FRI Welcomes New Assistant Research Scientist Dr. Sarah Gutkind

FRI is pleased to welcome Dr. Sarah Gutkind, who has joined the organization as an Assistant Research Scientist. Dr. Gutkind is an epidemiologist and health services researcher whose work focuses on substance use, health policy, treatment access, and the social and economic factors that shape substance use and related health outcomes.

Dr. Gutkind earned her Ph.D. in Epidemiology from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, with a focus on substance use epidemiology, and her MSPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she focused on health education and health communication. Most recently, she conducted research at Weill Cornell Medicine examining the impact of health policies on substance use outcomes and treatment utilization.

Dr. Gutkind’s prior work has examined the relationship between financial strain and substance use, and evaluated the potential mitigating effects of Earned Income Tax Credit policies. Through a CHERISH pilot award, she examined the influence of state Medicaid Section 1115 waivers on adolescent and young adult substance use disorder screening and treatment. Her scholarship spans substance use epidemiology, Medicaid and social policy, treatment access, cannabis and opioid policy, overdose, and the economic evaluation of interventions for substance use disorders, HIV, and hepatitis C. She has published extensively in journals including JAMA Network Open, JAMA Health Forum, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, International Journal of Drug Policy, and Annals of Epidemiology.

At FRI, Dr. Gutkind will continue her line of research examining the impact of Medicaid policies on substance use disorder treatment outcomes and will collaborate with Drs. Karli Hochstatter and Jan Gryczynski on research related to overdose identification, epidemiology, and interventions.

FRI is delighted to welcome Dr. Gutkind and looks forward to her contributions to the organization’s research on substance use policy, treatment, and public health.