Compensation
Training Focus
Program Description
Trainee Objectives and Tasks
Contact Information
Project Background
| Arlene Stiffman, PhD | Director/ Services |
| Renee Cunningham Williams, PhD, MPE | Co-Director/Gambling |
| Wendy Auslander, PhD | Preceptor/ Interventions |
| Ed Spitznagel, PhD | Preceptor/Biostatistics |
| Linda Cottler, MD | Preceptor/Epidemiology and Addiction Research |
| Edward Fisher, PhD | Preceptor/Interventions and Preventions |
| Laura Bierut, MD | Preceptor/Cocaine Use |
Research on services and treatment of substance abusing and comorbid populations (particularly those traditionally under-served)
GWB is one of the top schools of social work, known internationally for its faculty researchers. The Social Work Training in Addictions Research (STAR) Program will produce social work researchers who have state-of-art knowledge of addiction services, prevention and interventions, and service delivery costs and burdens.
For more information on the STAR PROGRAM, contact Arlene Stiffman, PhD, Director of the Comorbidity and Addictions Center, at (314) 935-6685 or via email at arstiff@wustl.edu.
For information and application instructions for the Brown School of Social Work PhD Program, please contact the PhD program office at (314) 935-6605 or via email at phdsw@wustl.edu. You may also link directly to the George Warren Brown School of Social Work's PhD Program Home Page.
The Social Work Training in Addictions Research (STAR) will be a predoctoral and postdoctoral training program in research on services and treatment of substance abusing and comorbid populations. The need for more well trained addictions researchers is particularly pressing within the field of social work. Established by the National Institute on Drug Abuse in December 2000, the Comorbidity and Addictions Center's primary objective is to advance research on multisector services for drug, alcohol, and comorbid problems to underserved populations. Social work has a strong history of delivering addictions and mental health services in multiple service sectors to underserved populations( minorities, the poor, the disfranchised). Yet, until the establishment of the Comorbidity and Addictions Center, social work had not produced addictions research on a level commensurate with its service-provision capacity. Dr. Alan Leshner, NIDA Director, has called on all disciplines to coordinate in order to study the biological, behavioral and social factors that combine to produce drug abuse and addictions (NIDA’s Strategic Plan for 2000-2005). According to Dr. Leshner, “Bringing together drug abuse researchers and professionals from other fields allows NIDA to disseminate its research findings, to learn about research being conducted elsewhere that is relevant to our mission, and to attract promising investigators to drug abuse research” (Director’s Column (1996) NIDA Notes Volume 11, Number 4).
GWB's Social Work Training in Addictions Research (STAR) Program will produce well-trained social work researchers who have state-of-the-art knowledge relating to addictions services (particularly underserved populations), evaluation of prevention and interventions, and the costs and burdens of addictions in specialty and nonspecialty services delivery systems. We will teach our predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees the skills to develop significant research projects, to publish, and to write grants. To do this, we will train students in conceptualizing problems and questions for study, research design, data management and analysis, writing for publication and proposal development, and working on interdisciplinary research teams. The trainees will be prepared to move directly into postdoctoral research programs in addictions research or into research and faculty positions at schools of social work where they will advance knowledge and teach the next generation of social work addictions providers and researchers. They will be able to compete with the best scholars in obtaining peer reviewed funding for significant research in the field.\
The training funds will enable us to recruit and retain a high quality student pool. During their training they will participate in an interdisciplinary curriculum with research experience in substance abuse issues through the departments of social work, psychiatry, economics and/or psychology. Trainees will participate in national substance abuse treatment conferences as learners and as presenters; and will co-author at least one scholarly publication with their mentor. They will participate in the preparation of proposals based on CAC faculty pilots so they will be prepared to write research proposals for external funding. The program will prepare them for academic research placements in tenure track or postdoctoral fellowship positions. We will accomplish these goals through
The program will enable doctoral students to benefit from the multidisciplinary resources of the Washington University Comorbidity and Addictions Center. As the nation's first Social Work Research Development Center, the CAC provides research infrastructure and supports a growing number of faculty and dissertation research projects. The Center is establishing itself as a leading force in national efforts to advance the capacity of social work researchers to improve substance abuse treatment.