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Evans Appears as Invited Plenary Speaker at NIH HEAL Initiative Scientific Meeting

Evans shared insights on how to build sustainable research-practice relationships.

February 23, 2024 Research

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Liz Evans (center) with NIH HEAL scientific meeting panelists
Plenary panelists (l-r): Moderator Tisha Wiley, NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse; Ed Hayes, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office; Liz Evans, UMass Amherst; Michele Staton, University of Kentucky; Katie Marks, Kentucky Department for Behavioral Health

Professor of Health Promotion and Policy Elizabeth Evans was an invited plenary speaker at the 5th Annual NIH HEAL Initiative Scientific Meeting held in Bethesda, MD on February 7-8, 2024. 

The Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative, is an NIH-wide effort to speed scientific solutions to stem the national opioid public health crisis. The scientific meeting brought together more than 800 HEAL-funded researchers across the HEAL research portfolio and career stage spectrum, NIH staff, people with lived and living experience, community partners advising HEAL-funded projects, advocacy groups, and other stakeholders to share research advances and cutting-edge science; discover opportunities, challenges, and approaches to build on HEAL progress; and to connect and explore collaboration with other HEAL-funded researchers and stakeholders to enhance HEAL-funded research.

Evans joined a panel that included Michele Staton from the University of Kentucky, Katherine Marks from the Kentucky Department for Behavioral Health, and Ed Hayes, from the Franklin County (Massachusetts) Sheriff’s Office for a plenary session titled "Building Sustainable Research-Practice Partnerships: Insights from the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN)." JCOIN is an ambitious, $155 million effort involving scientists at dozens of institutions nationwide to improve opioid addiction treatment in criminal justice settings.

Evans and her fellow panelists shared how the carceral-legal system is a key part of our public health ecosystem and emphasized the necessity of forming research collaborations that include jails and prisons to create capacity to address the ongoing opioid overdose epidemic. Evans shared insights on how to build sustainable research-practice relationships, along with her community-based research partners from the Massachusetts Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (MassJCOIN) and other JCOIN investigators. The panel also discussed the challenges and rewards of leading justice-involved research, methods for building trust with a diversity of research partners, and opportunities for new research collaborations.

Evans is the co-principal investigator of a $10 million Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN) research project examining a pilot opioid treatment program for jail detainees in seven Massachusetts counties. Evans and her collaborators have published several papers on the implementation of the program.

Article posted in Research for Faculty , Staff , and Current students

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