Speakers & Acknowledgements

Marta Di Forti, MD, PhD
King’s College London, UK

Dr. Marta Di Forti is a Clinical Reader in Psychosis Research at the Dept of Social, Developmental and Genetic Research, KCL. She leads the first Cannabis Clinic for patients with Psychotic disorders in UK. In 2021 she was awarded the Royal College of Psychiatrist Researcher of the year prize. In 2020. Dr. Di Forti was granted an MRC Senior Research Fellowship to expand her research in the role of cannabis use in psychosis and its underlying biology. Her MRC SRF employs technologies like virtual reality, genetic data, DNA methylation data, and peripheral levels of endocannabinoids from human participants in parallel to running an animal model experiment of pubertal exposure to cannabinoids to investigate biological markers of susceptibility to psychosis among heavy cannabis users.

Beatriz Carlini, PhD, MPH
Symposium Chair
University of Washington

Dr. Beatriz (Bia) Carlini, PhD, MPH, is Research Associate Professor at the University of Washington Addictions, Drug & Alcohol Institute, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. Her research career has been dedicated to understanding the public health impact of legal psychoactive substance use (such as alcohol, inhalants, tobacco, and cannabis) and policies on social and health outcomes.

Since 2016, Dr. Carlini has led the ADAI Cannabis Research and Education Program, conducting cannabis research that assists Washington community-based agencies, government agencies, and policymakers in making decisions and setting priorities. Dr. Carlini has been a pioneer in bringing awareness of the sharp increase in the availability and risks of high-THC content products brought by cannabis legalization in WA. In 2020, she chaired the PRSC Cannabis Concentration Workgroup composed of UW and WSU scientists, which authored a Consensus Statement and Report on Cannabis Concentration and Health Risks. In 2021-22, Dr. Carlini led a contract with the WA State Health Care Authority funded by ESSB 5092 to identify areas of common ground and consensus and develop recommendations for state policies related to cannabis concentration and mitigating detrimental health impacts. As a result, a report to WA Legislature was published in December 2022, with policy recommendations.

As a first-generation immigrant and a foreign-born American citizen, Dr. Carlini is especially interested in the impact of cannabis and tobacco use on perpetuating health and social disparities. Dr. Carlini has a passion for fostering social inclusion, challenging stereotypes, and fighting stigma. She applies an equity lens to her work as a researcher and educator.

Deepak Cyril D’Souza, MD
Yale University School of Medicine

Dr. Deepak Cyril D’Souza is the Vikram Sodhi Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine. He is a staff psychiatrist at VA Connecticut Healthcare System (VACHS) where he has worked since 1992. He is an active clinician, teacher and researcher, with 30 years of experience. Dr. D’Souza has been using psychopharmacological probes such as ketamine, THC and amphetamine to evaluate the contributions of various neurotransmitter systems to the pathophysiology of psychosis, cognitive deficits, and reward processing. He also conducts clinical phase 1 to phase 4 trials in neuropsychiatric disorders. Finally, Dr. D’Souza uses neuroreceptor imaging to study neuropsychiatric disorders. His research is funded by the U.S. National Institute of Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, VA R&D and several foundations. His work has been published in Molecular Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuropsychopharmacology.  He is the Principal Editor of the journal Psychopharmacology. He serves on the Physician’s Advisory Board for the State of Connecticut’s Medical Marijuana Program, and he is the inaugural Director of the newly created Yale Center for the Science of Cannabis and Cannabinoids.

Lindsey Hines, PhD
University of Bath, UK

Dr. Lindsey Hines has expertise is in the epidemiology of drug use, with a focus on the causes and consequences of cannabis use during adolescence. Her current work explores the pathways between adverse childhood experiences, frequent drug use in adolescence, and mental health problems in later life. Through analysis of large, longitudinal cohorts, she aims to produce work with practical utility for informing mental health intervention.

Jason Kilmer, PhD
University of Washington

Dr. Jason Kilmer is a Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine and an Adjunct Professor in Psychology at UW. Dr. Kilmer serves as an investigator on several studies evaluating prevention and intervention efforts for alcohol, cannabis, and other drug use by college students. In addition to research and teaching, he has worked extensively with college students and student groups around alcohol and other drug prevention programming and presentations throughout his career (including student athletes, fraternity and sorority members, residence life, and first-year students), both at UW and on over 140 campuses across the nation. Dr. Kilmer also serves as the chairperson of Washington state’s College Coalition on Substance misuse, Advocacy, and Prevention. He is principal investigator of Washington’s Young Adult Health Survey, now in its 11th year of data collection. He was one of the six members of the development team for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s College Alcohol Intervention Matrix (CollegeAIM). Dr. Kilmer was the 2014 recipient of the National Prevention Network’s Award of Excellence for outstanding contributions to the field of prevention, and was also the 2017 recipient of the Washington State Prevention Professional Award of Excellence.

Daniel Myran, MD, MPH
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Canada

Dr. Daniel Myran is a Public Health and Preventative Medicine physician, a Family Physician, and researcher. He holds a Canada Research Chair in Social Accountability at uOttawa and is an assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine. He practices family medicine with an interest in addiction medicine. Dr. Myran’s research uses health administrative data to investigate two areas. First, tracking healthcare visits for mental health and substance use at the population-level and investigating the impact of policy (e.g., legalization of non-medical cannabis) on these outcomes. Second, understanding patterns of mental health service use by physicians and identifying policy options to improve access to comprehensive primary care. A key focus of both streams of work is investigating differences in outcomes across systematically disadvantaged groups to identify and mitigate health inequities in society.

Denise Walker, PhD
University of Washington

Dr. Denise Walker is a Research Professor at the University of Washington, Director of the Innovative Programs Research Group and is a licensed clinical psychologist. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of New Mexico, completed her predoctoral internship at Yale University and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington. A main area of her research expertise is on the development and evaluation of interventions for cannabis use disorders for both adults and adolescents, utilizing brief interventions (Motivational Enhancement Therapy, MET), longer courses of treatment (MET+CBT), and aftercare. She has been involved in the development and evaluation of the Teen Marijuana Check-Up (TMCU), a school-based intervention to elicit self-referral by heavy using adolescents. The TMCU has been the focus of five clinical trials and is identified as an “Evidence Based” intervention on the NREPP. For the past four years, Dr. Walker has been applying her work to psychosis populations and was a 2023 Garvey Institute for Brain Health Solutions grant awardee. This work focused on the adaptation of MET to address cannabis use among young adults with psychosis. Other areas of her research include adapting the Check-Up model (a motivational interviewing intervention) for other high risk populations (active duty military experiencing alcohol use disorder or PTSD; domestic violence perpetrators) and optimizing evidence-based treatments for specific populations (Native Americans) or settings (schools).

Katherine Walukevich-Dienst, PhD
University of Washington

Dr. Katherine Walukevich-Dienst is a licensed clinical psychologist and Acting Assistant Professor at the University of Washington. Her research is focused on identifying psychosocial and contextual factors associated with alcohol and cannabis misuse and co-use among young adults, including social influences (e.g., romantic partners, use partnerships), affect management motives, co-occurring mental health concerns, and high-risk substance use events and contexts. Dr. Walukevich-Dienst aims to leverage this information to develop and test innovative, technology-informed prevention and intervention efforts to disseminate in real world settings. She also provides psychotherapy to patients at the University of Washington’s Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic and provides supervision and training to psychology graduate students and psychiatry residents in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.