Rani Hoff,PhD, serves as Director of the Northeast Program Evaluation Center (NEPEC), which performs national program evaluation of mental health services within the Office of Mental Health Operations in VA Central Office; the Director of the Evaluation Division of the National Center for PTSD; the head of the Women and Trauma Core of Women’s Health at Yale University; and Associate Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program at Yale. Dr. Hoff’s research utilizes principles of psychiatric epidemiology and services research to examine risk factors and correlates of psychiatric disorders, with particular attention paid to co-occurring disorders and vulnerable populations.
Scott Tonigan, PhD, is Research Professor in the department of psychology at the University of New Mexico. His research interests include behavior change in mutual-help programs such as AA, assessment instruments and empirically supported treatments.
Debi LaPlante, PhD,is director of research & academic affairs at the Division on Addiction, Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School (HMS) teaching hospital, and an assistant professor of psychiatry at HMS. She helped develop the Syndrome Model of Addiction and has conducted numerous research projectson responsible gambling.
Andrew Kayser, PhD, is associate professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, where he focuses on investigations that define the brain regions and interactions important for self-regulation in the cognitive, behavioral, andemotional domains, with an emphasis on functional MRI and other imaging modalities in humans. He is the recipient of an NCRG grant.
William C. Moyersis vice president of public affairs and community relations at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. Moyer’s brings years of professional experience as he works to “carry the message” about addiction, treatment and recovery across the nation. He has appeared on Larry King Live, the Oprah Winfrey show, Good Morning America and National Public Radio. He is the author of Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption(2006), a memoir that became a New York Timesbest-seller.
Bobbie AndersonMS, LPCC,NCC, is the Executive Director of Albuquerque Behavioral Health. Anderson has dedicated her professional career to reduce the impact of addiction on the community. Her passion to help others began when she was young and experienced the negative impacts within her own family dynmamics. She currently works as a Licensed Independent Clinician specializing in Addiction & Co-Occurring Disorders.
Dr. Katie Witkiewitzis a Regents’ Professor of Psychology at the University of New Mexico with a joint appointment at the Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addictions. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and has worked extensively on the development of a theoretical model of biopsychosocial influences on substance use relapse. She has been conducting research on mindfulness-based interventions for substance use disorders since 2002 and has recently been working in the clinic to adapt mindfulness-based interventions for real world settings, including adaptations to the number of sessions and how the treatment is delivered (individually or via rolling groups). She has conducted numerous empirical studies on the efficacy and effectiveness of mindfulness-based relapse prevention as a treatment for substance use disorders, prediction of relapse following treatment for alcohol and drug use disorders, and mechanisms of successful treatment outcomes following mindfulness-based interventions to prevent alcohol and drug use relapse. To date, Dr. Witkiewitz has authored 5 books and over 175 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and she has given over 75 presentations and invited talks. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Institute on Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the National Center for Responsible Gaming, totaling over $20 million in research funding since 2004.
Cindy Anderson,MSW, LCSW is founder and Executive Director of PeopleWorks-NM, a non-profit behavioral health agency which specializes in older adults. Her 32 years of experience in the field includes clinical (counseling) social work, medical social work, and administration and program development. She was named 2009 New Mexico Social Worker of the Year for her work with the geriatric mentally ill population and received the 2013 Zimmerman Community Service award from Rio Rancho Rotary Foundation. She developed PeopleWorks Gambling Addiction Program in 2015, and she obtained her ICGC-I (International Certified Gambling Counselor) in January 2018. She now provides telehealth and agency oversight from her home in San Diego, CA.