About Our Team.

A group of established researchers working together to shape the field of comorbid PTSD/AOD treatments.

Over 20 years of work.

This team of researchers have been working together for two decades, and are passionate about bringing this project to fruition. The team believes strongly in the possibility of this study to provide powerful answers for a variety of vulnerable populations

Our Institutions.

Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies at Rutgers University
The City College of New York ​
Medical University of South Carolina 
RTI International 

Investigative Team

Denise Hien, Ph.D., ABPP
Principal Investigator

Denise Hien, Ph.D., ABPP, is the Director of CAS, and the Helen E. Chaney Endowed Chair in Alcohol Studies. She is also serving as the Interim Dean of the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) at Rutgers University. Recognized as a leader in the field of post-traumatic stress and addictions, her body of work has contributed to the evidence base on effective interventions for individuals with PTSD and substance use disorders. She and her group have conducted programmatic research through single- and multi-site clinical trials across the United States in community-based substance abuse treatment settings, with continuous funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA) (21 grants total: 7 R01, 2-R25, 1 multi-site) for over 25 years.  She currently leads an NIDA R25 training grant for translational addiction research for racial/ethnic minority BS/MD, MA and PhD candidates in the biomedical and social sciences, and a new NIAAA R01, a meta-analysis with individual patient data examining effectiveness of treatment for PTSD and AODs. She is board-certified in clinical psychology and has served as a standing and ad hoc member on NIDA, NIAAA and NIMH Institutional Review Groups, and a health disparities advisory group to the Director of NIDA on Asian/Pacific Islander issues.​

Antonio Morgan-Lopez, Ph.D.
​Principal Investigator

Dr. Antonio A. Morgan-Lopez is MPI of Project Harmony and holds the position of Fellow in Quantitative Psychology in the RTI International Community Health Research Division (CoHRD). His work centers around the development and application of advanced quantitative methodologies predominantly in the context of randomized and non-randomized behavioral health interventions. He has also served as PI on five NIH grants since 2006, including an NIMH R01 IDA study running in parallel to Project Harmony (R01MH124438), that center around advances in quantitative methodology within behavioral health interventions. His more recent methodological interests center around psychometric issues in measuring PTSD and suicidality under item response theory and non-linear factor analysis, propensity score weighting for mediation and moderation and generalized non-linear mixed modeling with random treatment effects. ​

Sudie Back, Ph.D.
​​​Co-Investigator

Dr. Sudie Back is a licensed clinical psychologist and Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), and a Staff Psychologist at the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Charleston, SC. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Georgia, completed her clinical internship at Yale University School of Medicine, and her postdoctoral fellowship in addictions at MUSC. Dr. Back’s research focuses on the intersection of traumatic stress and substance use disorders (SUD). She has received funding from NIDA, NIAAA, NIMH, the Department of Defense, and the VA to investigate behavioral and pharmacological treatments for SUD and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Most notably, Dr. Back and her colleagues developed a manualized, cognitive-behavioral treatment for PTSD and SUD (“COPE”) that was published by Oxford University Press as part of the Treatments That Work series. In addition to conducting research, she is actively involved in mentoring and is Director of the NIDA-sponsored Drug Abuse Research Training (DART) program at MUSC. In 2020, she received the Advancement, Recruitment and Retention of Women (ARROW) Faculty Award at MUSC for her commitment and dedication to the development and promotion of women faculty in academia.​

Therese Killeen, Ph.D., APRN-BC
​Co-Investigator

Dr. Therese Killeen is a research professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at MUSC. Dr. Killeen's research interests are in the area of effective treatment approaches for substance use disorders (SUD) and comorbidity, with a particular expertise in PTSD and SUD comorbidity. She has lead several large NIDA Clinical Trial Network studies exploring psychosocial therapies in the treatment of substance use and comorbid disorders. She is an expert in motivational interviewing, cognitive behavior therapy, contingency management,  integrated SUD and PTSD treatment interventions and more recently she is involved in research exploring the effectiveness of  mindfulness based relapse prevention in improving substance use and PTSD outcomes. Bridging the gap between research and clinical practice, she has worked with front line community treatment programs and clinicians to adopt evidence based treatments. She has mentored numerous clinicians both within MUSC and in community practice using evidence based supervision. ​

​Teresa López-Castro, Ph.D.
Co-Investigator

Teresa López-Castro is a licensed clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the Psychology Department of The City College of New York (CCNY). Dr. Lopez-Castro is interested in the mechanisms which connect traumatic stress to substance misuse and the advancement of integrative care for addiction and mental health issues. She is the principal investigator of the Translational Research on Emotions, Addictions, and Trauma (TREAT) laboratory at CCNY. The TREAT lab incorporates affective and social cognitive neuroscience to the investigation of how effective treatments for trauma and addictions create lasting change. Dr. Lopez-Castro is currently researching social cognition’s role in traumatic stress and addiction, and how meditation may foster resilience and recovery. Another line of her research involves employing statistical innovations to illuminate the diverse ways people change and recover from addiction. She has published and presented internationally on advancing the field of addiction and trauma treatment research through novel methodologies and therapeutic targets.   ​​​

Sonya Norman, Ph.D.
Co-Investigator

Dr. Norman is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Director of the PTSD Consultation Program for the National Center for PTSD. She is a researcher in the treatment of PTSD and substance use disorders, implementation of evidence based treatments for PTSD, and understanding and treating post traumatic guilt and shame. Her grants are funded by NIH, Department of Defense, Patient Centered Outcomes Institute, and Department of Veterans Affairs. She has over 150 publications related to PTSD and associated problems. Dr. Norman recently served as a member of the VA/DoD PTSD Clinical Practice Guideline workgroup. She previously directed the PTSD treatment program for Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan at the San Diego VA. She received her PhD from Stanford University.

Lesia Ruglass, Ph.D.
​​Co-Investigator

Lesia M. Ruglass, Ph.D., is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the City College of New York (CUNY), and an Adjunct Associate Research Professor at the Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies at Rutgers University. Her research interests center on several areas: 1) testing the efficacy and effectiveness of combined and integrated treatments for co-occurring trauma/PTSD, and substance use disorders; 2) understanding the biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying SUDs (particularly cannabis use and tobacco use disorders); and 3) understanding and reducing racial/ethnic disparities in mental health, SUDs, and treatment outcomes. Dr. Ruglass is currently Multiple PI on a NIDA funded R25 training grant for translational addiction research for racial/ethnic minority BS/MD, MA and PhD students in the biomedical and social sciences (TRACC-RU) and co-investigator on Project Harmony. She recently completed two pilot studies examining racial/ethnic differences in attentional bias and cue reactivity among cannabis and tobacco users and was co-investigator on several clinical trials that examined the efficacy/effectiveness of combined and integrated treatments for co-occurring PTSD and substance use disorders (SUD). Dr. Ruglass has received awards and grants from the National Institutes of Health and the City College City SEEDS program. She has published multiple peer-reviewed articles and presented her work nationally and internationally. She is co-author of the book, Psychology of Trauma 101 (with Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, Springer Publishing) and co-editor of the book, Women’s Mental Health Across the Lifespan: Challenges, Vulnerabilities, and Strengths (with Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, Routledge Publishing). A full list of Dr. Ruglass’s publications can be found on My Bibliography. Dr. Ruglass currently serves as Member-at-Large (Public Interest) for the Society of Addiction Psychology, APA, Division 50. She also maintains a virtual private practice in New York and New Jersey.
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Lissette Saavedra, Ph.D.
Co-Investigator

Lissette M. Saavedra is a Senior Research Psychologist with more than 20 years of experience in mental health service provision. Currently she serves as the Principal Investigator for two National Institute of Justice grant focused on delivery of telemental health services for trauma-exposed victims of crime and the Principal Investigator of a NIH Translational Pilot grant that examines the feasibility and acceptability of a Screening and Referral to Prevention for Latinx Youth. She also acts as a Co-Investigator of the National Institute of Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse funded Project Harmony, a virtual clinical trial that integrates data from over 50 clinical trials to better understand treatment for comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder and alcohol/other drug use disorders.
Dr. Saavedra has broad expertise in mental health services research, and has worked on evaluation of efficacy and effectiveness clinical trials funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Mental Health, National Institute of Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. She has delivered and evaluated interventions in several modalities including clinic, community and school based. Dr. Saavedra has published several empirical and conceptual articles related to assessment, diagnostic issues in the area of comorbidity, short and long-term treatment outcomes of evidence-based treatment approaches for comorbid anxiety, stress and substance use disorders, including opioids. Her quantitative methods experience centers around evaluation of randomized controlled trials using around finite mixture models, mediation analysis, integrative data analysis and propensity scoring. Dr. Saavedra has unique expertise in harmonization of variables and logistical and legal issues around data sharing. She has been funded and published in this area. Her other methodological interests include clinical decision-making, including use of Bayesian approaches to identify cases for different levels of intervention.
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Skye Fitzpatrick, Ph.D.
Co-Investigator

Dr. Skye Fitzpatrick completed her PhD in 2018 at Ryerson University in the Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Processing Laboratory under Dr. Janice Kuo’s supervision. Her research at Ryerson focused on the nature and treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD), with a specific focus on dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT). Dr. Fitzpatrick’s training at Ryerson supported her in achieving numerous awards, including the Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal Award, the American Psychological Association Dissertation Research Award, and the Dennis Mock Student Leadership Award, among others. Following graduate school, Dr. Fitzpatrick completed her predoctoral internship in Seattle at the University of Washington under the research mentorship of Dr. Debra Kaysen. During her internship, she received research and clinical training in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which often co-occurs with BPD, and was awarded the Nancy Robinson Award for Outstanding Overall Achievement for her contributions to the training program. Dr. Fitzpatrick continued to pursue training in studying interventions for PTSD and related comorbidities (BPD, substance use disorders) during her postdoctoral fellowship in the Center of Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University under the mentorship of Dr. Denise Hien. Her current research focuses on identifying ways to optimize, expedite, and broaden access to treatments for BPD, PTSD, and related conditions on their own and as they co-occur. In the interest of optimizing and expediting BPD and PTSD treatments, Dr. Fitzpatrick has become particularly focused on harnessing the power of relationships through the development and study of conjoint or dyadic interventions. In the interest of broadening access to BPD and PTSD interventions, she has become interested in developing and studying online, remote-delivered, and brief interventions.

Chantel Ebrahimi
Research Coordinator

Chantel Ebrahimi completed her BS in Psychobiology at UCLA in 2015. After graduating from UCLA, she worked on the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study as the lead research assistant and recruitment coordinator. There, she developed an interest to study the impact of community trauma and substance use on urban youth and young adults. She is completing her MA in Psychology at The New School. Her research interests include: community mental health, addiction. historical trauma, and psychotherapy interventions. Her master’s thesis examines the impact of historical trauma on psychological well-being among young adults.