Staff Highlights

Staff Honors and Awards

2003 NIDA Director's Award Recipients

Individual Awards

Jagjitsingh H. Khalsa, Ph.D., CAMCODA
Carmen Rosa, M.S., CCTN
Paul Wakim, Ph.D., CCTN
Elaine Solano, DESPR
Lynda Erinoff, Ph.D., DESPR
Moira O'Brien, M. Phil, DESPR
Christine Colvis, Ph.D., DNBR
William Corrigall, Ph.D., DNBR
Adele B. Roman, M.S.N, R.N., DNBR
Barbara H. Herman, Ph.D., DTR&D
Ivan D. Montoya, M.D., M.P.H., DRT&D
Liza D. M. Gorgon, DTR&D
Nora Chiang, Ph.D., DTR&D
Robert Walsh, DTR&D
Annie Joseph, OEA
Rita Liu, Ph.D., OEA
William C. Grace, Ph.D., OEA
David L. Anderson, OSPC
Juanita Nelson, OSPC
Sheryl A. Massaro, OSPC
Suman Rao, Ph.D., OSPC

Group Awards

2003 NIDA EEO Award Recipients

Elizabeth B. Robertson, Ph.D., DESPR
Thomas Hilton, Ph.D., DESPR
Flair Lindsey, SPO
Aria Davis Crump, Sc.D., DESPR
Barry J. Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D., IRP
Richard A. Millstein, J.D., OD

Dr. Mu-Fa Zou, IRP, received a Staff Recognition Award in August 2003.

On July 25,2003, Ms. Pamela Oliver, NIDA EEO Office, received the "Outstanding EEO Counselor" Award from the NIH Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management.

Dr. Richard Hawks, Deputy Director, DTR&D, received the J. Michael Morrison Award from the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, at the Plenary and 2003 Awardees Program, June 15, 2003, Bal Harbour, Florida.

Dr. Frank Vocci, Director, DTR&D, received the Distinguished Service Award from the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, at the Plenary and 2003 Awardees Program, June 15, 2003, Bal Harbour, Florida.

Dr. Lisa Onken, DTR&D, has been selected by the American Psychological Association to receive the Meritorious Research Service Commendation, in recognition of her efforts to bridge basic and clinical science, and for creating NIDA's Behavioral Therapies Development Program.

CAPT. Steve Oversby, DTR&D was awarded "The Outstanding Unit Citation", as a member of the CCRF, by Surgeon General Carmona.

Dr. Rao S. Rapaka, DNBR, was elected as the Vice-Chair elect, for the Section of "Drug Design and Discovery", American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS). He will become Chair-elect 2004, and Chair by 2005. This section of AAPS includes, in addition to drug discovery, medicinal chemistry and natural products.

Gary Fleming, Chief of NIDA's Grants Management Branch, OPRM, received an Excellence in Leadership Award from the NIH Vision Steering Committee at a ceremony held June 6, 2003.

The following NIDA Grants Management personnel also recently received awards from the NIH Grants Management Community:

Diana Haikalis -- Excellence in Leadership Award
Deborah Wertz -- Special Recognition Award
Debra Battle-Dudley -- Letter of Appreciation
Catherine Mills -- Letter of Appreciation
Daisey Parker -- Letter of Appreciation

Current and former members of the Division of Treatment Research and Development (Peter Bridge, Nora Chiang, Lee Cummings, Dorynne Czechowicz, Joel Egertson, Liza Gorgon, Charles Grudzinskas, Richard Hawks, Susan Herbert, Moo Park, James Terrill, and Frank Vocci) along with Timothy Condon and Mary Mayhew from NIDA's Office of Science Policy and Communication, received the Secretary's Award for Distinguished Service for their roles in the NIDA/FDA/SAMHSA Buprenorphine Work Group at a ceremony held at DHHS headquarters, June 11, 2003.

Dr. Jerry Flanzer, DESPR, has been appointed Co-chair of the Social Work Section of the International Council of Alcohol and Addiction.

Dr. Amy Newman, IRP, was asked to serve on the 2nd NIH Task Force on the Status of Women Scientists by Dr. Michael Gottesman, Deputy Director, NIH.

Dr. Mu-Fa Zou, IRP, received a Staff Recognition Award in August 2003.

Dr. Toni Shippenberg, IRP, was appointed to Adjunct Associate Professor, Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 2003-2004.

Dr. Toni Shippenberg, IRP, was elected to serve on the Executive Board of the International Research Conference for a 3 year term, 2003.

Staff Changes

Jennifer Wong, Ph.D. joined the Regulatory Affairs Branch in the Division of Treatment Research and Development on July 27, 2003 as a Health Scientist Administrator. Dr. Wong received her Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Tennessee - Memphis. Before coming to NIDA, Dr. Wong was a Regulatory Compliance Specialist at Technical Resources International in Bethesda, Maryland.

Steve Oversby, Psy.D., FPPR, joined the MRGB, DTR&D as a Health Scientist Administrator in May 2003. Steve graduated from California State University, Hayward, and is an RN with Board Certifications in Addictions, as well as a Licensed Professional Addictions Counselor, and a Licensed Clinical Psychologist. Currently Steve is a student in the Prescribing Psychologist's Register (PPR) Psychopharmacology Program. Steve joined the U.S. Public Health Service in 1987, and has had a wide range of professional experience. Steve brings to the DTR&D one year of NIDA CCTN experience, ten years of dual diagnosis counseling, and two years of Substance Abuse Program Development with the D.C. Department of Mental Health.

Elizabeth Ginexi, Ph.D. joined the Prevention Research Branch (PRB) at NIDA in July 2003. Her work has emphasized the application of innovative longitudinal data analysis methods to advance research on mental health and substance abuse prevention among families and youth. Prior to coming to NIDA, she worked at Westat, a contract research firm in Rockville, MD, where she participated in the development and implementation of several large-scale drug abuse treatment and prevention evaluations funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Prior to working at Westat, Dr. Ginexi played a major role in data collection, data management, and analysis for several large longitudinal field studies involving mental health preventive interventions and services research. She received her doctoral degree in Applied Social Psychology at the George Washington University (GWU). She received postdoctoral training under two Public Health Service Grant National Research Service Awards, one at Children's National Medical Center and the GWU Center for Family Research, and the other at the Center for Mental Health Policy at Vanderbilt University.

Drs. Kevin Conway and Yonette Thomas were appointed Deputy Branch Chiefs for the Epidemiology Research Branch. Each will be responsible for overseeing two separate but interrelated streams of science and administration. Dr. Conway will be responsible for Emerging ERB Science, which includes the promotion of new areas of ERB science, spearheading initiatives that crosscut ERB program areas, and executing pending ERB scientific activities. Dr. Thomas will be responsible for Existing ERB Science, which consists of reviewing and integrating the current ERB science, communicating ERB science to NIDA and the broader scientific community, and cultivating relationships with outside universities and organizations to attract new investigators.

Jessica Campbell, Ph.D. joined NIDA's Division of Epidemiology, Prevention and Services Research (DESPR) as a Health Scientist Administrator in July 2003. Dr. Campbell comes to DESPR from the Human Development Unit of NIDA's Center on AIDS and Other Medical Consequences of Drug Abuse (CAMCODA). Her work in CAMCODA focused on the development of children growing up in drug abusing environments and the health and developmental consequences of prenatal exposure to drugs and drug abuse by high-risk youth. Dr. Campbell came to NIDA in August 2000 as an Executive Branch Fellow, sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD). Prior to joining NIDA, Dr. Campbell completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), where she was involved with a longitudinal study of early child-care effects on children's social, emotional, and cognitive development. She received her doctoral degree in Human Development and Family Studies at the University of North Carolina - Greensboro. Dr. Campbell will serve as the Program Director for Child Development Research within the Epidemiology Research Branch of DESPR.

Arnold Mills was appointed Acting Chief, Epidemiology Research Branch, DESPR on July 13, 2003.

Robin Mackar was named Acting Chief of OSPC's Science Policy Branch on August 24, 2003.