Cohort 10 RAM Scholars (2021-23)
Jessie Calihan, MD, MS
Addiction Medicine
Boston Children’s Hospital
Dr. Jessie Calihan is currently a Pediatric Addiction Fellow at the Boston Children’s Hospital Adolescent Substance Use and Addiction Program in Boston, MA. For her RAMS research project, she will analyze linked parent and child surveys from a randomized controlled trial of a psychoeducational intervention to reduce alcohol use by youth with chronic medical conditions. This dyadic data will be used to explore whether parents’ substance use-related beliefs and behaviors, and stress related to their child’s chronic disease, are associated with youth substance use and/or parent provision of substance-related guidance to their child. This will provide valuable knowledge about potential future avenues for prevention and treatment of substance use in medically vulnerable youth.
Paul Christine, MD, PhD, MPH
Addiction Medicine
Boston Medical Center
Dr. Paul Christine is a current Addiction Medicine Fellow at Boston Medical Center. He is broadly interested in the effects of health and social policies on the availability and quality of care for individuals with substance use disorders. He is particularly passionate about researching and promoting equitable policies that improve outcomes for individuals in safety net settings. His current work focuses on Medicaid policies related to the availability of medications for opioid use disorder. Outside of research, Paul loves being an internist, husband, uncle, and dog-owner.
Norris Curl, MD
Addiction Medicine
Howard University College of Medicine
Dr. Norris Curl is currently an Addiction Medicine Fellow at Howard University located in Washington D.C. His research investigates the barriers to expanding and improving medication for opioid use disorder in the Washington D.C. area, specifically in wards 7 and 8 which has predominantly African American populations. Dr. Curl hopes to both examine and improve OUD care and quality assurance for African Americans. He will seek to learn and understand the attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge of physicians in the primary care setting in order to develop innovative and effective interventions to simultaneously increase access to care for African American communities.
Leah Habersham, MD, MBA, MLIS
Addiction Medicine
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Dr. Leah Habersham is an Addiction Medicine Fellow, located in NYC, where she attends the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai West. She has practiced Obstetrics & Gynecology for the past 5 years, in both rural and urban areas in the US, and is now pursuing a career in Addiction Medicine, with a second year of fellowship for the pursuit of research. Her research interests are varied; however, her current research focus is the design and implementation of a novel multimodal approach to pain in the post-cesarean patient population. Her intended goal is to decrease the use of opioids, without compromising the control of pain. By the pursuit of similar multidisciplinary research topics, she intends to form a bridge between the fields of Addiction Medicine and Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Jawad Husain, MD, MPH
Addiction Psychiatry
Massachusetts General Brigham
Dr. Jawad Husain is an early career psychiatrist investigator with a research interest in cannabidiol as a novel psychopharmacological agent for treatment of substance use disorders. He graduated medical school and psychiatry residency at Boston University and enrolled at BU School of Public Health for an MPH. Currently, he is a Mass General Brigham Addiction Psychiatry Fellow, pursuing the research track. His institutional mentor is A. Eden Evins, MD, MPH and his NAC mentor is Edward Nunes, MD. He received the Harvard Medical School Broderick Phytocannabinoid Research Initiative grant to fund his study: “Cannabidiol for the reduction of cue-induced craving and anxiety in alcohol abstinent individuals with alcohol use disorder: A double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial.”
Olaniyi Olayinka, MD, MPH
Addiction Psychiatry
Yale School of Medicine
Dr. Niyi Olayinka is an addiction psychiatry fellow at Yale School of Medicine with interest in the epidemiology of mental and substance use disorders. He has broad clinical, teaching and research experience having worked in different settings in various countries. Dr. Olayinka trained with the Centers for Disease Control as an Applied Epidemiology post-doc, is a member of both the American Psychological Association and American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, and currently reviews students’ case write-ups providing feedback for their psychiatry clerkship as a psychiatry tutor at Yale School of Medicine.
Victor Tang, MD, MSc, FRCPC
Addiction Psychiatry
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Dr. Victor Tang is currently a Research Fellow in Addiction Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. He received a Master of Science in Neuroscience at the University of British Columbia, medical training at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and completed psychiatry residency training at the University of Toronto. His research focus is on the development of novel, non-invasive neurostimulation treatments for substance use disorders, and his current project is a randomized controlled trial of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for patients with comorbid major depression and alcohol use disorder.