Alcohol Research Group

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    • About
          • ABOUT THE CENTER

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          • MEET THE DIRECTOR


            Senior Scientist, William (Bill) C. Kerr, PhD, is Director of ARG’s National Alcohol Research Center and Co-Directs the National Alcohol Survey and the Health Disparities projects.  Bill also serves as the scientific director at ARG and continues to lead R01 projects, including a grant to investigate secondhand harms from alcohol and other drugs.

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          • THE CENTER TEAM

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          • MEET THE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

            Scientist Nina Mulia, DrPH, is Center Associate Director and Director of the Alcohol Services project. She specializes in and has published widely on race and ethnicity and socioeconomic disparities in heavy drinking, alcohol problems, and alcohol services utilization.

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          • CENTER RESEARCH

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          • ASSESSING HID OVER THE LIFECOURSE

            This project, led by Camillia Lui, PhD, traces trends in harmful drinking patterns over a 40-year period, and identifies a range of alcohol-related precursors and problems through event-based and population-based approaches to inform early screening and interventions for high-risk groups.

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    • National Alcohol Surveys
          • ABOUT THE SURVEY

            • About the National Alcohol Survey
            • NAS Datasets
            • Get Access to the NAS data
          • MEET THE SURVEY CO-DIRECTOR

            Scientist and Deputy Scientific Director, Priscilla Martinez, oversees the survey design, data collection, and analyses.  In the latest cycle of the NAS, Priscilla conducted dried blood spot sampling to help better understand the relationship between how our immune systems work and what role they might play in how alcohol use can affect our mental health.

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Scientific Advisory Board

The Center’s Scientific Advisory Board assists in the planning of scientific activities developed within the Administrative Core through scheduled meetings.

The present Board was chosen to include both University of California faculty and external scientists experienced both with alcohol epidemiology and research center operations. Expertise in disparities research on alcohol and health, both in the US and internationally, was also sought. Board members have been selected for their standing in their relevant fields; they represent the disciplines that are at the heart of the Center’s scientific program and closely related areas of high importance for alcohol studies including public health, epidemiology, medicine, economics, psychology, public policy, genetics, neuropharmacology and psychopharmacology.

Current Board Members

Cindy_BoardMemberKevin Delucchi, PhD , is a quantitative expert specializing in psycho-social research. Dr. Delucchi’s work focuses on statistical methods for analysis of quantitative data including clinical trials of treatments for smoking cessation. He has collaborated with numerous investigators on nicotine-related research and is a member of an NIH Study Section. Kevin Delucchi received his doctorate from UC Berkeley and is appointed Professor of Biostatistics in Psychiatry. He has a long history of working with trainees at UCSF. He is a faculty member on a NIDA-funded T32 grant and is and has been an advisor and co-mentor on several ‘K’ awards. Dr. Delucchi directed the Statistics and Health Economics Core of the NIDA-funded Treatment Research Center for 20 years. His focus is on statistical methods relevant to smoking cessation and illicit drug abuse and is PI on an NIAAA-funded study of problem and dependent alcohol drinkers which is now in its 17th year.

Cindy_BoardMemberCindy L. Ehlers, PhD, is Professor in the Molecular and Integrative Neurosciences and Molecular and Experimental Medicine Departments, The Scripps Research Institute, in LaJolla, California, with additional adjunct appointments in psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and UC San Diego, and in Neurology at UCSF. A Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, among numerous awards and honors she has received, this year she won the Distinguished Researcher Award of the Research Society on Alcoholism. She has been Co-director of the NIAAA-supported Pearson Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research at Scripps. Among her research areas of relevance to our Center, she focuses on understanding genetic and environmental risk factors for alcoholism in high-risk young EuroAmericans, Native, African and Hispanic Americans, and in developing intervention programs appropriate to different racial/ethnic groups, with studies of Mission Indians in San Diego and African- and Indian-origin populations in Trinidad Tobago (among other studies). Because of her roles in the Scripps ARC and NIAAA (e.g., prior service on the National Advisory Council and Extramural Advisory Board), Dr. Ehler’s advice on Center management issues will be invaluable. The translational research she is known for is also of particular relevance to our dissemination work.

RhondaRhonda Jones-Webb, DrPH, is Professor in the Division of Epidemiology & Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota. She Directs the Midwestern Center for Lifelong Learning in Public Health and is Co-Chair of the Health Disparities Work Group She previously served on the NIAAA study sections and earlier worked with Dr. Greenfield at the Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Abuse (now Alcohol Justice). Her research focuses on alcohol epidemiology and policy with a special focus on race, class, and neighborhood influences. She is a leading scholar on alcohol use and alcohol-related problems among African Americans. Dr. Jones-Webb’s research focuses on three primary areas: 1) alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems among African Americans; 2) environmental factors associated with consumption and related problems among African Americans and low income populations; and 3) environmental policies to prevent alcohol-related problems. She has also focused on such issues among youth, young adults, and gay men. Recent work examines effectiveness of local alcohol policies in reducing crime in U.S. cities. She has collaborated for years on various ARG Center projects on racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities.

JurgenJürgen Rehm PhD, is Director of the Social and Epidemiological Research (SER) Department at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Canada. He is also Scientist and Head of the Population Health Research Group within SER. Dr. Rehm is a Professor and Chair of Addiction Policy in the Dalla Lana School Public Health at the University of Toronto. He is also Head of the Epidemiological Research Unit, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, at the Dresden University of Technology, in Dresden, Germany. Dr. Rehm has published over 700 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on issues related to substance use and abuse, mainly related to epidemiology, economics and policy.  He has collaborated with ARG Center scientists on mortality studies, Age-period-cohort trend studies, Emergency Department studies and numerous other productive epidemiological projects.  He has been the recipient of numerous grants and contracts including a number from NIAAA, and received the Jellinek Award for outstanding contributions to alcohol epidemiology in 2003. He has been responsible for the Comparative Risk Assessments (CRA) on alcohol within various Global Burden of Disease studies, as well as for the WHO Global Status Reports on Alcohol and Health.  He serves on the WHO Expert Advisory Panel of on Drug Dependence and Alcohol Problems.

Latest News

May 23rd, 2025
he Ripple Effect of Substance Use: How Alcohol and Drugs Harm Others
May 13th, 2025
Substance Use and Mental Health Risks Among U.S. College Students
May 2nd, 2025
The Long-Term Impact of Childhood Adversity on Adolescent and Young Adult Substance Use
April 10th, 2025
Understanding Mental Health, Substance Use, and Suicide Risk Among Youth
April 8th, 2025
How Flawed Science Could Shape U.S. Alcohol Guidelines

Recent Findings

April 2nd, 2025
New Study Reveals Why Alcohol Use Increased During the Pandemic
November 23rd, 2024
Data disaggregation reveals hidden suicide risk
November 21st, 2024
Millions of Americans Hurt By Others’ Drinking, Drug Use: Study
September 4th, 2024
Alcohol Consumption Trends Across Disadvantaged Populations
June 4th, 2024
Socioeconomic status may determine how alcohol affects heart health

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About ARG

We are a non-profit research organization that seeks to improve public health through deepening our understanding of alcohol and other drug use and investigating innovative approaches to reduce its consequences for individuals, families, and communities.

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