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Two of our full-time staff and beloved members are heading off to grad school! Maria has accepted a position in a clinical psych program at the University of Missouri under the mentorship of Dr. McCarthy. This laboratory will allow Maria to take a more clinical approach to addiction research and hopefully begin to do research of her own! Patricia accepted a position at the University of Oregon in their counseling program under the mentorship of Dr. Khurana. This position focuses primarily on counseling psychology, family and human services, and prevention science. This is a wonderful opportunity for her to get a more hands-on experience working with potential patients. Congrats to both of you and I know everyone at the EDGE Lab is immensely proud of you. Your impact on the lab will be remembered for years to come. You will be dearly missed.
Recently our first year PhD student, Elena Kalina, was awarded the SHARC T32 training fellowship that is designed to provide specialized training in alcohol and HIV prevention research. This will provide many more opportunities for Elena to develop her research and work in the EDGE Lab. We are so proud of her! Congratulations!
At the EDGE Lab we always encourage our members to be involved closely in their community and with relevant organizations. Our own PI takes this mentality to heart and has taken up a national leadership position as the Chair of the American Psychological Association Board of Convention Affairs for 2023. This is a great honor, and another great example of our members hard at work! Congratulations!
Neo was recently announced as a recipient of the 2022 Nadia Chaudhri Rising Scholars Award! Neo was one of two individuals to recieve this inaugral award which is represenative of Dr. Nadia Chaudhri's amazing legacy. This was an honor Neo recieved from his submssion to the annual 2022 RSA meeting for his piece "Relations Between Impaired Control Over Alcohol and Behavioral Economic Demand in the Context of Alcohol Self-Administration Among Young Adults Who Drink Heavily". Congratulations, we are so proud!
This semester we have Bailee, Emily, and Tajay graduating from the University of Florida and saying farewell to the EDGE Lab. We will miss them all dearly! Congratulations to all!
After a hard days work doing participant recruitment, some of our research assistants, full time staff, and grad students unwinded together by watching a UF baseball game. It looks like they had tons of fun and the gators also won!
EDGE Lab is estactic to announce that we have not one but two research assistants who have been awarded the prestigious honor of participating in the UF University Scholars Program this upcoming year! Sage Schaefer and Brianna Rosner, who are both hardworking members of the EDGE Lab, were both selected this year.
The USP offers undergraudate students the opportunity to conduct their own research under the guidance of a chosen mentor; it is a highly competitive program and those who are accepted are awarded a stipend and an opportunity to write their own manuscript/abstract and present their research at the Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Sage has an exciting project that will revolve around the SEAL Study, she explains:
"My research project for USP will be a continuation of the Sporting Event & Alcohol Longitudinal (SEAL) study, particularly the intervention phase. This phase will consist of two brief personalized feedback interventions for alcohol use and sexual health respectively, as well as local resources for sexual assault."
Brianna's project will revolve around alcohol-related smartphone technology, she states:
"I will be conducting a secondary analysis to determine if personalized feedback concerning alcohol usage and sexual behavior via an app will have an inverse relationship with negative sexual consequences. I believe this study can have a valuable impact by providing insight concerning young adult alcohol usage, technological interventions, and sexual consequences."
Everyone at EDGE Lab is so proud of Brianna and Sage, congrats you two!
We are now taking applications for the position of undergraduate research assistant for this spring!
If you would like to apply you can find the link here:
UF EDGE Lab Research Assistant Application Spring 2022 (google.com)
Preference will be given to those who apply by Friday, January 14th.
The University of Florida News recently wrote an article entitled Apps show promise to help heavy drinkers age 21-25 cut back which details the findings of one of the studies conducted by our lab (APA PsycNet). The study had participants take part in a field use period where they used three different alcohol-related technologies in hopes that these technologies one day can be used to reduce drinking.
The article also highlighted the importance of works done by the EDGE Lab and other similar institutions as heavy drinking and AUD are more common among young adults aged 21-25 as opposed to other age groups.
If you would like to read more you can find the article here:
Apps show promise to help heavy drinkers age 21-25 cut back - News - University of Florida (ufl.edu)
Dr. Leeman was recently quoted in The Independent Florida Alligator article entitiled "Young adults struggle with alcohol misuse more than other age groups". The article explores the stigma and stereotypes surrounding alcohol misuse and alcohol use disorder and utilizes Dr. Leeman's expertise to fruther the discussion about this practice among young adults ages 18-25.
If you would like to read the article you can find the link here:
One of our research assistants, Bailee Wilson, has been promoted to Senior Undergraduate Research Assistant. She is the second undergraduate in the history of the EDGE lab to be given this distinction. Congratulations, Bailee!
Througout her time at the EDGE lab, Bailee has demonstrated leadership, initiative, and made herself invaluable to the research team.
We are all proud to have Bailee as part of our lab.
Our principal investigator, Dr. Rob Leeman, was awarded a Fellow status for his "remarkable contributions to the field of Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse" by the American Psychological Association (APA), Division 28.
https://www.apa.org/about/division/digest/share-members/initial-current-fellows
Dr. Leeman and his daughter Caroline volunteered at the Pride at Prairie Creek event at the Prairie Creek Lodge on October 24th. The Alachua Conservation Trust hosted this event in celebration of the local LGBTQ community. Several local groups including TranQuility and the Pride Community Center of North Central Florida were exhibitors at the event. There was also food, flowers, and live music. Dr. Leeman and Caroline helped exhibitors set up for the event and organize parking, and they planted many flowers along the way!
For more information on Pride at Prairie Creek and other events the Alachua Conservation Trust puts on visit this link:
UF’s Office of Strategic Communications & Marketing selected Dr. Leeman to be a recipient of the $1,000 Research Promotion Initiative award for his paper, titled “A combined laboratory and field test of a smartphone breath alcohol device and blood alcohol content estimator to facilitate moderate drinking among young adults” Congratulations, Dr. Leeman!
Recently Dr. Leeman was interviewed about the relation between increased alcohol consumption and the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Leeman's take was quoted in the article as well as many other reputable researchers. I highly recommend giving it a read!
You can find the article at:
Have You Begun 'Gray Area' Drinking During the Pandemic? How to Know (healthline.com)
On Sunday, September 26th our Principal Investigator, Dr. Robert Leeman, as well as his daughter, Caroline, and our graduate student, Andrea, participated in The HPW Coalition Run for Your Life 5K Color Run. It was such an awesome event that brought the people of Gainesville together to help raise awareness about substance misuse. Thank you for running for a wonderful cause everyone!
Our first year graduate student, Elena Kalina, was recently highlighted by the college of Health and Human Performance. Due to her recent take over of the EDGE Lab's Game Time Decision Study she has been able to more thoroughly involve herself in a "self-administration alcohol paradigm" a research technique that she finds particulary interesting. The study itself is very complicated as it examines two forms of alcohol related technology to determine their effectiveness when used in the context of drinking; however, she is certainly up to the task. Elena is delighted to continue her education and research right here in the EDGE Lab and we are delighted to have her as well!
To find out more about the GTD (Game Time Decision Study) visit our "Research Studies" section.
Dr. Robert Leeman, our Principal Investigator, was recently selected to serve on the Presidential LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee where he will continually assess the quality of life for those identifying as LGBTQ+ at the University of Florida, and making recommendations for improvements/corrections based on his assessment. He will also serve as a forum where those identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community can express their concerns about campus life.
Congratulations! This is such a great honor and we look forward to see the impact you make in the future.
In a recent podcast episode, Addicition Psychology hosted two EDGE lab members, Tess Frohe, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington, and Andrea Vasquez Ferreiro, who is one of the EDGE lab's graduate students. They discuss their work on app-based attential bias assessment/retraining for patients taking medication for Opioid Use Disorder; this work was also presented at the APA convention this past weekend.
If you are interested in listening to the podcast you can find it here.
Congratulations ladies! We are so proud!
2021 has surely been an interesting year to say the least, but it certainly has not caused our Principal Investigator, Robert Leeman, to slow down in the slightest!
Thus far during 2021 Dr. Leeman has...
Joined the Steering Committee for the Gainesville chapter of Equality Florida, which is the largest civil rights organization dedicated to securing full equality for Florida's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community.
Been elected to a 4 year term on the American Psychological Association Board of Convention Affairs. The responsibility of the Board of Convention Affairs is to recommend policies and procedures to be followed in planning the Annual Convention, to coordinate the programs of Divisions and other organized groups within the Association, and to arrange for programs of general interest at the time of the annual convention. https://www.apa.org/about/governance/bdcmte/convention-affairs
Been elected to a 4-year term on the Board of Directors for the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA). http://www.rsoa.org/leadership
Become a field editor for Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
Congratulations! These are incredible achievements, you certainly have made our lab proud!
Congratulation to one of our Ph.D students, Neo Gebru! Neo recently presented highlights from his CPA poster about the purchasing behaviors of recreational marijuana users on The Addiction Psychologist podcast. You can find the full podcast at anchor.fm/addiction-psychologist .
We are excited to announce a new addition to the EDGE lab team! Elena Kalina will be joining us in the Fall of 2021 as a first year graduate student in the department of Health Education and Behavior.
Elena graduated from Barett, the Honors College at Arizona State University in December of 2019 with a BS in Psychology. Upon graduation, Elena joined the Social Addiction Impulse Lab (SAIL) and was quickly named Lab Manager in August of 2020. As lab manager, Elena supervises all experimental designs including ad libitum self-administration alcohol paradigms, manages a group of over 15 undergraduate research assistants, assists with poster presentation development, and she is a major contributor to more than 3 manuscripts produced from the lab in the last 9 months. Elena is dedicated to research addictions broadly and specifically within the context of alcohol abuse. To pursue this goal, Elena has accepted an offer to continue her education as a graduate student in Dr. Robert Leeman's research lab.
We are all very excited to have Elena join us!
The EDGE lab would like to announce that one of our undergrad research assistants, Bailee Wilson, received the honor of being accepted into the University Scholars Program! This is awarded to a certain number of students from each college. Each participant will receive a stipend to pursue a research project under the mentorship of a faculty member.
Bailee will be working on a secondary data analysis on our very own Athletics (AAS) study, where she will mainly focus on the rate of impaired control of alcohol use on game days (home and away) and non-game days at the University of Florida. She will also examine the correlation between rate of impaired control of alcohol use and various characteristics of participants.
We are all proud to have Bailee as a part of our team!
To find out more about the University Scholar’s Program click here.
Congratulations to EDGE lab graduate student Neo Gebru, who received a Student Research Grant in July 2020 from the Society of Addiction Psychology (APA Div. 50). This annual award is presented to students whose research reflects excellence in addiction psychology. The grant review committee selects the top two grants with a focus on the best clinical research grant and the best basic-science research grant. Neo’s grant is titled Using Behavioral Measures to Assess Change in HIV Sexual Risk-Taking Following Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Uptake in Heavy Drinking Young Men Who Have Sex with Men. The grant provides research funding of up to $1,250.
EDGE lab graduate student Neo Gebru received the Wellspring Foundation Student Award for spring 2020 by the College of Health and Human Performance. This award recognizes a current student in HHP that has made substantial and outstanding contributions toward fostering diversity, inclusion and intercultural engagement both on campus and in the Gainesville community.
Congratulations Neo the EDGE lab is proud to have you as a part of the team!
Meher Kalkat, a senior in the EDGE lab, had the opportunity to present at the June 2020 virtual College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD) conference. She presented on a systematic review of studies that utilized the Johnson and Bruner (2012) Sexual Delay Discounting Task (SDDT). The co-authors for the poster were Neo Gebru, Margaret Ansell, Dr. Meredith Berry, and Dr. Robert Leeman. Their review detailed the use of the sddt as a measure of sexual risk-taking in 18 studies.
Dr. Leeman was recently a guest on Dr. Seth Gillihan's podcast titled "Think Act Be". Dr. Gillihan’s podcast covers a range of mental health topics in a manner that is accessible to all. In this episode, Dr. Leeman discussed how to have a healthier relationship with alcohol. He and Dr. Gillihan covered various topics including how common problematic drinking is in the college years and different technologies that might help in reducing dangerous levels of drinking.
Dr. Leeman suggested checking out the Rethinking Drinking website created by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), which provides information regarding drinking levels, noticing signs of possible problems, and offers tools to those looking to change their drinking.
To listen to the whole podcast episode click here!
Dr. Leeman sits down and discusses how this current COVID-19 pandemic may be affecting those with addiction. Click here to watch the video and find out how you can be active in helping others and yourself during this time.
Staying connected and supporting those around you, even if virtually, is important for everyone.
The EDGE lab is proud to announce that two of our graduate students, Tessa Frohe and Ben Berey, have both accepted Postdoc positions for fall 2020!
| Tessa Frohe | Ben Berey |
|---|---|
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Tessa has accepted a Senior Fellow Training position working with Dr. Seema Clifasefi at the Harm Reduction Research and Treatment (HaRRT) Center in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington-Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, WA. Where she will be will be working with Dr. Clifasefi at the HaRRT center, which focuses on the intersection of substance use, mental health, and criminal justice and housing policies. HaRRT works with populations who have lived experience of homelessness, substance use disorders and involvement in the criminal justice system. Tessa will work as a Junior Investigator building partnerships between the HaRRT Center and community members to help engage people in treatment focused on reducing substance-related harm and improving overall quality of life. The ultimate goal of the HaRRT center is to create positive social change by promoting understanding and compassion across all demographic and socio-economic class systems. |
Ben has accepted a NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies (CAAS) in the School of Public Health at Brown University. Starting in Fall 2020, Ben will be working with Drs. Elizabeth Aston and Jane Metrik focusing on cannabis and alcohol-related research with an emphasis on behavioral economic indicators of substance use (e.g., demand). Further, Ben and Dr. Aston will be working on projects related to state changes in cannabis demand using ecological momentary assessment and experimental laboratory cannabis administration paradigms. While at Brown, Ben is also interested in examining how different rates of cannabis consumption and routes of administration impact the acute effects of alcohol, how acute tolerance to cannabis relates to aspects of cognition and decision making in a laboratory setting, and the effects of alcohol and cannabis use on social interaction. |
While the EDGE lab will be sad to see Tessa and Ben go we are so excited to see what both of them will accomplish moving forward in these new positions. They are both perfect examples of hard work opening up great opportunities. Congratulations Tessa and Ben!
The EDGE lab would like to announce that one of our undergrad research assistants, Meher Kalkat, received the honor of being accepted into the University Scholars Program! This is awarded to a certain number of students from each college. Each participant will receive a stipend to pursue a research project under the mentorship of a faculty member.
Meher will be working on a study that will be creating and testing a mobile health intervention that will combat substance use and sexual risk behaviors in order to reduce HIV infection rates for the most vulnerable individuals. This intervention will synthesize motivational intervention, a daily interactive voice response (IVR) system that provides participants with personalized feedback, and usage of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medication.
We are all proud to have Meher as a part of our team!
To find out more about the University Scholar’s Program click here.
We are excited to announce a new addition to the EDGE lab team! Hannah Lavoie will be joining us in the fall of 2020 as a first year graduate student in the department of Health Education and Behavior.
We are all very excited to have Hannah join us!
Congratulations to our grad student Tessa Frohe for receiving the Collaborative Perspectives on Addiction (CPA) student travel award! CPA will be taking place in San Diego California on April 2nd to the 4th.Tessa will be presenting a poster titled “Mobile Health Intervention App Development for Behavioral Researchers: Obstacles and Ways Forward” derived from her dissertation study.
Dr. Leeman was invited to be a part of the CARE podcast in which he discusses his start and initial interests within the world of addiction research. As well as touching on current studies he is conducting. For more information listen to episode three here!
Dr. Robert Leeman had the opportunity of presenting about mental health stressors and their effects on vulnerable communities for the State of the Science 2019 conference with the Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Health and Safety! Watch a brief interview here.
Congrats to both of our grad students Ben and Tessa on recieving the CARE travel Award!
Dr. Robert Leeman was quoted in an iHeart Radio article on April 23rd, 2019 about gambling and possible treatment methods.
"Friends and family can encourage those with a possible gambling problem to see their doctor," said Leeman. "While there is not any one therapy with standout evidence for its efficacy, there is evidence that certain forms of psychotherapy help with gambling and medications including antidepressants and there is some evidence that opiate antagonists FDA approved to treat alcohol and opiate use disorder also have evidence in treating gambling disorder."
Read the full article here!
Neo was awarded a Travel Award from the Graduate Student Council at the University of Florida, congratulations Neo!
Congratulations to lab members Ben Berey, Tessa Frohe, and Neo Gebru for recieving the RSA student merit award for the 2019 RSA scientific meeting.
Neo was awarded the Doctoral Travel Support Award by the Office of Graduate Diversity Initiatives at the University of Florida. Congrats Neo the EDGE lab is proud of you!
We are so proud of Ben Berey for being recognized as HEB's PhD. student of the year! A well-deserved honor for an exceptional student, we are so lucky to have Ben as a member of the EDGE Lab.
Congratulations Ben!
Congratulations to Neo, who was awarded the Best Research Poster – Travel Award by the Collaborative Perspectives on Addiction conference (CPA). This year’s meeting will be held April 4th-6th in Providence, Rhode Island.
The EDGE Lab's principal investigator, Dr. Robert Leeman, received Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Health and Safety's Distinguished Lecturer award for the year of 2019!
Congratulations Neo on being awarded the Valera Jackson-Gissen Scholarship for the second time by the College of Healrh and Human performance at the University of Florida!
On April 12, 2019, our principal investigator, Robert Leeman, was named the inaugural Mary F. Lane Endowed Professor which will be housed in HHP in perpetuity. Congrats to Dr. Leeman!
Read the full story here!
We are so proud of Tessa Frohe for being recognized as HEB's PhD. student of the year for 2017-2018! A well-deserved honor, we are so lucky to have Tessa as a member of the EDGE Lab.
Congratulations Tessa!
Dr. Robert Leeman recieved the American Psychological Association (APA) Society of Addiction Psychology Presidential Citation for Distinguished Service at the annual APA meeting in Washington, D.C. in August 2017. This award recognizes a division member who has made distinguished and/or exemplary contributions through service to Div. 50 (Society of Addiction Psychology).
Neo received the State of Florida Board of Educaton Fellowship for this year. Congratulations Neo!
To find out more about this fellowship click here.
Neo Gebru was awarded a NIH/NCATS TL1 pre-doctoral training grant (2017 – 2020) from UF’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). The CTSI training program is a competitive program that provides trainees the skills required to develop a career in multidisciplinary clinical and translational research. The program uses a team-science approach and provides mentoring and didactic training for pre-doctoral students performing clinical and/or translational research in health-related fields at UF. Congratulations Neo the EDGE lab is very proud to have you as a part of our team!
Congratulations to our graduate student Tessa Frohe on recieving the D.K. Stanley Student Symposium research award!
Dr. Robert Leeman was named the Department of Health Education and Behavior Educator of the Year for the 2016-2017 school year. He was recognized for his outstanding contributions to advancing the success, organization, and excellence of the graduate programs in the Department of Health Education and Behavior.
Neo was awarded the Grinter Fellowship Award for 2017-2018. Congratulations Neo, the EDGE lab is proud of you!
To find out more about this award click here.
In January 2017 Tessa was recieved the Early Career Researcher Showcase Award at the Collaborative Perspective on Addiction’s national conference.
Way to go Tessa!
In June 2017 Tessa was awarded the University Women’s Club Graduate Award. 5 Graduate students from the universities STEM departments are awarded this scholarship every spring.
Congrats Tessa! To find out more click here!
Tessa has been elected as the Student Representative for the American Psychological Association Division 50. Tessa will be the student representative for July 2016-July 2018. Congratulations Tessa!
In January 2016 Tessa Frohe was name the Inaugural “Student Expert” for The Addictions Newsletter (TAN). Congratulations Tessa!
To read past newsletters click here!
Our principal investigator, Dr. Robert Leeman, was awarded the Research Excellence Award by the department of Health Education and Behavior. (2015-2016) Congratulations Dr. Leeman!
In April 2015, Tessa Frohe revcived the Most Cited Paper award for her paper in the PAIN Journal. This paper was written in collaboration with Kevin Vowlesa, Mindy McEnteea, Peter Siyahhan Julnesa, John Neyb, and David Van Der Goesc covering the topic of problematic opioid use in chronic pain.
To read the full article click here!