Expert Faculty Roster
Faculty Roster
We are incredibly grateful to the following experts who have generously invested their time and expertise to this professional education program focused on science, policy, and treatment of addictions.
Keynote Speakers
Mehdi Farokhnia, MD, MPH
Clinical Staff Scientist, NIDA and NIAAA
Addictions Update 2024 is pleased to welcome Dr. Mehdi Farokhnia. As a physician-scientist at the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), his research has been focused on understanding the neurobiology of addictive behaviors and identifying novel therapeutic targets for alcohol and other substance use disorders, with a particular focus on neuroendocrine pathways. He uses a combination of behavioral, pharmacological, genetic, and neuroimaging methods and is interested in investigating innovative human laboratory approaches, as well as large-scale epidemiological methods, that may facilitate the crosstalk between preclinical, clinical, and population-based research, especially in the field of behavioral pharmacology and substance use. Another line of research that Mehdi is pursuing includes utilizing big data to characterize biobehavioral substrates of health disparity (e.g., racial differences) in risk/resilience to addiction and other mental health disorders.
Dr. Farokhnia received his Medical Degree from Tehran University and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Dr. Leggio’s lab at the NIH Clinical Center when he was also a Fellow at the NIH Center on Compulsive Behaviors (CCB). Recently, he earned a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, along with two Graduate Certificates - Public Mental Health Research, and Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety. View profile.
R. Corey Waller, MD, DFASAM
Chief Medical Officer, BrightView Health
Corey Waller, MD, MS, FACEP, DFASAM is board-certified in emergency and addiction medicine with extensive experience at the local, state, and national levels. He works with the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) and related organizations to advance the evidence-based practice of treatment and recovery for individuals affected by addiction. A nationally recognized expert in substance use disorder (SUD), he is editor in chief of The ASAM Criteria and as such, will be able to provide ADDICTIONS UPDATE’s audience great insight to the changes hitting their practices.
As BrightView’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Waller oversees medical team education, practice standards, and care delivery. By actively engaging and leading BrightView’s physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, he drives service quality, care integration, and the delivery of consistent patient outcomes. Prior to joining BrightView, Dr. Waller was managing director of the HMA Institute on Addiction, where he was responsible for consultation and development of addiction treatment systems for hospitals, primary care practices, justice involved populations, and addiction treatment providers. His experience also includes serving as senior medical director for education and policy at the National Center for Complex Health and Social Needs (National Center), medical staff chief of pain medicine at Spectrum Health System in Grand Rapids, MI. Additionally, he oversaw the development of core competencies for addiction treatment in the labor and delivery unit and the neonatal abstinence syndrome treatment algorithm for the Level 1 neonatal intensive care unit.
Dr. Waller earned his master’s degree in biology, with a neuro-molecular focus at Southwest Texas State University and his medical degree at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. He completed his emergency medicine residency at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and is board-certified in emergency medicine and addiction medicine. View profile.
Complete Faculty Roster
*Contact emails are provided for faculty members who authorized release of this information.
Each of these individuals were asked to sign a disclosure noting any potential conflicts of interests related to financial relationships with any ineligible companies – defined as any entity producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. No such disclosures, within the last 24 months, have been reported by any of the listed faculty. (Providers of clinical services direct to patients are not considered ineligible companies unless the provider is owned or controlled by an ineligible company.)
