Faculty Affiliate Members

Dr. Almirall is a statistician and intervention scientist who develops methods to form evidence-based adaptive interventions, including just-in-time adaptive interventions. Adaptive interventions are used to guide individualized intervention decisions for the on-going management of chronic illnesses or disorders such as drug abuse, depression, anxiety, autism, obesity, or HIV/AIDS. More recently, Danny has been developing methods to inform the construction of optimized multilevel adaptive implementation strategies (MAISYs) using a variety of trial designs, including Multilevel Implementation, Sequential, Multiple-Assignment, Randomized Trials (MI-SMARTs).

Dr. Jess Anand, PhD is Research Faculty in the department of Pharmacology. As a medicinal
chemist, Dr. Anand’s research focuses on exploring the structure-activity relationships of opioids
to elucidate the interactions between opioid receptors and their ligands. This knowledge is then
applied to rationally design novel molecules for therapeutic use such as opioid overdose
reversal agents, medication assisted therapies, and potential analgesics with limited abuse
liability.

Mark C. Bicket, MD, PhD, is the Co-Director of the Michigan Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network (OPEN) and an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Michigan School of Medicine. Dr. Bicket has served on committees for the National Academy of Medicine, state public health agencies, and numerous professional organizations. He holds board certifications in anesthesiology and pain medicine and received an M.D. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University. His research spans clinical trials, health services, and policy analysis related to opioid prescribing, opioid alternatives, and risky opioid use.

Dr. Birdsong is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology. Dr. Birdsong’s research is focused on understanding the cellular and circuit-level adaptations that drive the development of tolerance to opioids. The Birdsong Lab uses electrophysiology, pharmacology, optogenetics and imaging to study how and where opioids act in brain circuits important for pain and reward. Our aim is to understand how chronic pain and chronic opioid use drive adaptations in brain circuit function with the goal of preventing or reversing these adaptations and improve strategies for treating pain and substance use disorders.

Kevin Boehnke is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center. Kevin received his doctorate from the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Environmental Health Sciences in 2017. He is also a yoga instructor. His current research focuses on therapeutic applications of cannabis and psychedelics. His goal is to rigorously assess appropriate use of these substances and to help address the public health harms caused by their criminalization.

Dr. Bohnert is a Professor at the University of Michigan in the Departments of Anesthesiology (primary), Psychiatry, and Epidemiology and co-director of the Opioid Research Institute. She is also co-director of the Michigan Opioid Collaborative within the Michigan Overdose Prevention Engagement Network (OPEN), which seeks to improve access and quality of treatment for opioid use disorders throughout Michigan through community outreach and clinician education. Dr. Bohnert focuses her research on epidemiology and brief interventions regarding chronic pain, opioid misuse, overdose, substance use and related disorders. Learn more about Dr. Bohnert

Dr. Brummett is the Bert N LaDu Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Michigan and co-director of the Opioid Research Institute. Dr. Brummett is also the Co-Director of the Opioid Prevention Engagement Network (OPEN) at the University of Michigan, which aims to apply a preventative approach to the opioid epidemic in the US through appropriate prescribing after surgery, dentistry, and emergency medicine. Dr. Brummett’s research interests include predictors of acute and chronic post-surgical pain and failure to derive benefit for interventions for interventions and surgeries primarily performed to treat pain. Dr. Brummett is specifically interested in the impact of a fibromyalgia-like or nociplastic pain phenotype on outcomes. Learn more about Dr. Brummett

I am a Professor of Neurology who is interested in neuropathy and headache. I was the lead facilitator of the American Academy of Neurology guidelines for the treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy, which recommended against opioids in this population. One of my goals is to increasing the evidence for the treatment of neuropathic pain with the goal of reducing opioid use. I am also studying ways to better understand problematic opioid use patterns and predict which patients are likely to have adverse events from opioids.

Dr. Cooper practices in the Division of Pediatric Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Michigan Medicine where she cares for children with common head and neck problems who often require surgical intervention. Many of these children and their families face surgery without a clear understanding of what their recovery might involve in terms of pain or how to address their pain outside of an opioid prescription. Her work with the Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network (OPEN) stems from her desire to prepare kids and their families for their postoperative course in a better and safer way, by offering education on methods to control post-operative pain including over-the counter medications and non-medication strategies, explanation of the risks of opioids, and safe storage and disposal options. Dr. Cooper hopes to help those who care for children following surgery to share a common message about acute postoperative pain, opioid safety and disposal options. Her background is in patient safety and quality improvement, and her research interests are on pain management following surgery and use of prescribed opioids, so prescribing guidelines can be developed for providers based on actual patient use.

Dr. Coughlin’s work focuses on the intersection of behavioral economics, health equity, and substance use, including opioid use. This includes designing and implementing adaptive interventions to enhance the quality, access, and reach of substance use care to reduce health disparities, including improving access to substance use care in rural America. I’m particularly interested in understanding the complex interplay between choice preferences and substance use behaviors, applying behavioral economic frameworks to solve addiction-related challenges. By working closely with diverse communities, this work aims to create impactful solutions that address substance use challenges and improve the overall well-being of all individuals and communities.

Dr. Flagel is a Professor of Psychiatry, as well as a Research Professor and Co-Director of the Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience Institute. She is an Associate Member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and a Kavli National Academy of Sciences Fellow. Her research focuses on understanding the behavioral and neurobiological factors that contribute to individual differences in reward learning and susceptibility to addiction. She is specifically interested in the psychological mechanisms that underlie and influence appetitive Pavlovian learning and the neural circuitry involved in these processes.

Dr. Goldstick is a Research Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and is the Statistics and Methods Core Director in the CDC-funded Injury Prevention Center at U-M. He has received funding from the CDC and NIH for several projects related to substance use, and is the lead statistician on multiple NIH-funded projects. In addition, he has worked with the CDC using multiple data sources to evaluate changes in opioid and nonopioid pain medication prescribing following the release of the 2016 CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain. He has also directed a statewide near real-time surveillance system for opioid overdoses in Michigan called the System for Opioid Overdose Surveillance since 2019.

Dr. Hassett is a licensed clinical psychologist who is an Associate Professor and Director of Pain and Opioid Research in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Michigan. As a principal investigator at the Chronic Pain & Fatigue Research Center, she conducts interdisciplinary research related to exploring the role of cognitive, affective, and behavioral factors in chronic pain populations. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and is a leader in the field of resilience and pain. Her work has focused on exploring the role of positive emotions in people with pain, as well as novel interventions to promote resilience and better pain self-management. Her current research involves developing resilience-enhancing activities to promote the sparing of premature cellular aging in patients with chronic pain (NINR R01 NR017096), testing the mechanisms underlying treatments for chronic low back pain (HEAL BACPAC; NIAMS U19 AR076734) and developing “prehabilitation” programs for anxious surgical patients to optimize outcomes including reducing opioid use (MiCarePath). Dr. Hassett is a Past President of the Association of Rheumatology Professionals – a division of the American College of Rheumatology and the author of Chronic Pain Reset, an innovative pain self-management book for patients and their clinicians released in September of 2023.

Dr. Isom is the Maurice H. Seevers Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology, Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, and Professor of
Neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School. She serves as co-chair of the Dravet Syndrome Foundation Scientific Advisory Board and served as a Board member of the AES. She has received awards for research and mentoring, including a NINDS Javits R37 MERIT award and the University of Michigan Rackham Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award. She is co-PI of the NINDS-funded EpiMVP Center Without Walls. Her research program focuses on voltage-gated sodium channel function and the roles of sodium channel gene variants in developmental and epileptic encephalopathy. Her lab investigates SCN1A, SCN1B, and SCN8A variants in mouse models and in human induced pluripotent stem cell neurons and cardiac myocytes. Most recently, she collaborated with Stoke Therapeutics to develop the first antisense oligonucleotide precision therapeutic agent for Dravet syndrome, which is now in clinical trials. Dr. Isom is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Epilepsy Society, and a Fellow of the American Society for Pharmacology and Therapeutics. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2021.

Mary Janevic is a Research Associate Professor in Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She conducts community-engaged research on behavioral interventions for chronic pain among older adults in marginalized and minoritized communities, and seeks to understand mechanisms and solutions for pain inequities.

Dr. Krein is a Research Health Scientist/Research Career Scientist with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Ann Arbor Healthcare System Center for Clinical Management Research. She is also a Research Professor of Internal Medicine, with an adjunct appointment in the School of Nursing, and the Rensis Likert Collegiate Professor at the University of Michigan. She has a clinical background in nursing and a PhD in Health Services Research. During her more than 20 years as a research scientist, Dr. Krein has been involved in research funded by the VA, NIH, AHRQ and CDC, to enhance patient safety as well as studies focusing on the management of complex chronic conditions, such as chronic pain.

Dr. Pooja Lagisetty is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and practicing physician with a focus on addressing access barriers and developing interventions to better treat chronic pain and addiction across medical settings. Dr. Lagisetty received her medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, completed her internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and received her master’s degree in health services research via the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Michigan. She also holds a joint appointment in the Center for Clinical Management and Research at the Ann Arbor VA and is a contributing member at the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. Clinically, she is boarded in both Internal Medicine and Addiction Medicine and treats patients across the spectrum of chronic pain and addiction. She has co-led the development of the Michigan Medicine Inpatient and Emergency Department Addiction Consultation Team and the curricula around opioid use disorder for the University of Michigan Medical students. Her research has been influential in understanding stigma and disparities for individuals with pain and addiction. Specifically, her work has highlighted treatment access barriers for individuals with chronic pain following policies aimed at reducing prescription opioid supply and racial disparities in the receipt of medications for opioid use disorder. She has been funded by multiple federal agencies including NIDA, SAMSHA, and the VHA and also by foundations including the Michigan Health Endowment Fund and Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Michigan. Dr. Lagisetty also serves as the Institute’s Research and Data Domain co-director.

Dr. Sean Esteban McCabe is a Professor (Tenured) and the Director of the University of Michigan Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking and Health (DASH Center) in the Department of Health Behavior and Biological Sciences in the School of Nursing. He has a broad background in education, epidemiology, psychology, and social work. Dr. McCabe has clinical experience working with adolescents and adults on issues related to ADHD, prescription drug use and misuse, and substance use disorders in a wide range of settings (eg, community, corrections, healthcare, schools). He has extensive experience conducting survey research and secondary data analyses related to prescription drug use and misuse, polysubstance use, and substance use disorders using longitudinal designs. He served as an expert consultant for the substance use survey modules for the Monitoring the Future study and the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Dr. McCabe has successfully led 13 FDA- and NIH-funded projects as Principal Investigator. He has served as the Associate Editor and Editor for substance use journals and produced over 265 peer-reviewed papers. Dr. McCabe’s research has had direct implications for policy and clinical practice as reflected in the CDC Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids and the FDA Drug Safety Communication to improve safe use of prescription stimulants for ADHD. Dr. McCabe has teamed up with Dr. Luisa Kcomt at Wayne State University and over 30 community, academic, and health care partners on developing a new trauma-Informed program for children aged 5-17 years and their families who have experienced the death of a parent or significant person from an opioid/other drug overdose within the past 10 years. Hope HQ is currently focused on children and families in southeast Michigan where the majority of drug overdose deaths in the state occur. Our multidisciplinary team is currently building the program and fundraising to expand year-round services for families throughout the state and beyond.

Dr. Nahum-Shani’s primary research interest is harnessing adaptive interventions to transform health care. Adaptive interventions address the changing needs of individuals by modifying their treatment based on dynamic information about their state and progress. An important focus of her work is the Just-In-Time Adaptive Intervention (JITAI), a special type of adaptive intervention that leverages powerful mobile and sensing technologies to adapt the delivery of support in real-world settings—in near real-time. Her work is highly multidisciplinary, spanning behavioral health and applied psychology, while also being tightly integrated with advanced research methodology. She recently pioneered the development of a new experimental design—the hybrid experimental design (HED)—to help health scientists optimize the integration of human-delivered (e.g., coaching session) components with digital (e.g., mobile-based) components, which necessitates adaptation on multiple timescales.

Dr. Nguyen is a health services researcher and health economist with doctoral training in development economics and post-doctoral training in health economics. She is interested in health services research of pharmaceutical related policy to address the US opioid epidemic. Her research has focused on treatment access for opioid use disorder, prescribing behavior, incentive issues of medical providers, and using novel data to address pressing knowledge gaps.

Dr. Patrick is Principal Investigator of the Monitoring the Future Panel Study, which is a national study following former school age Monitoring the Future participants from ages 18 to 65 since 1976, and co-investigator on the Monitoring the Future Main study. Her published research focuses on the development of substance use and consequences across the lifespan. Her interests include motivations for substance use, the prevention of health risk behaviors, statistical methods for modeling behavior and behavior change, and mobile and web-based survey methodology. She has been the PI of 10+ NIH-funded projects and Co- Investigator on many others. Her other current NIH-funded R01 projects focus on high-intensity drinking, simultaneous alcohol and marijuana use, and adaptive interventions to reduce consequences of young adult substance use.

Dr. Perumalswami is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Michigan, Director of the Liver Clinic and a Staff Gastroenterologist at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and Investigator in Center for Clinical Management Research in the VA Health Services Research and Development. Dr. Perumalswami also serves as the Institute’s Community Engagement Domain co-director.

Jennifer Pierce, Ph.D., is a social psychologist and Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Michigan. Her research is aimed at understanding the impact of trauma on pain phenotype and pain-related behavior, as well as extending this work to interventions for people with pain and individuals who have experienced trauma.

As Associate Vice President for Research-Health Sciences, Dr. Prosser supports the research efforts of faculty in the health sciences across multiple schools and units. She also works collaboratively with the OVPR Leadership Team to develop new initiatives to catalyze and support research across the schools and units at U-M. Dr. Prosser is the Marilyn Fisher Blanch Research Professor of Pediatrics. She holds a joint appointment in the Department of Health Management and Policy at the School of Public Health. Her research focuses on measuring the value of childhood health interventions using methods of decision sciences and economics. She has worked closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Maternal Child and Health Bureau (HRSA) on research that has informed national vaccine policy and newborn screening recommendations. Dr. Prosser has contributed to faculty development programs at the department, school, and institutional level.

Dr. Shtein received his Baccalaureate at UC Berkeley (1998) and Ph.D. at Princeton University (2004) in Chemical Engineering. During his PhD he co-invented a number of technologies, including methods of manufacturing emerging display technologies (OLEDs). He joined the University of Michigan in 2004, serving as Professor in MSE, Ch.E, Applied Physics, Entrepreneurship, and Art & Design. His awards include: Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), College-wide Vulcans Prize for Excellence in Education, MSE Department Achievement Award, Newport Award for Excellence and Leadership in Photonics and Optoelectronics, and Materials Research Society (MRS) graduate student Gold Medal Award. He previously served as Faculty Co-Director of the Undergraduate Program at the UM Center for Entrepreneurship, and is currently serving as co-director for the Michigan Materials Research Institute. He co-founded Arborlight, LLC (a lighting technology company), Sublime, LLC (a biomedical technology company), and co-authored the book Scalable Innovation (published by Taylor & Francis). Some of his current research attempts to address the challenges of drug delivery, patient adherence to medical treatment, health monitoring, medication safety, affordability and scalability of healthcare solutions.

Dr. Smith’s research interests include the safe and effective use of analgesics in centralized pain, older adults with and who survive cancer, appropriate use of medications in these vulnerable patients, and the expansion of clinical pharmacist scope of practice. He is a Research Health Scientist within the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center of the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center He is also a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in Pain and Palliative Care at the University of Michigan Health, where his clinical responsibilities include serving patients with serious or life-limiting illnesses and helping optimize their symptom management.

Dr. K. Elizabeth Speck is an academic pediatric surgeon and clinical outcomes researcher with a focus on minimally invasive gastrointestinal, colorectal, and thoracic surgery. She has dedicated her life to caring for children and their families, and this includes minimizing long-term effects of opioids by avoiding their use whenever possible. To this end, she implemented the first ERAS ® Protocol at Mott Children’s Hospital in pediatric surgical patients for Pectus Repair that prioritizes multi-modal pain therapy with an aim to specifically avoid opioids.

Deborah Wagner, PharmD is a clinical professor for the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy a clinical professor for the Department of Anesthesiology in the School of Medicine. She received her PharmD degree from the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy and is a Fellow of the American Society of Health System Pharmacists. Dr. Wagner is the current pediatric safety coordinator for the Children’s and Women’s Hospital at Michigan Medicine. Dr. Wagner provides pain management consultation for the pediatric acute pain service has developed standardized pain management strategies for intravenous acetaminophen, elastomeric pain pumps, low dose lidocaine and ketamine infusions to enhance multimodal analgesia.  She participates in the medication safety taskforce within the Department of Anesthesiology develops clinical practice guidelines for the department and chairs the Pediatric Medication Safety Committee.

Jennifer F. Waljee, MD, MPH is a Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network (OPEN) and the George D. Zuidema Endowed Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery. She also serves as the Director of the Center for Healthcare Outcomes and Policy, and is on the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation Leadership Team. Dr. Waljee is a board-certified general surgeon, plastic surgeon, and hand surgeon, and her research focuses on the optimization of opioid prescribing during surgical care and creating best practices for caring for individuals with substance use disorder during surgical care.

Dr. Wang is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Research Associate Professor in Life Sciences Institute. She began her independent career at the University of Michigan in 2018. Since then, she has received the following awards: University of Michigan Henry Russel Award,
Sloan Research Fellowship, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar award, NSF CAREER Award, NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, University of Michigan William R. Roush Assistant Professorship, Rising Star in Measurement Science selected by ACS Measurement Science Au editors. Her lab’s research focuses on designing genetically encoded molecular sensors for detecting a wide array of neuromodulators, including mu- and kappa-opioid receptor agonists, serotonin, endocannabionoid, prostaglandin, orexin, vasopressin, etc. Her lab also designs chemogenetic tools for spatiotemporal control of the activity of endogenous G protein-coupled receptors.

Golfo Tzilos Wernette, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Family Medicine and Psychiatry. She is also a licensed clinical psychologist at the Ypsilanti Health Center where she provides short-term psychological intervention to adults in the community seeking primary care services. Her clinical research interests include technology-delivered approaches for health promotion and the reduction of health risk behaviors (e.g., alcohol/drug use, STIs/HIV risk behaviors) among vulnerable populations.