University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
Principal Investigator, Director, Nina Wallerstein, Dr.P.H.
Nina Wallerstein, professor and director of the Masters in Public Health Program, School of Medicine, UNM, has been developing participatory research methodologies and empowerment intervention research for close to twenty-five years, with her latest co-edited volume covering these fields, Community-Based Research for Health. She has worked both in North American research and Latin American contexts, in healthy city initiatives, in adolescent and women’s health intervention research, and in community health development. She has been the PI for an NIAAA-funded youth empowerment intervention, for youth policy and women’s empowerment programs, and currently, for the NIAAA-funded Southwest Alcohol Research Group, a Training Center whose purpose is to reduce alcohol-related disparities among Native American and Hispanic communities. For the past five years, she has been funded by CDC and NARCH/NIH grants to work in collaboration with Native American tribes, developing understandings and assessment tools for tribal community capacity, tribal public health infrastructure, and measures of social capital.
Co-Investigator, Associate Director, Bonnie Duran, Dr.P.H.
Dr. Duran is an Associate Professor in the UNM Masters of Public Health Program, and has worked in public health research and education among Native Americans and other communities of color for 27 years. Dr. Duran has documented the development of Community Supported Interventions with her theoretical work on historical trauma, intergenerational PTSD and internalized oppression. For the past 9 years, she has conducted community based participatory research and training in Native American and Hispanic communities in the Southwest and Plains. Her research content areas include psychiatric and substance abuse epidemiology, community capacity, health services and pre-interventions research with Native American populations. Dr. Duran has been a key participant in the development of the NIMH funded Mentorship Education Program and Minority Infrastructure Support Program and will assist Dr. Wallerstein as Associate Director in the overall coordination of the SARG.
Co-Investigator, Melvina McCabe, M.D.
Dr. McCabe is an Associate Professor within the Department of Family and Community Medicine and Principal Investigator on a number of integrative ESI and CSI alcohol research grants with American Indian populations, working with both traditional and western treatment practices. Dr. McCabe will lead the CADET career development component.
Principal Mentor, William R. Miller, Ph.D.
Dr. Miller is Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico. His tenured appointment is in the Department of Psychology on the central UNM campus, and he divides his time between Psychology and CASAA. Dr. Miller has been conducting clinical and prevention trials in the alcoholism field since 1973, with funding from NIAAA since 1978. By virtue of his tenure at the University of New Mexico since 1976, he has established extensive community collaborative relationships, and most of his clinical studies have included substantial minority representation, particularly Hispanic and Native American populations. In addition to a distinguished career in alcohol research, Dr. Miller has had extensive experience and success in mentoring new scientists for the field. For 15 years he directed an NIAAA-funded pre-doctoral training program that graduated 32 clinical psychologists, many of whom now hold research and academic appointments.2 Dr. Miller also directed the only Faculty Development Program in Psychology funded by NIAAA. The SARG mentoring program proposed substantially mirrors experiences provided to Faculty Fellows in this successful Faculty Development Program. More generally, Dr. Miller has had considerable experience and success in mentoring faculty in addiction research.
Co-Investigator, Gilbert Quintero, Ph.D.
Dr. Quintero is a medical anthropologist and a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Prevention Research Center on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention among American Indian communities. Dr. Quintero teaches in the Masters in Public Health Program and has conducted a number of studies on substance abuse which have included the development of substance abuse prevention programs, the exploration of the social context of alcohol and drug use and sexual activity among Hispanic college students, prevention program evaluation, alcohol prevention among minority populations and youth, and studies on cultural aspects of addiction among Hispanic and Native American men. He will lead the pilot research project component.