About the Oregon Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health and Aging (OCEBHA)

Frederic C. Blow, Ph.D. is a Professor and Director of the U-M Addiction Center in the Department of Psychiatry. He is a career researcher and educator in the field of alcohol and substance use screening, interventions, and treatments. The large body of his work has been directed to providing the research base and training scholars and clinicians alike. Dr. Blow currently has a NIAAA training grant and has had continuous funding from the NIAAA since 1988, and has had extensive funding from NIDA, VA, and NIMH during the same period. He has led many federally-funded studies including international and US training grants focused on substance misuse and use. Dr. Blow has a long history of funding related to research and program evaluation, and implementation of evidence-based treatments for substance use and mental health disorders. His areas of research expertise include alcohol brief interventions in healthcare settings, substance use prevention, substance use screening and diagnosis for older adults, serious mental illness and concurrent substance use, suicide prevention, mental health services research, and implementation of evidence-based substance use and mental health practices.

Keith Chan, PhD, LMSW, is Co-Chair of the Aging Curriculum, Chair of the Social Policy, Chair of the Curriculum Committee, and Associate Professor at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, City University of New York. As a social worker, scholar and educator, his research focuses on the social determinants of physical and mental health for vulnerable populations, in particular for Asian Americans, immigrants and older adults, as well as the impact of the opioid epidemic across the lifespan. His research has been funded by the Minority Fellowship Program, the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities, the National Institute of Aging, and the John A. Hartford Foundation. He currently serves as co-Investigator of the NIMHD-funded Rutgers-NYU Center for Asian Health Promotion and Equity (CAHPE), Community Engagement Core, and co-Investigator of the NIA-funded Resource Center for Alzheimer’s and Dementia Research in Asian and Pacific Americans (RCASIA). Since 2020, he has provided his research expertise as Congressional Fellow to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Health, Democratic Staff, on issues related to mental health, disability, and population health data.

Dr. Chan’s social work practice experience is primarily with persons diagnosed with serious mental illness within minority and immigrant populations. Since 2018, he was appointed by the Office of the Governor of New York to serve as a Council Member of the New York State Interagency Geriatric Mental Health and Chemical Dependence Planning Council. He teaches Social Work Research, Clinical Practice for Older Adults, and Social Welfare Policy to MSW students at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, City University of New York.

Andrea Dassopoulos is a sociologist, researcher, and instructor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' International Gaming Institute. She specializes in studying gambling harms and providing research-based insights to shape state policies and interventions. She currently manages the Nevada Problem Gambling Study, where she oversees the evaluation of state programs and tracks outcomes for individuals with gambling issues. Andrea also serves as the Research Director for the Oregon Gambling Research Center.

Dr. Erin Emery-Tiburcio is a Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Geriatric Medicine, and Director of Geropsychology at Rush University Medical Center, and co-director of the SAMHSA-funded E4 Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health Disparities in Aging. She is past-Chair of the American Psychological Association Committee on Aging and past-President of the Society for Clinical Geropsychology. Dr. Emery-Tiburcio was recently awarded the 2024 American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Independent Practice and a Fulbright Scholar Award.

Helen Lavretsky, MD, MS is a Professor In-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry at the UCLA and a geriatric integrative psychiatrist with the federally-funded research program in integrative mental health using mind-body therapies. She is a recipient of the Career Development awards from NIMH/NIH and the NCCIH/NIH, and other prestigious research awards from the NIMH,NIA, NCCIH, Department of Defense, PCORI and others. Her current research studies include investigations of novel therapeutic options for mood and cognitive disorders in older adults, and Long-COVID. She is the Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, and the Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and CINP, and the recipient of the Distinguished Investigator awards for research from the American College of Psychiatrists and the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, and the Jack Weinberg Award for Geriatric Psychiatry from the APA. She is the Director of Research for the UCLA Integrative Medicine Collaborative and the Integrative Psychiatry program. She is an immediate past-President of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, and is one of the leaders of the American Brain Coalition that includes the AARP, American Heart Association, Alzheimer’s Association, American Academy of Neurology, and others. She serves on the Advisory Research Council to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Dr Lavretsky is a consultant to major health and government organizations nationally and around the world—including the American Heart Association, AARP, the National Council on Mental Wellbeing, Alzheimer’s Association, British Parliament, the National Institutes of Health, World Psychiatric Association, and gave a testimony to the US Congress on the science of brain health, wellbeing and self-regulation, mind-body practices applied to stress reduction strategies, and neuropsychiatric disorders of aging.

Jordan P. Lewis is Aleut/Sugpiaq and his family is from the Native Village of Naknek, AK and Cannon Beach, OR. He is the Director of Research for the Center for One Health Research and a Research Professor with the College of Indigenous Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He holds a Ph.D. in Community Psychology from UAF, an MSW from Washington University in St. Louis, and a BSW from UAF, and is a certified professional gerontologist. Trained as a cross-cultural community psychologist and gerontologist, Jordan has worked with American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities to identify characteristics that enable Alaska Native Elders to age successfully, or age in a good way, and become role models for their families and communities. Using the lessons and experiences of AIAN Elders, Jordan’s research develops generative-based approaches to improve the health of all generations.

Jordan’s research agenda has made significant contributions to the field with discussions on culture-specific approaches to successful aging, including the development of a model of Alaska Native successful aging, a theory of AN healthy aging, and the concept of Indigenous cultural generativity. His research has identified indigenous cultural generativity as a critical ingredient to successful aging, which has important implications for the wellbeing of AI/AN people, including those with ADRD, their caregivers, and family and community members.

Joanne Spetz is Director and Brenda and Jeffrey L. Kang Presidential Chair in Health Care Financing at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Spetz’s research focuses on the economics of the health care workforce, organization of health care services, and quality of health care. She directs the federally funded UCSF Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care, which generates evidence to ensure an adequate workforce to provide patient-centered care to individuals with long-term care needs across the lifespan. She is an internationally known expert on the nursing workforce, leading studies of nurse supply, demand, education, earnings, and contributions to the quality of care across healthcare settings. Dr. Spetz is an Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Spetz received her Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University after studying economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Robyn I. Stone, DrPH, is senior vice president for research at LeadingAge and co-director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston, a research center with offices in Washington, DC, and Boston, MA. A noted researcher and internationally recognized authority on aging services, Robyn has been engaged in policy development, program evaluation, large-scale demonstration projects, and other applied research activities for more than 40 years. She was a political appointee in the Clinton Administration, serving in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as deputy assistant secretary for disability, aging, and long-term care policy. She also served as assistant secretary for aging.

Robyn’s widely published work addresses long-term care policy and quality, chronic care for people with disabilities, the aging services workforce, affordable senior housing, and family caregiving. In addition, she is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the National Academy of Social Insurance and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2014.

Robyn received a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and a Doctor of Public Health degree from the University of California Berkeley. Her work bridges the worlds of research, policy, and practice to improve the care delivered to older adults—particularly lower-income populations—and to ensure the best quality of life for these individuals and their families.

For over 25 years, Brenda Sulick has advocated for health care and financial security policies that improve the lives of vulnerable older adults and their families. She has held positions such as Chief Advocacy Officer at the National Council on Aging; Vice President of Public, Government, and Community Affairs at SCAN Health Plan; Health and Long-Term Services and Supports Policy Integration Director at AARP; Senior Policy Advisor at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare; Vice-President of Congressional Affairs at the National PACE Association; and Director of Federal Health Policy at the Alzheimer's Association. In 2022, Brenda was named a Carol Emmott Foundation Fellow for Women in Health Care Leadership. She was also the national recipient of the John Heinz Senate Fellowship in Aging, and worked for U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln, a member of the Senate Finance Committee and Special Committee on Aging. Brenda has a Ph.D. in Public Administration and Policy from Portland State University, MA degree in Public Policy/Gerontology from George Washington University, and BA degree in Political Science from York College.

Victor Valcour, MD, PhD, is the Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health training program at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) where he is a Professor of Geriatric Medicine in the Department of Neurology. His work aims to improve brain health worldwide by training and accompanying a new generation of leaders and support them to achieve their locally informed strategies. Dr. Valcour participates in large observational studies across Latin American and African countries examining the determinants of brain health. In Africa, he works with other leaders at UCSF to implement harmonized multidomain cognitive assessment tools across diverse populations in Africa. In addition to his work on global implementation work related to brain health, he has particular expertise on how HIV impacts brain with health.