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PIRE Staff List

Melissa Abadi, PhD

Center Director & Senior Research Scientist
Louisville

Bina Ali, PhD

Research Scientist
PIRE - National Capital Region

Mikella Allen

Research Assistant II
Chapel Hill

Genevieve M. Ames, Ph.D.

Senior Research Scientist Emerita
Prevention Research Center

Liz Anderson, DSW, LCSW

Associate Research Scientist
Chapel Hill

Camila Aramburú, MPH

Research Associate II
Louisville

Katharine Atwood, MSc, ScD

Senior Research Scientist
Louisville

Rachel Bauer, MA

Research Associate II
Louisville

Evelyn Byrd

Research Associate I
PIRE-Southwest

Raul Caetano, MD, MPH, PhD

Senior Research Scientist
Prevention Research Center

Allan Cohen, PhD

Senior Research Scientist II
PIRE - National Capital Region

David Collins, PhD

Research Scientist
Louisville

Matthew Courser, PhD

Senior Research Scientist
Louisville

Carol B. Cunradi, MPH, PhD

Senior Research Scientist
Prevention Research Center

David Currey, PhD

Senior Program Evaluator I
Chapel Hill

Sonnie Davies, M.P.H.

Research Associate I
PIRE-Southwest

Al Delmerico, PhD

Associate Research Scientist
Chapel Hill

Jill Dougherty, MS

Production Manager
PIRE - National Capital Region

Elaine Dowdy-Melvin, MPH

Program Coordinator
Chapel Hill

Jessica Edwards, PhD

Senior Program Evaluator I
Chapel Hill

Marissa Elias, M.P.H.

Associate Program Evaluator
PIRE-Southwest

R.J. Elrick

Senior Program Manager
PIRE - National Capital Region

Hannah Fillingim, JD

Research Associate II
PIRE - National Capital Region

Deborah Fisher, PhD

Research Scientist
PIRE - National Capital Region

Robert Flewelling, PhD

Senior Research Scientist II - Emeritus
Chapel Hill

Karen Friend, PhD

Senior Evaluator II
Chapel Hill

Kyra Fritz, PhD

Associate Research Scientist
Louisville

Victor Garcia, Ph.D.

Senior Research Scientist
Prevention Research Center

Michael George, PhD

Program Evaluator
Chapel Hill

Adam Gilbertson, DPhil, MSc

Associate Research Scientist
Chapel Hill

Andrew Gluck, MBA

Project Director
Louisville

Juan Carlos González-Granja, Ph.D.

Research Associate I
PIRE-Southwest

Mary Gordon, MA

Center Director
PIRE - National Capital Region

Marguerite Grabarek, MSW, PhD

Program Evaluator
Chapel Hill

Joel W. Grube, PhD

Senior Research Scientist
Prevention Research Center

Paul J. Gruenewald, PhD

Scientific Director, Senior Research Scientist
Prevention Research Center

Sean Hanley, PhD

Program Evaluator
Chapel Hill

Emily A. Haozous, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN

Research Scientist
PIRE-Southwest

Shane Hartman

Research Associate II
Chapel Hill

Patricia Hokanson, MPH, CRA

Site Administrator III
PIRE-Southwest

Harold Holder, Ph.D.

Senior Research Scientist Emeritus
Prevention Research Center

Vera Inoue-Terris, MA

Project Coordinator
Prevention Research Center

Bonita Iritani, MA

Research Associate II
Chapel Hill

Elise Trott Jaramillo, Ph.D.

Associate Research Scientist
PIRE-Southwest

Janet Jester

Site Administrator III
Chapel Hill

Sonia Jimenez Watson

Research Associate I/Survey Manager
PIRE - National Capital Region

Knowlton Johnson, PhD

Senior Research Scientist II
Louisville

Mark Johnson, PhD

Center Director
PIRE - National Capital Region

Emily Kaner

Research Associate
Prevention Research Center

Zoe Kaplan, MPH

Research Associate
Prevention Research Center

David Kesner

Site Administrator III
Prevention Research Center

Sandra Lapham, M.D., M.P.H.

Senior Research Scientist II
PIRE-Southwest

Bruce Lawrence, PhD

Research Scientist
PIRE - National Capital Region

Juliet Lee, PhD

Senior Research Scientist
Prevention Research Center

Liz Lilliott-González, Ph.D.

Senior Program Evaluator I
PIRE-Southwest

Sharon Lipperman-Kreda, PhD

Senior Research Scientist
Prevention Research Center

Robert Lipton, PhD

Senior Research Scientist
Prevention Research Center

Amy Livingston, BA

Associate Program Evaluator
Chapel Hill

Alexis Lumpkins

Executive Associate II
PIRE - National Capital Region

Winfred Luseno, PhD

Senior Research Scientist I
Chapel Hill

Christina López-Gutiérrez

Research Associate II
PIRE-Southwest

Paul Marques, PhD

Senior Research Scientist II
PIRE - National Capital Region

Richard McGaffigan, MSW

Program Director
Prevention Research Center

A. Scott McKnight

Program Director
PIRE - National Capital Region

Vanessa Melamede Berman, MPH

Associate Program Evaluator
Chapel Hill

Brenda Miller, PhD

Senior Research Scientist
Prevention Research Center

Ted Miller, PhD

Senior Research Scientist II
PIRE - National Capital Region

Tessa Miracle, PhD

Research Scientist
Louisville

Roland S. Moore, PhD

Center Director
Prevention Research Center

Julie Murphy, MLIS

Director of Library and Information Services
Prevention Research Center

Owen Myers

Research Associate I
Louisville

Sharon E. O’Hara, DrPH, MPH

Research Associate II
Prevention Research Center

Mallie J. Paschall, PhD

Senior Research Scientist
Prevention Research Center

Hanno Petras, PhD

Senior Research Scientist
PIRE - National Capital Region

William R. Ponicki, MA

Associate Research Scientist
Prevention Research Center

Jennifer Price-Wolf, PhD

Associate Research Scientist
Prevention Research Center

Marie-Elena Reyes, M.S.S.

Associate Program Evaluator
PIRE-Southwest

Bonnie Richard, PhD

Associate Research Scientist
Louisville

Christopher Ringwalt, PhD

Senior Research Scientist II
Chapel Hill

Veronica A. Rogers, BS

Research Associate
Prevention Research Center

Eduardo Romano, PhD

Senior Research Scientist I
PIRE - National Capital Region

Ann Romosz, PhD

Research Scientist
PIRE - National Capital Region

Marcia Russell, PhD

Senior Research Scientist Emerita
Prevention Research Center

Lina Salam, MS

Research Associate I
Prevention Research Center

Robert Saltz, PhD

Senior Research Scientist
Prevention Research Center

Ua-aree Sangpukdee, EdD

Associate Program Evaluator
Louisville

April Schweinhart, PhD

Research Scientist
Louisville

Rachel A. Sebastian, Ph.D. Candidate

Research Associate II
PIRE-Southwest

Steve Shamblen, PhD

Senior Research Scientist I
Louisville

Daniel Shattuck, Ph.D.

Associate Research Scientist
PIRE-Southwest

Casey Shepherd, MPH

Program Manager
Louisville

Ashley Simons-Rudolph, PhD

Research Scientist
Chapel Hill

Al Stein-Seroussi, PhD

Senior Program Evaluator II
Chapel Hill

Kathryn Stewart, MS

PIRE Consultant and IRB Chair
Prevention Research Center

Robert Stout

Center Director and Senior Research Scientist
Quantitative Capabilities Collaboration

Robert Stout, PhD

Senior Research Scientist
PIRE - National Capital Region

Robert Sturm

Research Associate II
PIRE-Southwest

Eileen Taylor, MS

Program Director
PIRE - National Capital Region

Rachell Tenorio, PhD

Research Associate II
Prevention Research Center

Sue Thomas, PhD

Senior Research Scientist II
PIRE - National Capital Region

Kirsten Thompson, MA

Program Director
Louisville

A. Scott Tippetts

Research Scientist
PIRE - National Capital Region

Ryan Treffers, JD

Research Scientist
PIRE - National Capital Region

Patrice Vaeth, DrPH

Senior Research Scientist
Prevention Research Center

Robert Voas, PhD

Senior Research Scientist II
PIRE - National Capital Region

Geetha Waehrer, PhD

Research Scientist
PIRE - National Capital Region

Elizabeth Waiters, PhD

Program Evaluator
Prevention Research Center

Martha Waller, PhD

Center Director
Chapel Hill

Meme Wang-Schweig, PhD

Affiliated Scientist
Prevention Research Center

Kristina Wharton, PhD, MPH, MPA

Associate Research Scientist
Prevention Research Center

William F. Wieczorek, PhD

Chief Executive Officer and President
PIRE | Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

Cathleen E. Willging, Ph.D.

Center Director and Senior Research Scientist II
PIRE-Southwest

Katie Wouk, PhD

Associate Research Scientist
Chapel Hill

Linda Young, MA

Senior Research Scientist
Louisville

Kim Zamarin, M.P.H.

Program Director
PIRE-Southwest

Lei Zhang, PhD

Associate Program Evaluator
Chapel Hill

© 2023 PIRE (Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation) · contact: info@pire.org

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A Statement from the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

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June 5, 2020

The outrage of America and the world at the brazen killing of George Floyd, a Black American, is a righteous response to the continuing plague of racism in the United States. To remain silent in the face of this obvious injustice would be to assent to the deep harms of outright and implicit racism. Racism has been historically, and continues to be, an insidious driving factor in almost every aspect of American culture that has stolen rightful opportunities for human fulfillment for generations of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color. The time to end this scourge is now. Outrage and protest are a necessary, but not a sufficient response, to achieve enduring fundamental changes in social behaviors, cultural expectations, and laws necessary to finally end this endemic bias. It is time to voice our values and to act on those values in our personal and professional lives. The responsibility is shared by all, and thus must be fully embraced by everyone.

Our mission demands this of us. The mission of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) is to promote, undertake, and evaluate activities, studies, and programs that improve individual and public health, welfare, and safety. We acknowledge the devastating impacts that racism has had and continues to have on the health and well-being of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color, which may include PIRE staff, colleagues, and communities with whom we work in partnership.

To respond effectively, we must further recognize it is more than individual racism, but bias within and across key systems of policing, criminal justice, education, employment, and finance that disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color. PIRE continues to strive to provide a safe and equitable workplace, working towards social justice and health equity.

Everyone at PIRE is uniquely positioned professionally with the responsibility to identify and support efforts to improve the physical health, mental health, social health and economic wellbeing of those who have suffered the most from unjust prejudices. Because we know that social inequalities driven by racism and other biases are the primary drivers of health disparities, our work is needed now more than ever. This is the time to redouble our efforts through inclusive partnerships with organizations and all communities to identify, ameliorate, and end the scourge of racial biases.

William F. Wieczorek, Ph.D.
CEO and President

PIRE Founder

Allan Cohen, Ph.D.

Emeritus Advisor

Allan Cohen’s career choice was narrowed on an early spring day in the late fifties. During tryouts, a baseball took a “bad hop” and struck him, rendering him sufficiently incompetent to have a spot on Harvard’s intercollegiate team. A fantasized path to professional baseball gave way to an aspiring nuclear chemist—but not for long. With a brief stop in, he settled in the Social Relations Department, a cross-disciplinary program populated both by athletes and some of the world’s leading social scientists. He remained at Harvard for his doctorate and worked with luminaries such as Erik Erikson, David McClelland, Talcott Parsons, Jerome Bruner, and some well-regarded new faculty — Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert.

Yet another career twist occurred when Allan was invited to participate in experimental trials with the investigational drugs psilocybin, mescaline, and LSD. Trained as a “psychedelic guide,” the remainder of his graduate career took him to experimental communities in Mexico, New York, and Massachusetts, discussing issues of psychology and consciousness with contemporary figures ranging from Huxley, Ken Kesey, Miles Davis, and Houston Smith. Simultaneously, he completed requirements for a Ph.D. in both Social and Clinical Psychology, finishing up work as a field assessment officer for the U.S. Peace Corps, running a study of new technology for the blind and teaching undergraduates in both normal and abnormal personality courses.

Having clearly seen the limitations of both the drug experience and the psychedelic culture, Allan’s questionable background looked like an asset to the University of California (Berkeley) Counseling Center; and he was hired for a 2-year stint as therapist/counselor for Berkeley students and faculty during the days of the “free speech movement” and the high times of the “flower children.”

Because of his unique personal experience and the credibility of a Harvard doctorate, Allan was in increasing demand as a consultant and lecturer, so much so that he left U.C.’s counseling center for a 7-year tour as consultant, part-time professor/college administrator, lecturer, and “talking head” on radio and television. “Gigs” during that time were as diverse as lecturing with Pete Townshend (of the “Who” rock group), consulting with the government of Venezuela, becoming the first dean of students at the John F. Kennedy University (in Orinda, California), and lecturing to the officers at India’s version of West Point. Along the way, he earned a private pilot’s license and a lifetime adult education teaching credential, and also served as faculty at the Pacific School of Religion, the Humanistic Psychology Institute, and U.C. San Francisco.

The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs awarded Dr. Cohen research funds to study effective interventions for committed San Francisco drug users. Another portent of a PIRE future involved the establishment of the JFKU Institute for Drug Abuse Education, through which he began his work in program evaluation. Much of his work and writing involved intervention strategies for early and late adolescents. So, when the opportunity came to join a colleague (Dr. Eric Schaps) in studying the state-of-the-art of school-based prevention programs, he jumped in. That first grant required a non-profit platform.

As researcher-evaluator, clinician, professor, media spokesman, administrator, editor and theoretician, he applies innovative principles and techniques to the field, including many applications to family and parent-based prevention. He pioneered the “alternatives to drugs” concept, applying them for parents in the groundbreaking 1975 book (with Peter Marin): UNDERSTANDING DRUG USE: An Adult’s Guide to Drugs and the Young.

Dr. Cohen and Dr. Schaps founded Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) in 1974, opening its first office in San Francisco with a contract with the Pennsylvania Governor’s Council on Drug and Alcohol Abuse (Revenue: $200K). As Project Director, Dr. Cohen led PIRE to receive its first NIDA grant – the Pyramid Project (Revenue: $500K). When the Chevy Chase, Maryland office opened in 1976, Dr. Cohen founded the Prevention Materials Institute to distribute materials and information produced by PIRE (Revenue: $900K). As Executive Director of PIRE in 1977, Dr. Cohen opened the first Berkeley, CA office to house the California Connection Addicts Aftercare Services Project (Revenue: $1.3 Million). Dr. Cohen became PIRE’s first President in 1983 (Revenue: $1.6 Million) following the win of the NIAAA award for the Prevention Research Center (PRC). He served in that role until 1999. Under his leadership, PIRE started the Just Say No Foundation in 1986 and organized the Walk Against Drugs in which 3 million people participated. In 1987, PIRE created the Chapel Hill, NC office and hired Harold Holder to become the Scientific Director of PRC (Revenue $4.5 Million). In 1993, Dr. Cohen led the proposal which won the contract for the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention for the National Center for the Advancement of Prevention (Revenue: $12.5 Million).

Dr. Cohen has been recognized with lifetime achievement awards by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), the National Association of State Drug and Alcohol Directors (NASADAD) and by S.A.D.D. (Students Against Destructive Decisions). He has served on the Board of Directors of several charitable organizations, and as consultant and adviser to over 200 national and international institutions, and as manager of over 50 substance abuse prevention projects. He currently serves as editorial reviewer for the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs the Journal of Primary Prevention, of which he had been Associate Editor.

Dr. Cohen brings over 30 years of experience in prevention-related technical assistance, training and technology transfer. Dr. Cohen has personally provided technical assistance and technology transfer services to 35 states and to more than 20 State Agencies. Dr. Cohen was responsible for the design and early management of PIRE’s evaluation for CSAP’s National Training System, generating innovative recommendations for maximizing technology transfer effectiveness and helping create evaluation methodologies (“open-systems evaluation” and “outcome engineering”) that show substantial promise for application to CSAP’s CAPTs. He was key in strategizing and building PIRE’s ongoing PREVENT effort for the U.S. Navy, the nation’s largest substance abuse prevention training project. Recently, he acted as corporate supervisor for large-scale contracts from the U.S. Department of Education, including the Character Education and Civic Engagement Technical Assistance Center (CETAC). He has done considerable work consulting with media production, including a role as technical advisor for ABC’s Dangerous Minds series and HBO’s The Sopranos program.

Dr. Cohen helped prepare two key monographs for CSAP (on the selection of prevention strategies and on community mobilization strategies) and currently supervises technology transfer evaluation studies on prevention/intervention efforts involving drug courts, school-based prevention curricula, substance abuse community coalitions, autism problems and faith-based prevention efforts. Dr. Cohen was the recipient of a Lifetime Career Achievement Award by NASADAD and in 1999 a Career Achievement Award from CSAP for his work with parents and substance abuse prevention. He continues to seek out new opportunities and partnerships for PIRE, both in familiar domains and areas new to the Institute.