Student Profiles - Behavioral Health Concentration | PhD in Social Policy

Marc Abelard

Marc Abelard is a doctoral student in the Behavioral Health concentration. His research interests include racial/ethnic disparities in the mental health field and developing innovation programs to diversify the behavioral health workforce. He is a combat veteran with a distinguished tenure in the Marine Corps with numerous medals and commendations for his service in the Persian Gulf. Abelard is an outstanding professional who brings high energy, vision and considerable skills and expertise to his leadership positions as the Director of Strategic Partnerships, Director of the Behavioral Health Service Corps (BHSC), and Co-Director of the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Initiative (CAMHI), at William James College's Center for Workforce Development. He holds a Master of Education in educational leadership from Northeastern University.

marcabelard@brandeis.edu

Karen Alfaro

Karen Azucnea Alfaro, MPH, is a doctoral student in the Behavioral Health concentration and NIAAA pre-doctoral trainee. She received her Master of Public Health with a concentration in Global Health degree from Loma Linda University and a Bachelor of Science in Public Health with a minor in Psychology from San Jose State University (SJSU). Karen worked as a Behavioral Health Navigator in the Emergency Department at Kaiser Permanente where she worked with patients who came in for substance use disorders. She has worked on a variety of qualitative and quantitative research projects through her universities and in Guatemala and Malawi, Africa. Karen is a McNair Scholar through SJSU where she conducted independent research on intimate toxic relationships. Her research interests include intimate partner violence, substance use disorders, global health (specifically global mental health), reproductive health and maternal mental health.

kalfaro@brandeis.edu

Robert Bohler

Robert Bohler, MPH, MA is a PhD candidate and NIAAA pre-doctoral trainee studying behavioral health policy. He recently served as a Rappaport Policy Fellow through the Harvard Kennedy School of Government at the Massachusetts State House, and as the lead researcher for a report and community forum held by the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum on the impact of opioids on rural and small communities in Western Massachusetts. Mr. Bohler is currently working on several research projects at Heller, including payment and policy tracking projects that are part of the HEALing Communities Study and the Brandeis Opioid Resource Connector, a website that highlights innovative community-based interventions to address the opioid crisis. Before coming to Brandeis, Mr. Bohler received an MPH with an emphasis in Epidemiology from the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health at Georgia Southern University and received an AB in Economics from the University of Georgia. He worked in collegiate recovery and community-based efforts to address substance use disorder (SUD), serving as a grant writer for a proposal to establish a recovery community organization in his community. He has published on the SUD continuum of care and recovery science and his research interests are in opioid policy, medications for opioid use disorder, recovery trajectories, financing and delivery of SUD treatment, and developing effective SUD treatment systems. Mr. Bohler is also a consultant for the Recovery Research Institute at MGH/Harvard Medical School and is actively involved in the Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery (MOAR).

bohler@brandeis.edu

Ginny Chadwick

Ginny Chadwick is a doctoral student in the Behavioral Health concentration and NIAAA pre-doctoral trainee. Her focus is on tobacco-free campus policies, access to cessation services, and screening of tobacco use dependence in EMR systems. She coordinates an annual statewide conference in Missouri on tobacco prevention, cessation and policy for college campuses and health care systems. Since 2013, she has worked on sales restriction laws for tobacco products, written ordinances and statutes, and contributed to the national model language. Her research includes age of sale, penalty structures, decriminalization of purchase, use and possession, and preemption of local laws. Chadwick serves as Political Action Chair for the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs section of the American Public Health Association. She is a member of the National Cancer Institute Community Engagement Workgroup for tobacco policy research. She holds an MPH and MA in journalism from the University of Missouri.

ginnychadwick@brandeis.edu

Alex Duarte

Alex graduated from Bentley University in 2019 and received a dual bachelors degree in public policy and business studies. During his time at Bentley, Alex’s research focused on policy indicators found within the substance abuse policy domain. More specifically, Alex has focused on how opioid overdose rates and lobbying efforts made by the pharmaceutical industry work to affect policymakers attention to the current opioid crisis. During his time at Bentley, Alex worked at the Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington DC and Project Weber, a Rhode Island-based harm reduction center for male and transgender sex workers.

alexduarte@brandeis.edu

Anika Kumar

Anika Kumar is a PhD student and NIAAA pre-doctoral fellow studying behavioral health policy. She received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Community Health from Tufts University. Anika has managed several research projects which examined the impact of policy on access, use, and quality of behavioral health services for racial/ethnic minoritized groups and people with mental illness and/or substance use disorders. Anika has worked closely with interdisciplinary teams of researchers, clinicians, and community stakeholders at major healthcare institutions in the greater Boston area. Her specific interests include assessing racial/ethnic disparities in behavioral health treatment, particularly among immigrant populations, using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

anikakumar@brandeis.edu

Kurt Lebeck

Kurt D. Lebeck, MSW, is a PhD student and pre-doctoral NIAAA trainee. He has a background in program implementation and evaluation, and most recently completed a study funded by New Mexico’s State Opioid Response (SOR) block grant. He also provides consulting services to treatment organizations around the US. Kurt’s research areas include behavioral health equity and quality improvement, intervention design and implementation, and recovery capital. Kurt is particularly interested in developing evidence-based practices and policies that promote peer support work and the expertise of lived experience. Kurt holds an MSW from Smith College and a BFA from the San Francisco Art institute. He completed clinical training at the Bedford, MA Veterans Hospital and at a therapeutic arts program for adolescents in Richmond, CA. Prior to entering the behavioral health field, Kurt operated a design and build business in New York City.

kurtlebeck@brandeis.edu

Emily Ledingham

Emily Ledingham, MPH, is a PhD candidate and NIAAA pre-doctoral trainee studying behavioral health policy. She received a Master of Public Health degree from Westminster College and a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from the University of Utah. Emily has worked on a variety of qualitative and quantitative research projects with the Institute of Behavioral Health and the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy, on issues such as opioid use disorders, peer supports, behavioral health treatment gaps, and sexual violence against people with disabilities. Prior to coming to Heller, she worked as a research consultant for the Utah Division of Services for People with Disabilities and was an adjunct professor at Westminster College in the public health program. Emily's research interests are primarily in substance use, mental health, chronic pain, health disparities, civil rights of people with disabilities, sexual violence against people with disabilities, and access to health/social services.

emilycrandall@brandeis.edu

Allie Silverman

Allie Silverman is a doctoral student in the Behavioral Health concentration and NIAAA pre-doctoral trainee. Silverman has worked for the Rural and Minority Health Research Center and the Student Health Services Sexual Health Office, South Carolina. She has also done research on Medicaid funding for substance use disorder.

Her research interests include sexual health, substance use disorders, health care delivery, and quality improvement. She received her Master of Public Health in Health Services, Policy and Management and Master of Social Work at the University of South Carolina. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in neuroscience and psychology from Boston University.

alliesilverman@brandeis.edu

Deborah Strod

Deborah Strod is a PhD candidate and NIAAA pre-doctoral trainee concentrating in Behavioral Health. She received an MSW from Boston University and an AB from Harvard University. She focuses on addictions workforce development for specialist and non-specialist positions, examining how responses to existing worker shortages are being reshaped by healthcare integration, cross-system coordination, changes in demand, and advances in scientific understanding of addiction. She is exploring worker and job flow within local treatment ecosystems, and is particularly interested in working with data from existing administrative sources. Important considerations include: compensation, recruitment/retention, education/training, culturally-responsive care, quality improvement and expansion of peer supports.

strodheller@brandeis.edu

Heidi Bruggink Sulman

Heidi Bruggink Sulman, MPH, MSW, LCSW is a PhD candidate studying behavioral health policy. She received an MPH in Health Law, Bioethics, and Human Rights from the Boston University School of Public Health; an MSW in Clinical Social Work and Behavioral Medicine from the Boston University School of Social Work; and an AB in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality from Harvard University. Ms. Sulman most recently served as a Program Manager at the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission. She is a National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Pre-Doctoral Fellow and a past recipient of the Harvard Kennedy School Rappaport Institute Public Policy Fellowship. Her research interests include the financing and organization of behavioral health services, with particular focus on care integration, health insurance design, and provision of evidence-based practices.

hsulman@brandeis.edu

Adam Vose-O'Neal

Adam Vose-O'Neal is a PhD candidate in the Behavioral Health concentration. For the last several years, licensed clinical social worker Adam Vose-O’Neal has worked in a clinical practice in Providence, R.I. where he specializes in treating clients with addictions. Now, Vose-O’Neal is enrolled in the Heller PhD program with a concentration in behavioral health, and is a National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Fellow. He continues to treat clients in Providence, and hopes to maintain a clinical practice while pursuing a research career. For his dissertation research, he plans to pursue deeper questions of addiction, sobriety and social networks informed by his experience as a clinician.

“Something that’s come up in my practice is seeing how people get sober. One interesting thing is that they don’t always do it through conventional treatment. I’ve seen clients that disconnect or connect with people in their lives—change jobs, move, start a new relationship, get out of a relationship—and it’s had an impact on their path not just to sobriety, but sustained sobriety. That’s interesting to me. Not just how people get sober, but stay sober.”

avoseoneal@brandeis.edu