The Heller School for Social Policy and Management

Serving as a national resource for payment and delivery system reform for substance use disorder treatment

Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), The Brandeis-Harvard SPIRE Center to Improve System Performance for Substance Use Disorder Treatment is a partnership of the Heller School's Institute for Behavioral Health, part of the Schneider Institutes for Health Policy and Research, and Harvard Medical School's Department of Health Care Policy. With leadership by Sharon Reif (Brandeis) and Haiden Huskamp (Harvard) that builds on Founding Director Connie Horgan's long tenure as PI, and an outstanding team of collaborators, the Center will advance our understanding of SUD treatment delivery and payment systems. The Center's 2022 renewal brings a focus on low-barrier access to care, diverse populations, stakeholder engagement, and supporting early career investigators.

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Our dear colleague Robert Dunigan, PhD, MSW, passed away on Feb 4th, 2025. This loss has impacted our community deeply, and we are honored to celebrate his legacy.

After earning his PhD from Brandeis’ Heller School, Dr. Dunigan joined the staff as a researcher in 2005. Much of his work addressed the health disparities and substance use treatment needs of marginalized populations, especially the Black community. He worked closely and connected his teams with many community partners, enriching his work with nuance, expertise, and lived experience perspectives. Dr. Dunigan played a key role in SPIRE’s mentoring and pilot core and served as a mentor to many early career researchers throughout his career.

We invite you to write remembrances by adding your reflections and sentiments to the Kudo board created in his honor, which will be given to Dr. Dunigan’s family.

 

SPIRE Center Staff and Researchers

“The healthcare delivery system is changing extremely rapidly, and we want to make sure that treatment for people with substance use disorders has a place at the table and is part of the innovation that’s happening, and that we build the research portfolio that supports these innovations, such as payment, financing and quality of care.”

      - Constance Horgan, Founding Director

Center Aims

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Advance the Science
Stimulating and conducting research on payment and delivery system reforms for substance use disorder treatment.
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Drive the Next Generation of Research
Mentoring and training a diverse pool of early career investigators and creating networks of early career and senior researchers.
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Translate and Disseminate Findings
Engaging with key stakeholders in a bidirectional exchange to produce and share relevant knowledge that informs policy and practice.