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
Medical University of South Carolina
RTI International 
The City College of New York 
​University of California, San Diego
Yale

Investigative Team

Denise Hien, Ph.D., ABPP
Principal Investigator

Denise Hien, Ph.D., ABPP, is the inaugural Helen E. Chaney Endowed Chair in Alcohol Studies and Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) at Rutgers University. She is also the former Senior Vice Provost for Research, Chancellor’s Office, Rutgers-New Brunswick and CAS Director; 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), National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA), and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (25 grants total: 8 R01, 2-R25, 1 multi-site) for over 30 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 an NIMH R01 hybrid effectiveness clinical trial for PTSD+SUD. She also recently completed an NIAAA R01 data science project, 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 Addiction Sciences Division of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). She is also a Staff Psychologist at the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System. Over the past 20 years, her research has focused 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 psychotherapies and pharmacological treatments for co-occurring SUD and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  Dr. Back and her colleagues developed an integrated, trauma-focused, cognitive-behavioral treatment for PTSD and SUD entitled, Concurrent Treatment of PTSD and Substance Use Disorders Using Prolonged Exposure (COPE) that was published in 2015 as part of Oxford University Press’ Treatments That Work®️ series. She is currently leading a VA project to develop COPEweb, an online training program for clinicians aimed at expanding national dissemination efforts of the treatment. Dr. Back is Director of the NIDA-sponsored Diversity in Addiction Research Training (DART) program at MUSC. DART provides mentored research opportunities through several training components for undergraduate, graduate, and medical students, as well as psychiatry residents to help advance the next generation of clinician-scientists.​

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

Dr. Lopez-Castro is a clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor at The City College of New York, City University of New York. She is interested in the mechanisms which connect traumatic stress to substance misuse and the advancement of integrative care for substance-related 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 posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorders create lasting change. Dr. Lopez-Castro is currently researching how to tailor PTSD and opioid use disorder treatments to people who inject drugs. Another line of her research involves employing statistical innovations to illuminate the diverse ways people change and recover from PTSD and substance use issues.    ​​​

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.
​​

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.
​

Shannon Blakey, Ph.D.
Co-Investigator

Dr. Shannon Blakey is a Research Clinical Psychologist at RTI International. Her research, funded by the National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense, centers on the nature, prevention, and treatment of co-occurring disorders, with an emphasis on co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorder. In her work, she also examines how co-occurring disorders increase risk for suicide and other adverse outcomes among military veterans. Dr. Blakey has published nearly 100 works and enjoys mentoring aspiring and early career mental health and substance use researchers. A licensed psychologist, she is also an expert in delivering exposure-based therapies, relapse prevention treatment, and other cognitive behavioral approaches.

Ismene Petrakis, Ph.D.
Co-Investigator

Margaret Swarbrick, Ph.D., FAOTA
Co-Investigator

Angelo M. DiBello, Ph.D.
Co-Investigator

​Dr. Ismene Petrakis is Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and the Chief of Psychiatry and Mental Health Services at VA Connecticut Healthcare System. She is also the Director of the Addiction Psychiatry Residency at Yale University School of Medicine and the principal investigator of a National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA-T32) training grant. She is involved in the education of medical students and residents at many stages of their training, particularly around clinical issues of addictive disorders. She is also a grant-funded investigator (funding sources over the years have included NIH, VA, Department of Defense, NARSAD and the Stanley Foundation) whose research interests include developing an understanding of the neurobiology of alcohol dependence and in testing potentially effective treatments for individuals with alcohol dependence and comorbid Axis I psychiatric disorders, particularly PTSD. Since completing her training, Dr. Petrakis has over 20 years of experience in the clinical treatment of addictive disorders, research in this field, and also in the education of residents, medical students, post-doctoral fellows and other mental health trainees in the assessment, accurate diagnosis and treatment of individuals with addictive disorders, particularly those with comorbidity.

​Dr. Margaret Swarbrick is the Associate Director of the Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies and a Research Professor in the Applied Department of GSAPP. Over her career, she has made significant contributions to the body of literature in occupational therapy, nursing, and community behavioral health care practice, focused on topics such as the 8 dimensions of wellness, wellness coaching, peer support, health disparities and social determinants of health, financial wellness, employment, trauma, and self-care.  She developed a strength based 8-dimensional wellness model to promote recovery from mental health and substance use. Dr Swarbrick is known for bringing the voices and needs of people to the table by collaborating with the peer community and family groups to identify and address social determinants that are barriers to recovery and wellness. She has created self-care wellness programs for people in recovery, caregiver’s, families, youth, and professionals.  She worked for many years at the Collaborative Support Programs of New Jersey Wellness Institute. 

​Dr. Angelo M. DiBello is an Associate Professor in GSAPP’s Applied Psychology department, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Brown University, and is the Director of the Social Health Addiction & Relationship Processes (SHARP) Laboratory at Rutgers University. Dr. DiBello earned his Ph.D. in Social Psychology in 2015 from the University of Houston and completed his postdoctoral training in 2017 at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University.

Tasha Bulgin, MA
Research Coordinator

Steven Curto, MS
​Research Assistant

Tasha Bulgin has a master's in psychology from Rutgers University - Newark. Her master’s thesis examined the behavioral and neurological effects of tobacco deprivation as it relates to negative affective stimuli. 

Steven Curto ​earned his Master of Science in Clinical Research Methods from Fordham University, where his thesis focused on trauma-informed assessment practices and the impact of community violence and traumatic loss on mental health and delinquency risk among adolescents with justice system involvement. Steven’s research interests lie at the intersection of early adversity, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance use disorders (SUD), with an emphasis on identifying mechanisms that drive comorbidity and poor treatment outcomes. He is particularly interested in the optimization and implementation of Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy for individuals with co-occurring PTSD and SUD, with a focus on improving engagement, reducing dropout, and enhancing the effectiveness of trauma-focused interventions in community-based care.