New Frontiers in the Treatment of Co-Occurring Alcohol Use Disorder and Anxiety (1.5 CME)

Dr. Roach has more than 30 years of experience in the field of addiction treatment. She currently serves as a Program Director for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism where, among other responsibilities, she manages research portfolios addressing the treatment of co-occurring mental health and alcohol use disorders and alcohol-related HIV/AIDS among women. She also serves on the Interagency Coordinating Committee on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (ICCFASD) and the NIH Coordinating Committee for Research on Women’s Health. Dr. Roach chairs the Women Drinking, and Pregnancy Work Group of the ICCFASD.

Dr. Kushner has been a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at University of Minnesota-Minneapolis since 1991 and has held the rank of full professor since 2006.  He obtained his B.A. in psychology and philosophy from the University of Nebraska in 1983, and his Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1991 from University of Missouri – Columbia.  He completed an Internship in Clinical Psychology at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1991.   Dr. Kushner has studied the association of alcohol use disorders with co-occurring anxiety disorders for more than 25 years with continuous funding support for over 20 years from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).  Dr. Kushner has also served as an NIH scientific review group member for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse .  He has published over 70 peer reviewed articles in journals such as The American Journal of Psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry and Biological Psychiatry that, collectively, have been cited more than 5000 times.  He is the Director of an NIH post-doc training program (T32) and is the Principal Investigator on an ongoing NIH-funded project to develop and test specialized treatments for substance abusers with co-occurring psychiatric disorder.  In 2013 he was awarded the Dan Anderson Award for making unique and significant contributions to the field with the potential to change clinical practice in alcohol use disorders treatment.  He is a Minnesota Psychological Association Distinguished Scholar and a University of Missouri Distinguished Alumnus.

Tracy Simpson, PhD, is a Clinician Investigator with the Center of Excellence in Substance Abuse Treatment and Education at the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System. She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington. Her primary research areas include evaluating interventions for alcohol use disorders with and without co-occurring PTSD, mechanisms of behavior change, assessment methods, and women veterans' substance use and mental health. She provides clinical care for women veterans with PTSD and addiction and is actively engaged in mentoring junior faculty, post doctoral fellows, and clinical psychology interns.

Dr. Brady is an experienced clinical and translational researcher and has been conducting scientific investigations and clinical work in the field of addictions and psychiatric disorders for over 30 years. Her research focuses on pharmacotherapy of substance use disorders, comorbidity of psychiatric disorders and addictions (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder), gender differences and women’s issues in addictions, and the neurobiologic connections between stress and addictions. She has received numerous federal research grants and has published over 300 peer-reviewed journal articles and co-edited 10 books. She is the Vice President for Research at the Medical University of South Carolina.  She is the principal Investigator of MUSC’s Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA), Principal Investigator of the Southern Consortium Node of the NIDA-funded Clinical Trials Network and Director of MUSC’s Women’s Research Center.  Her dedication to furthering research careers has attracted a number of junior investigators and clinicians. She has served at the President of the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Use Disorders (AMERSA), the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP) and is currently the President of the International Society of Addiction Medicine (ISAM).