William Cresko, Ph.D., is a co-investigator for the Data Science Core. Dr. Cresko is a professor of Biology and the director of the Presidential Data Science Initiative at the UO; a university-wide program in data science that will provide an excellent network of connections with researchers using data science approaches across the University of Oregon and with partners in the state of Oregon and on the West Coast.

John Muench, M.D, M.P.H., is a clinician research in the Department of Family Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University. His research interests include screening for and the epidemiology of unhealthy substance use in primary care. He has many years of experience as a family physician in a community health center in Southeast Portland, including providing mother-baby care and medication assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. He will serve as a member of the Center’s advisory board and contribute expertise and guidance in the areas of the interface between primary care and addiction. 

Brenda Jones-Harden, Ph.D., is the director of the PEARL lab and a professor in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland College Park. She has worked over thirty-five years in the early childhood policy, practice, and research arenas. Her research examines the developmental and mental health needs of young children at environmental risk, particularly those who have been maltreated or exposed to other forms of trauma. A particular focus is preventing maladaptive outcomes in these populations through early childhood programs. She has conducted numerous evaluations of these programs, including early care and education, home visiting services, parenting interventions, and infant mental health programs. Dr. Jones-Harden received the doctoral degree in developmental and clinical psychology from Yale University, and the Master in Social Work degree from New York University.

Stephanie Lanza, Ph.D., joined the faculty at Penn State in 2004 and has devoted her career to advancing research on the prevention of substance misuse through the use of innovative quantitative methods. She has served as the principal investigator on research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Cancer Institute and has mentored many students and early-career researchers at Penn State. She is passionate about advancing science not only through her own research, but also by training substance use researchers to adopt cutting-edge statistical methods in their own research. Most of her work has focused on methodological advancements to and applications of latent class analysis (LCA) and time-varying effect modeling (TVEM). Stephanie truly is an interdisciplinary researcher and has built an extensive network of collaborators both within and beyond the Penn State community.

Barry Lester, Ph.D., is professor of Psychiatry & Human Behavior and Pediatrics and director of the Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk at the Brown Alpert Medical School and Women & Infants Hospital.  Dr. Lester's research has been federally funded throughout his career. He has been heavily involved in the NIH peer review process serving on NIH study sections, the NIH National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse, the NIH Director's Pioneer Award Program and the College of the Center for Scientific Review. He is past president of the International Association for Infant Mental Health and the author of more than 250 peer reviewed publications and 100 chapters and books.

Linda Mayes,M.D., is the Arnold Gesell Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology and Director of the Yale Child Study Center. She is also special advisor to the Dean in the Yale School of Medicine. Trained as a pediatrician, Dr. Mayes’s research focuses on stress-response and regulatory mechanisms in young children at both biological and psychosocial risk. She has especially focused on the impact of prenatal substance use on children’s long-term outcomes. She has made contributions to understanding the mechanisms of effect of prenatal stimulant exposure on the ontogeny of arousal regulatory systems and the relation between dysfunctional emotional regulation and impaired prefrontal cortical function in young children. She has published widely in the developmental psychology, pediatrics, and child psychiatry literature.