Principal Investigators and Research Scientists

JAMES A. INCIARDI (Ph.D. in Sociology, New York University, 1973) is the Co-Director of the Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies (Miami office) and a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice. Prior to the establishment of the Center, from 1976 through mid-1991, he was Director of the University’s Division of Criminal Justice. Dr. Inciardi has an appointment in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Miami School of Medicine; and he is a Guest Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Before coming to Delaware , he was Director of the National Center for the Study of Acute Drug Reactions at the University of Miami , Vice-President of the Washington, DC-based Resource Planning Corporation, and Associate Director of Research for the New York State Narcotic Addiction Control Commission. With 40 years experience in the drug field, he has done extensive consulting work both nationally and internationally and has published 450 articles, chapters, books, and monographs in the areas of substance abuse, criminology, criminal justice, history, folklore, public policy, AIDS, medicine, and law.

inciardi@udel.edu

Christy A. Visher (Ph.D. in Sociology, Indiana University) is Co-Director of the CDAS (Newark Office) and Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice.  Prior to joining the University of Delaware, she was Principal Research Associate with the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C.  From 1993 to 2000, she was Science Advisor to the Director of the National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice. Her research interests focus on communities and crime, substance use, criminal careers, the role of social factors in criminal desistance, and the evaluation of strategies for crime control and prevention. She has published widely on these and other topics in numerous social science journals, and co-edited Prisoner Reentry and Crime in America, with Jeremy Travis.

visher@udel.edu

STEVEN S. MARTIN (M.Sc. in Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science, 1973; M.A. in Sociology, University of Michigan, 1978) is the Associate Director and Senior Scientist at the Center.  Mr. Martin is Principal Investigator of HIV/AIDS Risk Reduction Among Drug- Involved Probationers and Co-Principal Investigator for three other NIDA-funded grants, including the CJ-DATS Project. He is also the Principal Investigator on an evaluation of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention’s (CSAP) State Incentive Cooperative Agreement. In Delaware , he directs the administration of school-based surveys on Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, and the Youth Tobacco Survey. He previously worked as a Research Associate on a NIDA-sponsored study of adolescent drug abuse at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and as a Scientific Analyst at the Center for Prevention Research at the University of Kentucky . He teaches on occasion in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Delaware . He has published over 70 articles on substance abuse, delinquency, attitudes and behavior, and methodology.

martin@udel.edu

 

ROBERTA E. GEALT (M.A., 1985; M.Ed., University of Delaware, 1975) is an Associate Scientist with the Center. Ms. Gealt has a background in child development with special interests in learning and logic. At the Center since 1994, Ms. Gealt has managed numerous projects including annual surveys of substance use and related behaviors in Delaware Public Schools. Ms. Gealt is the Project Director for the University/Schools Alliance, a coalition of the University of Delaware and Delaware public, private and parochial high schools, and state and community agencies focused on reducing youth substance use; Principal Investigator of the Drug-Free Communities Support Program grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the School Health Leadership Institute for Non-Public Schools from the Delaware Department of Education and sub-grantee of the Delaware Office of Highway Safety/Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws Program, and the Impact Tobacco Program.

basha@udel.edu

LANA D. HARRISON (Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Michigan, 1988) is a faculty associate at the Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies, and a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice. She recently completed two NIDA-funded studies on which she was P.I.: one on the Validity of Self- Reported Drug Use and the other on the Youth Drugs-Violence Nexus in the U.S., Canada, and the Netherlands. Prior to joining the Center, Dr. Harrison was a statistician at NIDA. She has worked on the three largest epidemiological drug surveys in the U.S. – the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, the Monitoring the Future Survey, and the Drug Use Forecasting Study. Her research interests focus on the drug-crime nexus, drug epidemiology, treatment alternatives, improving survey methodology, comparative international research, and drug policy. She has authored or coauthored over 60 publications.

lharriso@udel.edu

STEVEN P. KURTZ (Ph.D. in Sociology, Florida International University, 1999) is a Scientist with the Center.  He is the Principal Investigator of the NIDA-funded HIV Prevention for At-risk Men: A Mixed Serostatus Approach, which aims to develop a new small group intervention for substance-using gay and bisexual men.  He also serves as Co-PI and Project Director for a NIDA-funded 5-year natural history study of prescription drug abuse in Miami's club culture.  Prior to joining the Center, he taught in the Sociology and Economics Departments at Florida International University and Florida Atlantic University.  Dr. Kurtz has conducted research studies regarding substance abuse, sexual risk behaviors, related health and social problems, and intervention approaches among adolescents, men who have sex with men, and other vulnerable populations since 1995.  His publications include articles on HIV risk behaviors, HIV prevention interventions, drug abuse, health disparities, masculinities, and a range of subcultures in which drug use is prevalent. 

skurtz@udel.edu

DANIEL J. O’CONNELL (Ph.D. in Criminology, University of Delaware, 2004) is an Associate Scientist with the Center and Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware, where he teaches Introduction to Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Prisoner Reentry. His research specialties are research design and methodologies, intervention development and project management. He is currently Project Director of the NIDA-funded CJ-DATS Project. His publications include articles on drug treatment, prison management, HIV prevention interventions, and criminological theory.

oconnell@udel.edu

CYNTHIA A. ROBBINS (Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Michigan, 1984) is a Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice and Faculty Associate with the Center. Dr. Robbins has been at UD since 1988 and has worked with the Center since its inception. She has had three federal grants with the Center, one from NIDA, one from NIAAA and one from the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs, and she has worked on other projects funded by NIDA, RWJ, CSAP, and the Harvard School of Public Health. Her work has focused on youth substance abuse and on women and treatment. She is a reviewer for a number of journals and is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. She has over 35 publications in the field.

robbins@udel.edu

csaum@udel.edu

HILARY L. SURRATT (Ph.D. in Psychology, City University of New York, 2005) is a Scientist with the Center. Prior to joining the Center staff, she was a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Miami School of Medicine, where she was Co-Principal Investigator and Project Director of an HIV/AIDS seroprevalence and prevention study in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil . Currently, Dr. Surratt is the Principal Investigator of the NIDA-funded, HIV/AIDS Prevention Research in St. Croix , U.S. Virgin Islands, and Co-Principal Investigator and Project Director of the NIDA-funded project, Case Management Alternatives for African American Women at High Risk for HIV in Miami , Florida . She is also a Co-Principal Investigator on two additional NIDA-funded projects. She has published widely in both English and foreign-language journals in the areas of HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, violence, and drug policy.

hsurratt@udel.edu

Center Staff
   

 
Judith Buchanan
Newark Office
Senior Records Specialist
judibuch@udel.edu

 
Pi Ying Chen 
Miami Beach Office
Research Specialist
Piying1004@hotmail.com

Monica Drain, B.A.
Coral Gables Office
Research Assistant
monirose@gmail.com

Deborah Harrington, M.S.
Newark Office
Research Associate II
dharring@udel.edu

Diane Hess
Newark Office

dhess@udel.edu

Elijah Langford, B.A.
Miami Beach Office
Research Specialist
Eliudelaware@aol.com

  
Tatyana Malinovskaya
Miami Beach Office
Research Assistant
Tatyanaudelaware@aol.com

  
Diane H. Murray
Newark Office
Assistant to the Director
murray@udel.edu

Mary Perno
Newark Office
Research Specialist
mperno@udel.edu

Victoria Roland, B.S.
Coral Gables Office
Research Specialist
vroland@udel.edu

Kristen Rosen, WPW
Coral Gables Office
Research Assistant
krsn723@aol.com

Elise Salmon
Coral Gables Office
Case Manager
elise770@aol.com

Toni Seaton, B.A.
Case Manager
Miami office
Biscayne2@yahoo.com

Jason C. Weaver, B.A.
Miami Beach Office
Research Associate II
jweave@udel.edu

Graduate Student Research Assistants 

Whitney D. Gunter, M.S.
wgunter@udel.edu

  
Daniel Howard, M.C.J.
dhoward@udel.edu

 

Kristin Maiden, M.A.
kristinm@udel.edu

Laurin Parker, M.A.
laurinp@udel.edu