Viviana Elizabeth Horigian, M.D.
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
As the executive director of the Florida Node Alliance of the NIDA Clinical Trials Network (CTN), Viviana Elizabeth Horigian has spent 15 years implementing multi-site randomized clinical trials. She leads the technology transfer efforts supported by the U.S. Department of State to establish a CTN at the National Institute of Psychiatry in Mexico City. Through this project, she provides training, coaching, and mentoring for Mexican investigators designing, implementing, and analyzing randomized clinical trials that team substance abuse and mental health researchers with community treatment providers. The Mexican National Institute of Psychiatry honored Dr. Horigian in 2013 when the team’s first clinical trial was completed. She is currently using the technology transfer model to help colleagues at Universidad Catolica Santiago de Guayaquil in Ecuador and Universidad Santiago de Chile implement the Familias Unidas program in those countries. Dr. Horigian is also an advisor for the National Hispanic Latino Addiction Technology Transfer Center, which is charged with developing the workforce to treat Hispanics and Latinos with substance abuse and mental health problems. Her NIDA-supported research focuses on Brief Strategic Family Therapy for adolescent drug abuse. She co-chairs the CTN Youth Interest Group and serves on the CTN Pharmacology Interest Group and Minority Special Interest Group. A native of Argentina, Dr. Horigian trained in that country and interned in the United States. The NIDA International Program presents the 2015 Award of Excellence in International Leadership to Viviana Elizabeth Horigian.