Grant Weinandy uses mixed methods to study perceptions and experiences of addictions and addiction treatment in adults. Specifically, she focuses on behavioral addictions, especially Gambling Disorder, and providers’ use of harm reduction treatments for addictions. Through this research, she aims to improve diagnosis, classification, and access to evidence-based and targeted care, as well as to reduce health disparities in addiction treatment by informing public policy and clinical work. She is especially interested in the experience of addictions in rural populations.

Dr. Melinda Ford is an experienced primary care physician and medical educator who has firsthand clinical knowledge of the challenges of treating drug-dependent patients. In addition to her assistant professorship at the Heritage College, she works for OhioHealth Physician Group Heritage College as a family medicine and addiction physician.

“People are sometimes surprised to learn that a political scientist is on faculty at a medical school,” Skinner said. “But politics is at the heart of the policy process, and shapes everything from how professional relationships are formed to changes in our health care system. We need to be politically astute to make good policy, and we need physicians to be involved in these decisions.”

Berkeley Franz is a health services researcher and implementation scientist whose research and teaching focus on health disparities and substance use. Dr. Franz is Professor of Community-based Health at the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine in Athens, Ohio and Osteopathic Heritage Foundation Ralph S. Licklider, D.O. Endowed Faculty Fellow in Behavioral Health. She received an M.A. in religious studies from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in medical sociology from the University of Miami.