In the summer of 2020, a group of researchers and staff across multiple UW research centers began meeting to coordinate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. These meetings include regular representatives from the Addictions, Drug and Alcohol Institute (ADAI); Center for the Study of Health and Risk Behaviors (CSHRB); Center of Excellence in Neurobiology of Addiction, Pain, and Emotion (NAPE); the Social Development Research Group (SDRG); the Harm Reduction Research and Treatment (HaRRT) Center; and the addiction psychiatry fellowship. Given the multidisciplinary group and wide breadth of work, discussions have included distributing and coordinating DEI training efforts, problem solving shared challenges (e.g., costs to translate research materials into multiple languages), pursuing potential grant opportunities (e.g., NIH R25 Research Education Program grant), and organizing a research open house in November 2021 to recruit undergraduate-level research assistants from historically disadvantaged backgrounds.

If you are interested in joining the quarterly meeting to represent your center or group doing substance use and/or addiction research, please contact Mandy Owens, PhD, at mandyo@uw.edu.