Dr. Furr-Holden is an epidemiologist by training with expertise in drug and alcohol dependence epidemiology, psychiatric epidemiology, prevention science and psychosocial measurement. In the last 5 years her work has focused in large part on developing environmental strategies for violence, alcohol, tobacco and other drug (VATOD) prevention in high-risk urban settings. While broad in scope, Dr. Furr-Holden’s research foci are grounded in the rubrics of epidemiology and psychometrics. In 2005, she initiated the Drug Investigations, Violence and Environmental Studies Laboratory (The DIVE Studies Lab) at The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE). In 2007, the group moved to The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH).
On July 26, 2006, Dr. Furr-Holden was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) by virtue of her early career accomplishments in environmental research. This award grants her non-competitive funds totaling up to 2.5 million dollars over a 5-year period to extend her current research in Baltimore. These funds provide support to an existing grant funded by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to study environmental factors linked with youths’ exposure to VATOD (1-R01-AA015196). This project bridges observational epidemiology with the study of youth resilience and protective factors. Environmental assessments are carried out using the Neighborhood Inventory for Environmental Typology (NIfETy) Instrument (see Furr-Holden, et al, 2008). The NIfETy Method is a novel and unique assessment strategy. The distal goals of this work are to: 1) establish an evidence base for developing and implementing environmental strategies in the City of Baltimore; and 2) provide an evidence-based model for environmental strategies that can be employed in other cities across the country. This project is being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Phil Leaf at the JHSPH Center for Youth Violence Prevention and the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Information and Technology. Dr. Furr-Holden is the first NIAAA nominee and the first PIRE researcher to receive the prestigious PECASE award.
Dr. Furr-Holden was the co-PI on a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) R01 entitled ‘Prevention of Young Adult Drug Use in Club Settings (1-R01-DA018770)’, with Dr. Brenda Miller (PI), Senior Scientist at PIRE in Berkeley, CA. Recent investigations of drug use in club settings have resulted in several publications on the topic (Miller, et al., in press; Voas, et al., 2006, Furr-Holden et al., in press 2006). This new line of research emphasizes contextual analysis of drug use within ecologically defined high-risk club settings and associated risks of emerging adulthood, the developmental period between late adolescence and young adulthood (age 18-25). This work is grounded in the theories and practices of environmental prevention and offers promising leads for prevention of young adult drug use within in these settings and during this critical developmental period in the life course.
Dr. Furr-Holden’s collaboration with PIRE include several studies related to highway traffic and safety including measurement of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and drug use disorders (DUDs) on the roadside. These studies also include field testing of innovative, multi-modal assessment strategies involving simultaneous collection of biological specimens and survey data. In 2004, Dr. Furr-Holden received funding from NIAAA to refine a rapid screening approach to measure AUDs among at-risk drivers at the roadside (1-R21-AA015543). This work resulted in collection of AUD screening data and biological specimens on nearly 600 drivers nationwide (see Furr-Holden et al, 2008). As an extension of this work, Dr. Furr-Holden implemented the roadside screening methodology in a national sample of 10,000 drivers beginning in the fall of 2007 with funding from NIAAA (1-R01-AA0016407). This work was conducted in conjunction with Mr. John Lacey and Drs. Robert Voas and Tara Kelley-Baker as part of the 2007 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) National Roadside Survey. Future research in this area includes a crash-risk study to be conducted in 2009 with funding from the NHTSA to assess the risk of crash involvement among drug (and alcohol) involved drivers. This will be the first study of its kind conducted in the United States.
Dr. Furr-Holden’s pre-Doctoral training at JHSPH focused on cross-national classification and identification of substance use disorders and post-Doctoral training focused on developmental pathways from childhood to young adulthood and the malleability of these paths, including in depth evaluation of risk and protective factors for adolescent development and the transition into young adulthood. Her previous research experience includes evaluation of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded "Periodic Follow-up of Two Universal Preventive Intervention Trials", a longitudinal follow-up of two universal preventive interventions implemented in 1993 in nine Baltimore City Public Schools in a cohort of entering 1st graders (see Furr-Holden, et al., 2004). Other research areas include methodological issues surrounding the design and evaluation of interventions including sampling, program modeling, and innovative statistical and evaluation approaches as well as measurement of drug and alcohol use disorders. Dr. Furr-Holden has also acquired training and is developing expertise in environmental approaches to prevention.
Dr. Furr-Holden was awarded a Behavioral Scientist Award for Rapid Transition (B-START) from NIDA to study youthful inhalants involvement and innovative methodological approaches to recruit youth participants and evaluate the impact of a brief multi-media inhalants intervention (Furr-Holden, et al). She both developed the multi-media intervention and led a street team in implementing the street intercept sampling method.
Mieka Smart is the Senior Research Program Supervisor in the DIVE Studies Laboratory. Before assuming this position in October, 2007 Mrs. Smart served as a Research Associate at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE). She manages adherence to research protocol, manuscript submissions, grantor reporting, IRB submissions, fiscal operations, and grant applications for the DIVE Studies Laboratory. She has managed research projects funded by NIAAA, NIDA, CDC and the American Heart Association on public health issues including substance abuse, mental health and heart disease prevention.
After graduating from Johns Hopkins University in 2001, Mrs. Smart spent one year working in the Drug Abuse Prevention Program at Morgan State University. She then worked as a public health practitioner as a Community Relations Coordinator at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center before taking her position at PIRE. Mrs. Smart has co-authored research articles ranging in scope from hospital point-of-care technology to social science research. She earned a Masters in Health Sciences from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2008.
Matthew Riesner is the Field Supervisor/Research Assistant in the DIVE Studies Laboratory. Mr. Riesner handles invoice payment, office procurement, payroll approval, scheduling and general office support for a staff of 20 people. Mr. Riesner also performs administrative payroll audits; conducts field staff training sessions; organizes and expedites weekly meetings; and serves as technical support for field staff.
Before coming to work at the DIVE Laboratory in January of 2008, Mr. Riesner served as an Administrative Coordinator at Chesapeake Research Review, Inc. Mr. Riesner performed tasks required for preparing and releasing informed consent documents; audited research sites for IRB review; and completed various tasks of data entry. Mr. Riesner also served as Graduate Research Assistant for The University of Maryland Medical School. During his work at The University of Maryland Medical School, Mr. Riesner recruited research subjects, entered data, and performed quality control measures.
Since the start of Mr. Riesner’s tenure at the DIVE Studies Laboratory, he completed and attained an MA in Applied Sociology at the University Of Maryland, Baltimore County in December, 2008. Mr. Riesner also earned a BA in Sociology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in May, 2005.
Adam Milam is a Research Assistant and QA Supervisor in the DIVE Studies Laboratory. Before assuming this position in September, 2008 Mr. Milam worked as a Clinical Technician at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and as a Data Collector with the DIVE. He manages all aspects of field quality assurance, including field training, field testing, and field quality control. Mr. Milam also assists in manuscript preparation, grant applications, and maintains the DIVE website.
Adam currently works as a legislative intern for Maryland State Delegate Shawn Z. Tarrant. In this role, Adam has testified before State Committees, worked to create restrictions on sales of little cigars, and legislation to enroll eligible children in health insurance programs. While at Hopkins, Adam co-developed an undergraduate course on Urban Health and Advocacy, was volunteer and eventually Campus Coordinator of Project HEALTH, and advocated at the Annapolis Statehouse for expanded Medicaid legislation. Adam has extensive experience working within the community, last year he volunteered at People's Health Clinic in Baltimore where he did HIV Testing and Counseling.
After graduating from Johns Hopkins University in 2008, Mr. Milam completed a Master of Health Science in Mental Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH). He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at JHSPH.
Tina Chen
Adam Milam
Mawuena Quarcoo
Maisha Meminger
Phil Sears
Constance Mercer
Kenneth Hines
Vonda Colson
Fredrick Reinholdt
Roxanne Aniceto
Gabrielle Morris
Carlo Salvarani
Lauren Powell
Linnea Nixon
Sean Behre
Kelly Jenkins
Juanette Reece
Dania Joseph
We have a diverse staff of research assistants that includes Baltimore City School Teachers, students throughout Johns Hopkins University, and staff members from Hopkins Medicine. Several members of the staff have worked with the project since Wave 1 and are instrumental in training new data collectors and staff. The D.I.V.E staff members are passionate about transforming Baltimore City and have recently started an organization, People for Transformation. The goal of this organization is to transform the city, block by block, through an adopt-a-block program. The staff members scientifically selected 500 North Montford Ave as their first adopted block and are working with the community to encourage community cohesion and self-policing.