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DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS
Reflect (for only a moment, I promise) on your talents (related or unrelated to academic achievements). Excluding those bestowed by members of your family tree, what’s the most meaningful/inspiring adjective ever applied to you? Come’on go with me on this… “intuitive”, “inspiring”, “driven”, “intellectual risk-taker”, “refreshing”, “engaging”, “opportunistic”, “bright”, “promising”, “technically superb””, “gifted”, “motivating”…other? I really don’t understand betting (I’m a perfect poker adversary). However, I would bet that despite its negative connotation, we are all a bit “opportunistic” (think state not trait). AND none of us wants “opportunistic” to be the summary adjective of our lives. Further, most of us search our reviews, scanning for mention of the remaining descriptors. (If you highlight and send to your loved ones, they are particularly impressed). Perhaps the season of writing recommendations has motivated my reflection on this issue. ANYWAY, when thinking about it—my selected adjective is none of those. OH, don’t misunderstand, (though rarely occurring), I’ve highlighted, underlined, scanned, and forwarded even indirect reference to such descriptors to individuals well-beyond any definition of family. Some years ago, someone I thought actually liked me described me as “scrappy”. I was appalled. WHAT? “Scrappy” referenced underfed and dirty unhoused, but cute, puppies found scratching at the screen door. Puppies with occasional attitude. Hum… remembering the lesson on re-framing (bored??), I thought- “Wait—that scrappy puppy is persistent, driven, hopeful, resilient, and yes, sometimes impertinent and aggravating.” (I couldn’t rationalize cute). THEN, looking toward the sky, I thought, “YES, and intrepid, indomitable, and fearless… [okay, too much]. Moving right along and focusing on its potential strengths, I embraced “scrappy”. After all, you may be “exceptionally compelling” on occasion, but putting failures aside and persisting to the next screen door, that demands some scrappiness. BUT, to satisfy the quest for those other adjectives, just look inside. The events of our 10th Annual Symposium are highlighted throughout- Thanks to all who made it possible!!
Anticipating we’ve all got some “scrappy”-
SJN
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COMMUNITY NETWORKING EVENT
Our Inaugural Community Networking Event on April 16th at the Matheson Museum was a huge success! Too often, despite early enthusiasm, follow-through and attendance are lack-luster. Not this time! Of the 72 registrants, 96% attended. The museum was a perfect setting. This underappreciated treasure is full of visually appealing and educational displays that sparked diverse conversations. The food was great and even the playlist was perfect! [A special thank you to Meagan Sullivan who anticipated every detail, the Social Committee chairs (who appreciated the value of good food), and the bevy of affiliate members led by Dr. Christian Garcia, Courtney Wilkerson, and Victor Schneider, who facilitated all those other details.]
Attending scientists hailed not only from UF and our primary collaborators, FIU, FSU, UCF, and USF, but also U of Miami, NOVA Southeastern and Scripps. Community stakeholders included representatives from the Alachua Public Schools (Dr. Anntwanique Edwards, Dr. Toni Griffin, Johnelly Green, and Dr. Leanetta McNealy), the Director, Orange County Coalition of Drug-Free Communities (Dr. Tom Hall), the University of Central Florida Chief of Police and his spouse (Carl Metzger and Linda Metzger), the Orange County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant (Shane DeJarnett), and Lindsey and Spencer Munns, who shared their journey as parents of children with FASD. In compelling presentations, our community stakeholders identified critical gaps in our knowledge regarding the real-world implications of substance misuse as well as the insufficient dissemination of existing knowledge. As scientists, we were challenged and a bit intimidated by the obvious disconnection between much of our research and its application. It was inspiring to see the beginning of effective collaborations. NOW, AS THEY SAY, "THE REAL WORK MUST BEGIN"!
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10TH ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM
You’ve been inundated with flyers and posters describing the day’s events. I’ll try to minimize redundancy. HOWEVER, we were thrilled by the energy throughout the day! The panels/symposia, incorporated for the first time, were met with great enthusiasm and represented the diversity of addiction science. As we might have expected, the luncheon roundtable discussions once again exceeded their allotted time, reflecting the engagement of both attendees and moderators! While there was never any doubt, the keynote speakers delivered excellent lectures. AND, by the way, Dr. Gourley’s and Dr. Nagel’s lectures were recorded and are available at https://addictionresearch.health.ufl.edu/events/past-speakers/symposium-recordings/. Please take the opportunity to check them out. You may note that Dr. Gourley’s lecture required a leg up.
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JOANNA “A” PERIS, PhD
The conclusion of the keynote lectures provided the perfect opportunity to offer a very special thank-you. Dr. Joanna Peris, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology/College of Pharmacy, assumed her first faculty position at UF in 1988. Now, in 2023, she is retiring from the university, making the 10th Annual Symposium the last time she will have served as the co-Chair of the Symposium Committee. It is also her last official activity as the Associate Director for UF CARE. She’s held many other “positions” through the years including speaker selector, chauffeur, Santa, holiday baker, primary interrogator of seminar speakers, and great recruiter to the program (there are others). Dr. Peris played an integral role in establishing UF's reputation in addiction science. While seeing the program through inevitable ups and down, she became the cornerstone of its existence. Her commitment, energy, intellectual curiosity, and belief in the inevitable power of positivity created the sustaining force underlying UF CARE. On a personal note, although I look forward to hearing of her next adventures (I think…), I’ll greatly miss her insight and her capacity to say the thing you don’t want to hear, but should. She has been a wonderful partner in this effort and she will be sorely missed. OH… and the “A”: We inserted it on her engraved gift—it represents “Awesome”. Perfect, no?
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TRAVEL and POSTER AWARDEES
We are very grateful to the MBI for Conference funding. In addition to other activities, these funds provided travel support for trainees from other institutions who were participating in the symposium panels or presenting a poster. They also enabled poster awards for outstanding posters! THANK YOU MBI
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Travel Award Winners
Florida International University
Benjelene Sutherland
Florida State University
Javed Chitaman
Dollie Jennings
Dr. Yuxiang Li
Nova Southeastern
Madeline Jubran
Claire Stafford
Scripps Research
Dr. Surya Pandey
University of Central Florida
Rachel Cooper
Mark Crisafulli
Cameron Davis
Emma R. Hayden
Tatiana Magri
Minh D. Nguyen
Callie L. Wang
University of Miami
Tate A. Pollock
University of South Florida
Jared Davis
Gaelle El Helou
Charlie Manzler
Jesse Popover
Alexander Rivera
Mridula Singh
Brendan E. Walsh
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Poster Awardees
Undergraduate
Anamaria Cotelo-Larrea (UF)
Shane Davis (UF)
Priyal Ganguly (UF)
Kendall Kristjanson (UF)
Graduate
Shahar Almog (UF)
Javed Chitaman (FSU)
Emma Hayden (UCF)
Dollie Jennings (FSU)
Natalie Johnson (UF)
Mihn D. Nguyen (UCF)
Vijaya Seegulam (UF)
Courtney Wilkinson (UF)
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Yuxiang Li (FSU)
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A special thank you
All of this was made possible by the hard work of our Symposium Committee:
Dr. Barry Setlow
Dr. Ben Lewis
Dr. Joanna Peris
Dr. Dan Wesson
Dr. Liana Hone
Dr. Joy Gabrielli
Bo Sortman
And also a special thank you to our statewide collaborators for their continued support and efforts:
Dr. Michael Dunn (UCF)
Dr. Robert Dvorak (UCF)
Dr. Mohamed Kabbaj (FSU)
Dr. Robert Schlauch (USF)
Dr. Eric Wagner (FIU)
Thank you all!
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THE MONTHLY SEMINAR SERIES
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Watch March's Recorded Seminar
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Thank you, Dr. Hone for a great seminar on March 22nd AND thank you to all who were able to attend.
If you couldn’t attend, watch her recorded seminar "Systematic and Scoping Reviews of Interventions for College Students’ Alcohol Use, Cannabis Use, and Sexual Consequences.” on the UF CARE website, linked below.
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Episode 21: Oliver Grundmann, PhD
Click below to view our latest podcast! UF CARE Member and Podcast Host Dr. Oliver Grundmann joins affiliate podcast host Victor Schneider for our 21st installment (and second Special Edition Crossover) of the UF CARE Affiliate Podcast.
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WE KEEP BRINGING THIS UP—DON’T FORGET YOUR STAFF
Take a few moments to nominate members of your staff who are committed to addiction science. Staff need to hold at least a .5 FTE in substance use/addiction related research (data collection and/or oversight/training/ administration) and to have been involved in addiction science for at least a year. These types of activities support staff nominations for university awards and honors—and reflect your confidence in their work in addiction-related research.
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RECOGNITION AND ACHIEVEMENTS
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Dr. Marilyn Horta: 2023 NIDA Diversity Scholar
Dr. Marilyn Horta was named a 2023 NIDA Diversity Scholar! The NIDA Diversity Scholar Network aims to enhance the funding success of underrepresented early career investigators conducting substance use and addiction research. Marilyn's primary mentor is Dr. Natalie Ebner and Dr. Cathy Striley is part of her mentoring team.
Congratulations, Marilyn!
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UF CARE Affiliates - The University Scholars Program (USP)
The USP is a competitive program for exceptional undergraduates, designed to support immersive experience in science and the conduct of research. UF CARE is delighted to announce that three of our UF CARE affiliate members have been named USP scholars 2023-2024 and will be working with UF CARE members. Ivy Fitzsimmons (with Dr. Nixon) will be exploring the co-use of hallucinogenics and alcohol among individuals with alcohol use disorder. Using preclinical models, Madison Holcomb and Taylor Thomson (with Drs. Bizon & Setlow) will be studying cocaine-cannabis polysubstance. Congrats to our USP Scholars!
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Jay McLaughlin, PhD
Professor, Department of Pharmacodynamics, COP
We mentioned that Dr. McLaughlin had a new patent last month. Well, now he has another. US patent #11,613,747 assigned to Majumdar S, Katritch V, Roth B, McLaughlin JP, Zaidi S, Pasternak GW and Uprety R and titled “G-protein biased opioid receptor agonist/analgesics with reduced arrestin recruitment.” was published March 28, 2023. March was busy in other ways, as well. Dr. McLaughlin delivered an invited lecture entitled "Investigating the sigma-1 receptor as a potential target for treating chronic pain or psychostimulant use disorder" to the Department of Anesthesiology, Washington University, St Louis on March 21.
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KEEP READING, PLEASE- BECAUSE
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The Spring/Summer UF CARE Travel Awardees Have Been Named
The Awardees (Mentor) & Meeting (abbreviation) Are:
Anamaria Cotel (Dr. Dan Wesson) AChemS
Alyssa Falise (Dr. Catherine Striley) CPPD
Hugh Farrior (Dr. Ben Lewis) RSA
Nicole Fitzgerald (Dr. Linda B. Cottler) CPDD
Dr. Adithya Gopinath (Dr. Habibeh Khoshbouei) ASPET
Elena Kalina (Dr. Nichole Scaglione) RSA
Abigail Masterson (Dr. Liana Hone) The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality
Andrew Moore (Dr. Sara Jo Nixon) CPA
Victor J. Schneider II (Dr. Jeff Boissoneault) USASP
Bo Sortman (Dr. Brandon Warren) IBNS
Courtney Wilkinson (Dr. Lori Knackstedt) Cold Spring Harbor: Neuroscience of Addiction
Sabrina Zequeira (Dr. Barry Setlow) International Conference on Learning and Memory.
A huge thank you to our travel award reviewers, Drs. Marieta Heaton and Catherine Striley!
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Congratulations to the new affiliate members!
Since our last issue, we have welcomed 6 affiliate members:Mariah Ravet is a graduate student working with Dr. Joy Gabrielli in the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Rebecca Polk is a graduate student working with Dr. Natalie Ebner in the Department of Psychology, Mark Britton and Christina Parisi are graduate students working with Dr. Robert Cook in the Department of Epidemiology, Juan Perez-Carreno is a graduate student working with Dr. Catalina Lopez-Quintero in the Department of Epidemiology, and Emily Miller is an undergraduate student in the Department of Biology working with Dr. Habibeh Khoshbouei.If you are a UF CARE faculty member and are working with outstanding trainees in addiction science, click below to nominate them for membership.
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OPPORTUNITIES
Postdoctoral Position: Dr. Lisa Merlo, UF Department of Psychiatry
A postdoctoral research position is available in the UF Department of Psychiatry with Dr. Lisa Merlo. Dr. Merlo serves as the Director of Research for the Florida impaired practitioners monitoring program, as well as the Director of Wellness Programs for the University of Florida College of Medicine. Research areas include wellbeing, distress, and potentially-impairing conditions (e.g., substance use disorders, psychiatric disorders) among physicians, as well as other healthcare professionals and trainees. Click below to apply.
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Postdoctoral Position: Dr. Amanda Elton, UF Department of Psychiatry
A postdoctoral research position is currently available in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Florida with Dr. Amanda Elton. Research areas include fMRI-based investigations of cognitive neuroscience, risk and resilience mechanisms in the development of psychopathology, and longitudinal development of substance use. The position will involve analysis of data from ongoing studies and large-scale public datasets and will also offers opportunities to be involved in the development of new projects. The successful applicant will conduct statistical analyses independently and in collaborations, author peer-reviewed publications, and present findings at scientific conferences.
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New Research Positions Available
The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study at the University of Florida is looking for talented and motivated research assistants to join their study team! See links below for information and to apply:
https://explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/526817/research-coordinator-ii
https://explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/526814/research-assistant-i
For more information about the ABCD UFL study site, click below!
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Not yet a member?
If you are a UF Faculty member working in addiction science and would like to join UF CARE, click below for more information about becoming a full member of UF CARE.
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Have news
to share?
Have updates you'd like to be included in the next UF CARE newsletter? Click below to share news about you and/or your affiliate trainees!
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We're
Hiring!
The Department of Psychiatry is seeking a dynamic individual with demonstrated potential for cutting-edge clinical research and a strong publication record in the area of addiction science. Click below to learn more.
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