FRI is pleased to announce that Dr. Mishka Terplan has accepted the position of Senior Physician Research Scientist at FRI. Dr. Terplan is a physician who is Board Certified in both Obstetrics & Gynecology and Addiction Medicine. His primary clinical, research and advocacy interests rest along the intersection of reproductive and behavioral health. He is best known for his work on pregnancy and substance use disorder, including systematic reviews on both medication and psychosocial interventions. He has pioneered research and programs integrating sexual and reproductive health with substance use disorder treatment and integrating behavioral health with the delivery of reproductive health services.

Most recently he served as Professor in the Departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he opened an outpatient addiction medicine clinic and oversaw addiction medicine services. In addition to his work for FRI, he is the Addiction Medicine Consultant for Virginia Medicaid and Adjunct Faculty at the University of California, San Francisco where he serves as a Substance Use Warmline Clinician for its Clinical Consultation Center.

FRI is pleased to announce that Dr. Thomas R. Blue has been promoted from an Assistant Research Scientist to a Research Scientist, effective July 17, 2019. Since joining FRI in 2017, Dr. Blue has performed several secondary analyses of research data including analyses of arrest outcomes (now published in the Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence) and HIV risk behaviors (manuscript under review) of participants in a randomized controlled trial of buprenorphine for prisoners. Additionally he has helped author multiple grant applications to NIH including one for the Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN), which FRI was recently awarded. As part of this project he will serve as Co-Investigator, study statistician, and data manager for an equivalence trial of extended release naltrexone and extended release buprenorphine for individuals incarcerated throughout Maryland. Dr. Blue’s main interests include experimental design (including sample size determination) and the evaluation of both experimental and non-experimental data, especially data structured hierarchically and/or longitudinally. He hopes to continue learning more about statistical design and analysis to assist future FRI research efforts and to apply this knowledge to research efforts of his own that include using data driven methods to design and test interventions for justice-involved individuals suffering from opioid use disorders. FRI would like to congratulate Dr. Blue on this notable achievement and wishes him a prosperous career with the organization.

FRI is pleased to announce that Dr. Mary Mitchell has been promoted from an Assistant Research Scientist to a Research Scientist, effective January, 2019. Dr. Mitchell joined FRI in September 2017. Since that time, she has contributed to a number of studies conducted at FRI while pursuing her own research. She will be serving as the Site Principal Investigator on the NIDA Clinical Trials Network Subthreshold Opioid Use Disorder Prevention (STOP) Trial. Dr. Mitchell is contributing to a variety of FRI projects including an Arnold Venture-funded evidence-based review of substance use disorder treatment. This review will be made available to US States to inform their use of the State Opioid Restitution Funding. Her recently published peer-reviewed articles have included a study examining longitudinal trends in blood alcohol content among patients treated for alcohol use disorder via a novel telemedicine intervention, and a study investigating HIV risk behaviors among pre-trial detainees in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Mitchell plans to continue applying advanced statistical techniques to study a variety of topics in substance use, especially longitudinal studies of cannabis use in pregnant and postpartum women and treatment outcomes for people with opioid use disorder. FRI would like to congratulate Dr. Mitchell on this notable achievement and wishes her a productive career with Friends.

FRI is pleased to announce that Dr. Laura Monico has been promoted from an Assistant Research Scientist to a Research Scientist, effective September 1, 2018. Since joining FRI in 2014, Dr. Monico has primarily worked on three NIDA-funded studies that investigate various dimensions of pharmacotherapy and has authored publications from several more. Over the past 2 ½ years, Dr. Monico has led the day-to-day project management on two multi-million dollar research projects, including a multi-state trial. In addition to her tasks assisting the Principal Investigator, Dr. Monico manages and mentors junior research staff. Her skills in both quantitative and qualitative data analyses have been evident in her peer reviewed publications and she has presented her work annually at national scientific conferences. Dr. Monico has also submitted grant applications to the National Institutes of Health to obtain independent research funding. FRI would like to congratulate Dr. Monico on this notable achievement and wishes her a prosperous career with the organization.

FRI is proud to announce that Dr. Jan Gryczynski received the Most Reviewed Articles award from the Journal of Addiction Medicine for peer reviewing six papers for the Journal in 2017. Click here to see article.