The American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP) is the lead organization of three training cooperative agreements and grants funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Initiatives include the Providers Clinical Support System for Opioid Use Disorder (PCSS-MOUD) with 23 partner organizations and steering committee members, the Opioid Response Network (ORN) has 46 partner organizations covering prevention, treatment, recovery and harm reduction, collectively representing over 2 million constituents and Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH), which supports under-resourced and marginalized prescribers to become addiction specialists. PCSS-MOUD’s primary goal is to provide evidence-based practices to improve healthcare and outcomes in the prevention of those at risk and treatment for individuals with an opioid use disorder (OUD), as well as co-occurring stimulant use disorders. The ORN grant focuses on local implementation, providing training and education in evidence-based practices in the prevention, treatment, recovery and harm reduction of opioid and stimulant use disorders with local ORN consultants in every U.S. state and territories to meet locally identified needs. The REACH grant has an overall goal of enabling training of racial and ethnic minoritized addiction specialists in the Addiction Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine workforce, to increase the number of addiction specialists adequately trained to work with racial and ethnic minoritized patients with substance use disorders. These programs promote the education and training of health professionals leading to improved outcomes of those with substance use disorders. This session will focus on how to best utilize and participate in these initiatives.
Kathryn Cates-Wessel, Chairperson
Ms. Cates-Wessel has 40 years of experience in the substance use disorder field in policy, coalition building, medical education and administration. She is Chief Executive Officer of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP) and Principal Investigator and Project Director of several federally funded grants including, Providers Clinical Support System (PCSS), (www.pcssnow.org); State Opioid Response and Tribal Opioid Response (SOR-TOR) “Opioid Response Network” (www.opioidresponsenetwork.com) and the Minority Fellowship grant “Recognizing and Eliminating Disparities in Addiction Through Culturally Informed Healthcare” (REACH), (www.reachgrant.org). Prior to her work at AAAP, she was the Associate Director of Brown University's Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies for over 19 years and Executive Director of Physicians and Lawyers for National Drug Policy, a think tank of leaders from law and medicine advocating for prevention, treatment, and recovery individuals involved with substance use disorders. Prior to Brown University, she was the Associate Director of a residential treatment center for adolescents with substance use disorders and co-occurring mental disorders.
Frances Levin, MD, Presenter
Frances Rudnick Levin, MD is the Kennedy-Leavy Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University and the Chief of the Division on Substance Use Disorders at NYSPI/CUIMC. Dr. Levin, working with Columbia University faculty, inaugurated the university-wide Center for Healing of Opioid and Other Substance Use Disorders: Enhancing Intervention Development and Implementation (CHOSEN) in 2020 and serves as one of the senior Directors. She is the Principal Investigator of a NIDA-funded T32, a K24 Mid-Career Investigator Award and several NIH grants. She is the Medical Director of two SAMHSA-supported grants, the Providers Clinical Support System and the STR-TA Opioid Response Network. Her current research interests include pharmacologic interventions for opioid, cocaine and marijuana use disorders, and treatments targeting adults with substance use disorders and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). She was a long-standing member of the NIDA – Initial Review Group: Training and Career Development Subcommittee and the NIDA Interventions to Prevent and Treat Addiction (IPTA). She serves on the Board of Directors for the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP), CPDD, and the American Society of ADHD and Related Disorders (APSARD). She is a past President of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and past Chair of the APA Council on Addiction Psychiatry.
Kevin Sevarino, MD, PhD, Presenter
Dr. Sevarino earned his MD, CM at McGill Faculty of Medicine and PhD in molecular biology at the University of Connecticut Health Center. After an internship in Internal medicine, he trained in psychiatry in the dual clinical/basic research tract at the Yale University School of Medicine. For six years thereafter, he was PI on NIH grants examining neurobiological mechanisms underlying cocaine dependence, and since then has transitioned to being a clinician-educator who remained active in clinical research as a member of the MIRECC VA Team in studies examining new treatments for substance use disorders. He was Medical Director of the Newington Mental Health Care Firm, Connecticut VA Healthcare System from Dec. 2004 through Aug. 2017. He was consulting psychiatrist to Gaylord Hospital, Wallingford from 1999 – 2009, and again 2017-2023. He now works as per diem psychiatrist at Hartford Healthcare – Rushford. His particular expertise is in treatment of the dually-diagnosed and non-opiate pharmacological management of chronic pain. He is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine. He was subspecialty certified in Psychosomatic Medicine by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology from 2009 - 2019, in Addiction Medicine by the American Board of Addiction Medicine from 2010 - 2020, and currently in Addiction Medicine by the American Board of Preventative Medicine. Dr. Sevarino serves as Medical Director for the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP), and is a past president of that organization. He was Course Director for the AAAP Board Review Course in Addictions, which developed into the Addictions and Their Treatment Course, from 2007 - 2015. He currently co-directs AAAP’s Advanced Addiction Psychopharmacology course.
Ayana Jordan, MD, PhD, Presenter
Ayana Jordan, MD, PhD, is an endowed Barbara Wilson Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatrist and Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health at New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine. As Principal Investigator for the Jordan Wellness Collaborative (JWC), she leads a research, education, and clinical program that partners with community members to provide optimal access to evidence-based treatments for racial and ethnic minoritized patients with mental health disorders.
Through her multi-faceted work, she provides addiction treatment in faith settings, studies health outcomes for people with opioid use disorder in the carceral system, and trains addiction specialists to provide culturally-informed treatment.
Dr. Jordan is dedicated to creating spaces and opportunities for more people of color, specifically Black women in academia who are vastly underrepresented. She has numerous peer-reviewed publications, has been featured at international conferences, and is the proud recipient of various clinical and research awards. The fundamental message of equity and inclusion has informed her research, clinical work, and leadership duties at NYU and beyond.