About the Training Grant

Alcohol Research Training Program
Funded by Grant T32 AA018108 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Katie Witkiewitz, Ph.D., Principal Investigator

Program Overview

The Center on Alcohol, Substance use, And Addictions (CASAA) at the University of New Mexico (UNM) is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through an Institutional Research Training grant to train pre- and postdoctoral alcohol researchers to study processes of change in alcohol use and alcohol use disorder. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds institutional research training grants to develop the next generation of NIH researchers, "...to help ensure that a diverse and highly trained workforce is available to assume leadership roles related to the Nation's biomedical, behavioral and clinical research agenda. The primary objective of the T32 program is to prepare qualified individuals for careers that have a significant impact on the health-related research needs of the Nation."

The goal of UNM CASAA training program is to prepare future NIH scientists to conduct rigorous alcohol and addiction research across a range of areas including evidence-based treatment, mechanisms of behavior change, precision medicine, comorbidity and the individual- and system-level factors related to alcohol use, polysubstance use, and other addictive behaviors, technology-based interventions, and implementation science; and draws on several new conceptual and methodological approaches with the goal of reducing the public health burden of alcohol use disorder.

Sample research areas include: measurement of substance use, factors stimulating change, mechanisms of change, trajectories of change, interventions, risk profiles, individual differences, and dissemination studies.

The grant supports four predoctoral fellows in the UNM Department of Psychology and three postdoctoral fellows who may come from any discipline relevant to the goals of the training program. Fellows work with one or more of the core training faculty: Katie Witkiewitz (Training Director), Frank Schwebel (Associate Training Director), Tara Bautista, Cassandra Boness, Leslie Brick, Joshua Grubbs, Margo Hurlocker, Megan Kirouac, Matison McCool, Colin Mahoney, Matthew Pearson, Jane Ellen Smith, and Kamilla Venner.

 

Training Program Culture and Shared Responsibilities

The training grant is designed to support the next generation of alcohol researchers with shared responsibilities for the following:

• Co-building a culture of appreciation
• Realistic workplans and clear guidance, trainees and mentors avoid last minute requests
• Openness to learning
• Process and quality goals, no required quantity of productivity
• Openness to varied ways of meeting training goals, publications are one part
• Trainees included in decision making and responsibilities of training
• Recognize different world views and goals
• Team work, community engaged work, and shared goals

 

Training Faculty

Core faculty members serve as primary or secondary research mentors for pre- and post-doctoral trainees. Each trainee must have a training grant mentor who is a core faculty member. Predoctoral trainees may have a primary mentor from their academic department and a primary mentor on the training grant. In these cases, the two mentors should work closely to provide a coherent training experience for the predoctoral trainee. Core faculty members include:


Affiliated faculty members serve as secondary mentors and may serve as members of predoctoral trainees' thesis, comprehensive exam, or dissertation committees. Affiliated faculty members also provide expertise in specific areas and may serve as outside members of predoctoral trainees' committees. Other members of the predoctoral trainee's academic department also will serve on trainees' committees. Affiliated faculty members include:

 

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