescent Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions, investigating how community partnerships can reduce adolescent HIV incidence and prevalence by making structural changes to the environment. Dr. Deeds' research included the community health partnership formation; community mapping and resource assessments; community protection concepts/ethics; HIV early identification strategies; community-level HIV prevention approaches; HIV vaccine community preparedness; substance use, victimization and violence; and the role of social contexts in violence and HIV. Her current research interests include the social epidemiology of drug abuse, HIV and violence; the relationship between social environments and genetic expression; and the characterization of modifiable structural factors in communities/neighborhoods.

Kathy Etz, Ph.D.
Social Science Analyst
(301) 402-1749

Dr. Etz received her Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro in 1997. Her program area at NIDA covers research that explores: (1) the impact of biopsychosocial processes on drug abuse during life transitions; (2) how new roles and behaviors adopted in emerging developmental stages influence patterns of drug abuse; (3) the role of social systems either alone or in the context of other factors (e.g., family and/or peers in the context of developmental transitions such as puberty) in drug abuse patterns and transitions; and (4) drug use in American Indian/Alaska Native populations.

Peter Hartsock, Dr.P.H.
Research Scientist Officer
(301) 402-1964

Dr. Peter Hartsock is a Captain in the U.S. Public Health Service. He has many years of experience at NIDA, with expertise in epidemiological and prevention research on drug abuse and HIV/AIDS. He currently serves as a Research Scientist Officer and Program Official in the Epidemiology Research Branch, where he provides technical assistance and guidance to potential research grantees and to federal and international agencies. Since the AIDS epidemic began nearly 25 years ago, Dr. Hartsock has dedicated himself to facilitating a successful program of research in mathematical modeling of HIV and other infectious diseases, molecular epidemiology, and innovative methods in the behavioral and social sciences to characterize HIV/AIDS and other emerging and re-emerging diseases associated with drug abuse. Most recently, Dr. Hartsock has been instrumental in advancing the science of mathematical modeling efforts to determine the public health impact and cost effectiveness of making HIV testing and counseling routine in medical and clinical settings. Dr. Hartsock served with Dr. C. Everett Koop as a coauthor on the Surgeon General's Report on AIDS and was awarded the Surgeon General's Exemplary Service Medal for this and related work. Dr. Hartsock also manages international research grants on drug abuse, HIV/AIDS, and related problems. Part of this work includes the former Soviet Union where HIV is spreading faster than anywhere else on earth and where drug abuse is the principal driver of the epidemic. Dr. Hartsock serves on a number of advisory groups including the Federal Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee, the UNAIDS Task Force on AIDS in the Military, and the Committees on AIDS of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Atlantic Council.

Elizabeth Lambert, M.Sc.
Health Statistician
(301) 402-1933

Ms. Lambert holds a Masters of Science in Psychology from Old Dominion University. She manages research grants that emphasize the epidemiology and natural history of HIV/AIDS among drug users, as well as HIV-related co-infections (e.g., hepatitis-C, hepatitis-B, and other sexually transmitted infections). Ms. Lambert's research program areas address: (1) new theoretical approaches to understanding the natural history/epidemiology, progression, and health and social outcomes of drug abuse/addiction and HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases; (2) intrapersonal dynamics (e.g., partner concurrency) and other behavioral, social, and environmental factors and their interactions with genetic factors that influence drug abuse/addiction and HIV-related risk behaviors; and (3) the translation of epidemiological research to advance the development of improved HIV/drug prevention interventions, health services, and public health practice. Ms. Lambert serves as Program Official for research grants on the epidemiology of drug abuse and HIV/AIDS among men who have sex with men; studies of contextual factors and transmission risk behaviors associated with acute HIV infection and early HIV disease; studies of HIV and co-infections (e.g., HCV, HBV, other STIs) among drug users and their sex partners; the behavioral and social epidemiology of non-injecting drug use and its role in the spread of HIV/AIDS; research on social networks and partnership dynamics that impact drug abuse and HIV/AIDS transmission patterns; and methodological research in the behavioral and social sciences to improve epidemiological measures and methods for drug abuse and HIV/AIDS research.

Moira O'Brien, M.Phil.
Health Scientist Administrator
(301) 402-1881

Moira O'Brien is a Program Official in the Epidemiology Research Branch and serves as Project Officer for the Community Epidemiology Work Group (CEWG). She has responsibility for planning and chairing the semiannual CEWG meetings and for managing the development of publications reporting meeting findings. Ms. O'Brien also has responsibility for research grants focusing on prescription drug abuse as well as grants examining current and emerging drug abuse trends. She has more than 20 years of experience in the substance abuse field and has been with NIDA for more than 18 years. Prior to joining the Epidemiology Research Branch, Ms. O'Brien worked in the International Research Program in the NIDA Office of the Director. During her time at NIDA, she has been responsible for developing and collaborating on a number of international activities in the area of epidemiology pertaining to training, research development, and the promotion of methods and mechanisms for the collection and sharing of internationally comparable and culturally appropriate drug abuse data. In addition to CEWG activities, Ms. O'Brien's responsibilities include stimulating and managing extramural research, including studies to: characterize the nature and extent of emerging and current drug abuse trends within local, national, and international contexts, and identify associated health, social, and behavioral consequences; enhance the identification and monitoring of emerging trends; elucidate individual, social, cultural and contextual factors influencing the initiation of drug using behaviors; examine processes influencing the development and diffusion of new drug trends; identify community- or context-specific prevention and health service needs; and to provide a scientific foundation for the development of appropriate interventions in response to emerging/current drug abuse trends.

LeShawndra N. Price, Ph.D.
Health Scientist Administrator
(301)402-1850

Dr. LeShawndra Price is a Health Scientist Administrator in the Epidemiology Research Branch. Her program area includes studies of population and clinical epidemiology in children; psychological, familial, and environmental risk and protective factors and processes, and how these interact in the development of childhood psychopathology; and the sequencing and temporal potency of risk factors that affect the development of substance use. The program also supports epidemiologic research studies examining the influence of social, cultural, and environmental factors related to drug use in African American and Hispanic adults and youth, research on the complex factors that influence health disparities in drug abuse related outcomes, and research that aims to identify risk factors and consequences that are unique to or more prevalent in African Americans, Hispanics, and subpopulations in socioeconomically disadvantaged (i.e., low education level, poverty), and medically underserved rural and urban communities. Regarding family processes and early risks for drug use, of particular interest are studies that focus on the impact of child abuse & neglect, prenatal exposure, parent-child interactions, traumatic experiences and PTSD in children, living in poverty, foster care placement, exposure to family violence, antisocial behavior problems and conduct disorder, and parental incarceration as precursors for drug use and as these factors and processes affect development. Prior to joining NIDA's Epidemiology Research Branch, Dr. Price was Chief of both the Stress and Trauma Program and the Disruptive Behavior Program at the National Institute of Mental Health in the Division of Developmental Translational Research where her grant portfolio focused on problematic aggression and antisocial behavior; post-traumatic stress and witnessed violence, including exposure to community violence, child abuse and neglect, school violence, and bullying; and the influence of sociocultural processes and health disparities on the prevention and development of mental disorders in children and adolescents. Dr. Price's academic background includes a B.A. in Psychology from Wake Forest University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Jeffrey Schulden, M.D.
Medical Officer
(301)402-1526

Dr. Schulden is a Medical Officer in the Epidemiology Research Branch. Prior to joining NIDA in February 2008, he served as a Medical Epidemiologist in the Behavioral and Clinical Surveillance Branch of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). From 2002-2004, he served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer with CDC's Division of Violence Prevention. He received his B.A. from Duke University and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He completed residency training in Psychiatry at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Cornell University. Research areas of particular interest include: the association between psychiatric illness and substance abuse among adults, with a particular focus on the association between substance abuse and PTSD, trauma, and stress; intimate partner violence and substance use disorders; suicide and overdose; and mental health and substance use disorders among persons living with HIV.

Naimah Weinberg, M.D.
Medical Officer
(301) 402-1908

Dr. Weinberg is a Medical Officer in the Epidemiology Research Branch. She received her training in General Psychiatry and Child Psychiatry at the University of Michigan, and has served on the child psychiatry faculty at the University of Michigan, University of Maryland, and Johns Hopkins University/Kennedy Krieger Institute, and on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She completed postdoctoral research training in the Department of Mental Hygiene at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Her research area focuses on child psychiatric precursors to drug abuse and dependence, with a particular emphasis on attentional and affective disorders, and the impact of mental health interventions on drug abuse risk. Research approaches of particular interest include: epidemiologic (population-based) longitudinal studies; genetic epidemiologic and other studies of familial risk; clinical prospective and follow-up studies; and characterizing the interactions between individual psychiatric and genetic factors with the environment in producing high risk phenotypes.

Louise Wideroff, Ph.D.
Health Scientist Administrator
(301) 451-8663

Dr. Louise Wideroff is a Health Scientist Administrator in the Epidemiology Research Branch. Her program areas cover genetic epidemiology and gene by environment interactions associated with substance abuse disorders, with an additional focus on tobacco use and nicotine dependence. She as serves as NIDA Program Director for the Network on Psychosocial Stress and Addictive Substances within the Exposure Biology Program of the trans-NIH Gene Environment Initiative (GEI). Prior to joining NIDA in January 2009, she was on temporary assignment to the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) assisting with management of GEI cooperative agreements involving genome-wide association studies. She previously served for 10 years as a Program Director at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), specializing in assessment and monitoring of genetic and molecular risk factors for cancer in the U.S. population, and the adoption of emerging cellular, molecular, and genomic technologies in clinical care. She holds a doctorate in epidemiology from the University of Michigan and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the intramural epidemiology program at the NCI. Her areas of interest include the interaction of social, behavioral, health care system, familial, pharmacogenetic, and other epidemiologic risk factors for substance abuse and treatment response.