2025 Annual Conference

Edward Nunes, MD

Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center 

Research Psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Dr. Nunes is a Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Research Psychiatrist at New York State Psychiatric Institute. He is an internationally recognized leader in research on treatments for opioid use disorder and other substance use disorders, and on co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders. For the past thirty years with continuous funding from NIH, mainly National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), including a series of Career Development Awards, he has led clinical trials on medication and behavioral treatments for cocaine and opioid use disorders. He has over 250 peer-reviewed scientific publications, including papers in JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, and Lancet, in addition to numerous book chapters and a textbook on diagnosis and treatment of co-occurring psychiatric disorders among patients with substance use disorders. His group was among the first to demonstrate that depression could be identified with careful clinical diagnosis and successfully treated among patients with alcohol, opioid or cocaine use disorders, and to demonstrate that behavioral intervention could improve the effectiveness of naltrexone as a treatment for opioid use disorder.

For the past 20 years he has served as a Principal Investigator in the NIDA Clinical Trials Network (CTN, New York Node), focused on clinical trials to demonstrate the effectiveness of new treatments in real-world clinical settings. Among other accomplishments his group led the first large multisite trial of behavioral treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder among women with substance use disorders, the first large multi-site trial of a technology-delivered behavioral treatment for substance use disorders, and co-led the first large U.S.-based trial comparing extended-release injection naltrexone versus sublingual buprenorphine for treatment of opioid use disorder. Currently in the CTN, he and his colleagues are developing a major clinical trial that will be a cornerstone of the NIH HEAL Initiative (Help End Addiction in our Lifetimes), testing strategies--different medication doses and formulations, and behavioral treatments--to improve the effectiveness of buprenorphine and injection naltrexone for treatment of opioid use disorder. He is also a multiple Principal Investigator on the New York Healing Communities Study, a major NIH funded effort which, along with 3 other States, seeks to demonstrate that a concerted community wide effort to expand medication treatment and other interventions can drive down the high rate of deaths from opioid overdose.

He has served on the Board of Directors of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, the American Board of Addiction Medicine and the Addiction Medicine Foundation, and National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse, and currently serves on the NIH Working Group on the HEAL Initiative, the Addiction Medicine sub-Board of the American Board of Preventive Medicine, and is Deputy Editor of the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Locally, he has been active throughout his career mentoring research fellows and junior faculty, and he serves as Co-Chair of the New York State Psychiatric Institute/Columbia University Department of Psychiatry Institutional Review Board.

Prepare for your day by reviewing the Conference Agenda. The agenda will be included in the packet you receive at registration if you are attending in-person. Links to the Poster Session submissions are available in the Conference Agenda on the last page for virtual attendees to view.

Additionally, we’ve provided a Conference Directory with all the contact information of attendees here. 

The Zoom link is available here for those planning to attend virtually. Our live stream will begin promptly at 8:30am and attendees will be able to ask questions for our speakers.

Our conference will be held at the the Eric J. Barron Innovation Hub, which is located at 123 S. Burrowes Street in State College, PA 16801. Click here for Google Maps directions. Please note that the Eric J. Barron Innovation Hub is not on campus but is in Downtown State College across from the University Park campus.

Parking: Public garage and street parking is available in close proximity of the Eric J. Barron Innovation Hub. The daily rate is $1 per hour. 
•    Beaver Garage: Located at 200 W. Beaver Avenue. (About 1 block from the building.)
•    Fraser Garage: Located at 135 S. Fraser Street. (Less than 2 blocks from the building.)
 

• How Does Cannabis Legalization in the US Impact the Ongoing Opioid Epidemic: A Policy Bundles Approach, Shazib Altaf, Daniel J. Mallinson, Kent Da Liu and Lilliard Richardson
• Semaglutide reduces fentanyl seeking in rats: A dose response analysis, Christopher G. Brandl, M.S., Brianna Evans, Elise Shealy, N. K. Acharya, Sarah M. Ballard, Patricia “Sue” Grigson-Kennedy, MS, PhD1
• Landscape Analysis of Pennsylvania Opioid Treatment Programs: Foundations for Measurement-Based Care Implementation, Renee M. Cloutier, PhD, Bobby Ryan, Julie Brewer, Heather Santa, MS, MA, Kelli Scott
• Impacts of Female Homophily in Military Residential SUD Treatment, Joshua R. Fansler, MHA, MBA
• Housing Instability and Economic Insecurity Across the Continuum of Active Substance Use, Treatment, and Recovery, Harrison, E.D., Skogseth, E.M., Brant, K, Latkin, C, Quadri, O.H., Jones, A.A.
• Opioid Use Disorder Cascade of Care: Defining a Taxonomy for Measurement, Brandy F. Henry, PhD, LICSW, Noa Krawczyk, PhD, Ashly E. Jordan, PhD, MPH, Chinazo O. Cunningham, MD, MSc, Pat Lincourt, MSW, Shazia Hussain, MPH
• Intergenerational Transmission of Psychological Distress: Role of Early Temperament & Maternal Psychological Distress, Madison R. Kelm, PhD, Makenna M. Luzenski, Rina D. Eiden, PhD
• Prenatal Tobacco and Cannabis Exposure on Child Obesity Outcomes: A Systematic Review, Rachel C. Marcus, MS, Makenna M. Luzenski, Madison R. Kelm, PhD, Danielle S. Downs, PhD, Rina D. Eiden, PhD, and Jenae M. Neiderhiser, PhD
• The Intersection of Overdose and Suicidality: Insights from the Fentanyl Study, Arman Minhas, BSc Hons., Dianah Hayati, BSc., and Mohammadali Nikoo MD, PhD, FRCPC
• Risk Factors for Adolescent Nicotine Vaping from 2017 to 2023: A Data-Driven Approach, Siyang Ni, MPhil
• Assessing the Impact of the X-Wavier Elimination on Prescribing of Buprenorphine for Treating Opioid Use Disorder, Sujeong Park, MS, PhD, Wen-Jan Tuan, DHA, MS, MPH2, Shazib Altaf, Aleksandra E. Zgierska, MD, PhD
• The Role of Parenting Status on Drug Treatment Utilization Among People Who Inject Drugs, Quadri, O.H., MPH, Jones, A.A., PhD, Skogseth, E.M., MS, & Latkin, C., PhD
• Addiction as a Banking Risk Factor, Dusan Ramljak and Nonna Sorokina
• Serious Mental Illnesses Among People Who Use Drugs: Gender Differences in Prevalence and MOUD Treatment in a Community Recruited Sample, Skogseth, E.M., MS, Jones, A.A., PhD, Quadri, O.H., MPH, Dayton, L., PhD, and Latkin, C., PhD
• Student Engagement in Applying Data Driven Decision Making in Substance Use Disorder Research, Nonna Sorokina and Dusan Ramljak
• Transforming Recovery: A Systematic Review of the Impact of Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care on Minority Populations, Geovanni Vázquez Rodríguez, PhD, LCSW, LMHC, LADC
• AI-Powered Personalized Recovery Recommender System for Opioid Use Disorder, Tanuja Voruganti and Muhammad Faizan Raza