Priscilla Martinez (admin)

Priscilla Martinez, MPhil, PhD, is Deputy Scientific Director. Dr. Martinez is a scientist and former post-doctoral fellow at ARG/UC Berkeley (2013-2016). She received her MPhil in International Community Health and her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Oslo in Norway. She is Co-Director of the National Alcohol Surveys (NAS) conducted under ARG’s Center on the Epidemiology of Alcohol Problems, and Co-Investigator on the Center Health Disparities project studying awareness of alcohol’s effects on the risk of various health conditions. She received funding from the California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) to lead the Drink Less for Your Breasts project, the first US-based campaign to inform young women that alcohol use is a risk factor for breast cancer. Dr. Martinez work also includes studying the role of inflammation in alcohol-related racial and ethnic health disparities, survey methods for collecting biological samples in national surveys, improving recruitment of racial and ethnic minorities in alcohol research, and the effectiveness of mutual help alternatives. Dr. Martinez is currently PI of an R01 studying alcohol and mental health trajectories over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, utilizing both longitudinal data based on the NAS and qualitative data. She is also a lecturer at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, where she has taught survey research methods and currently instructs the Advanced Alcohol Research Seminar.