Institute for Translational Research Education in Adolescent Substance Use (ITRE)
Faculty & Staff
Contact Information
For additional information please contact:
Co-Investigator, Donna Burton, 813-974-3241
Project Director, Ercilia Calcano, 813-974-8578
Executive COmmittee
Oliver Tom Massey, PhD
Multiple Principal Investigator & Evaluation Director
About
Dr. Massey is associate professor and Director of the Division of Child and Family Behavioral Health in the Department of Child and Family Studies at the University of South Florida, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences. He specializes in the organization, implementation and evaluation of mental health services for adolescents in schools and the community. He has expertise in quantitative and qualitative methodology and has conducted research and evaluation projects on the delivery of mental and behavioral health services in K-12, the sustainability of mental health services, and adolescent engagement in effective services. He is the author of Evaluation Human Research Development Programs: A Practical Guide for Public Agencies and numerous publications and book chapters devoted to evaluation in the applied sector.
Bruce Lubotsky Levin, DrPH
Multiple Principal Investigator & Curriculum Director
About
Dr. Levin is an associate professor in both the University of South Florida's Department of Child and Family Studies, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences, and Associate Professor and Faculty Lead of the Behavioral Health Concentration, College of Public Health, University of South Florida. Dr. Levin currently serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research. He has teaching and research interests in mental health and substance abuse services delivery, behavioral health policy, mental health informatics, managed behavioral health care, and translational research. He is senior editor of 10 textbooks, including: Foundations of Behavioral Health (Springer Nature, 2020); Introduction to Public Health in Pharmacy, Second Edition (Oxford University Press, 2018); Mental Health Services: A Public Health Perspective, 3rd Edition (Oxford University Press, 2010); and A Public Health Perspective of Women's Mental Health (Springer Nature, 2010). He is also co-author of Mental Health Informatics (Oxford University Press, 2013). Download CV.
Donna Burton, PhD
Co-Investigator
About
Dr. Burton is a research assistant professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies at the University of South Florida, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences. She earned her PhD from the Department of Community and Family Health in the USF College of Public Health. She has served in a range of positions from practitioner to clinical director and executive director for both private non-profit and public sector entities. She has provided specialized curricula to drug abuse and mental health practitioners and administrators on multiple occasions at four state-level schools of addiction studies. Dr. Burton has participated in the implementation of evidence-based practices for adolescents through federal level grant-funded mechanisms. Download CV.
ITRE Staff
Ercilia Calcano, MPH
Project Director
About
Ercilia Calcano brings 20 years of public health experience in program planning and development, community engagement, budgeting, program management and evaluation, research administration, and teaching. Her previous leadership roles brought about policy and system changes. She has worked with local coalitions to implement teen substance abuse best practices in communities and schools and has served in state and national workgroups to tackle public health priorities. She has conducted international public health programs, is bilingual, and is experienced in recruitment and implementation of programs for diverse populations. She has provided students with service-learning opportunities focused on the needs of underserved populations and root causes of health disparities.
ITRE Consultants
ITRE Consultants play an important role in the success of the Institute. They assist with the development of the ITRE curriculum and provide pertinent resources for coursework.
View ITRE Consultants
Ardis Hanson, PhD is an Assistant Director of Research and Education at the University of South Florida. Her research interests include language and social interaction, health informatics, and behavioral health policy and delivery systems. She received her PhD in Philosophy with a concentration in Health and Organizational Communication and her MLS in Library and Information Science from USF
Wei Wang, PhD is an Associate Professor of Biostatistics at the University of South Florida, Dr. Wei Wang has been involved as the leading statistician in multiple prevention trails, including classroom and family-based programs focused on reducing substance use and increasing academic performance. He has been a long term member of the Prevention Science & Methodology group, and currently he serves as the USF subcontract PI for three federal funded grants.
Svetlana Yampolskaya, PhD is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Child & Family Studies, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences, University of South Florida. Dr. Yampolskaya's research focuses on prevention of violence against children and improving outcomes for youth involved with the child welfare system. Her current research interests include prevention adverse outcomes for children in the child welfare system as well as advanced analytical and methodological approaches.
Monica Landers, MA, MSW is currently employed with the Department of Child and Family Studies at the USF College of Behavioral & Community Sciences. She completed her Master of Social Work degree at the University of South Florida as well as a Master's degree from the Criminology program at USF. Monica has previously held positions at a juvenile detention facility, juvenile residential facility, and an alternative school and is now employed as a Social and Behavioral Researcher. She endeavors to utilize her educational background and experiences in order to positively affect the lives of adolescents involved in, or who are at risk of involvement in, the juvenile justice system.
Claudia X. Aguado Loi, PhD, MPH, CPH, CHES works as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Health Sciences & Human Performance at the University of Tampa. She specializes in public health education and promotion, program planning and evaluation, mixed-methods, community-based participatory research methods, epidemiology including study design and analysis, and project management of large research studies. She brings extensive experience working with Latino populations in cancer survivorship (e.g., quality of life of Latina breast cancer survivors), chronic disease self-management and cancer health disparities.
Jaime Reddish, MP is a Research Compliance Administrator (RCA) at the University of South Florida Institutional Review Board (IRB). In addition to reviewing protocols for human subject research, she also serves as the Education Coordinator. Jamie provides education and support to all students, faculty and staff at USF and affiliates. She graduated from USF with a Master's degree in Public Health and has been with the USF IRB since 2014.
The Institute for Translational Research Education in Adolescent Drug Abuse is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under award number R25DA031103.