Health Services Research Unit

Faculty and Staff

The faculty and staff members that comprise the Health Services Research Unit come from a variety of disciplines in the social sciences, biomedical sciences, and the business world. Staff members have advanced degrees in psychology, social work, public health, sociology, religious studies, philosophy, journalism, and fine arts.

Each faculty and staff members unique training in various areas brings different skills that allows the Health Services Research Unit to be a highly competitive research entity and resource for the department and University. Listed below are the core Health Services faculty and staff as well as a brief description of their duties.

Thomas Babor, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Professor and chair of the Department of Community Medicine, and Scientific Director of the Alcohol Research Center of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Dr. Babor is principal investigator on a series of grants which investigate alcohol and other substance abuse including: managing risky drinking; a multisite study for the effectiveness of brief treatment for cannabis dependency; and a needs assessment on adult, school, and community resources for substance abuse. He is part of a multi-country study of alcohol and other substance abuse through the World Health Organization and the Regional Editor for the scientific journal, Addiction. (Curriculum Vitae | Home Page)

Joseph Burleson, Ph.D.

Dr. Burleson earned his doctorate in social psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and is an Assistant Professor of Community Medicine & Health Care and a member of the Division of Biostatistics within the department. Joe is co-principal investigator of the Children of Substance Abusing Parents (COSAP) project. (Curriculum Vitae | Home Page)

Matthew J. Cook, B.A.

Donna Damon, B.A.

Donna is a Research Assistant on the Governor's Prevention Initiative for Youth project. Donna also works on the Marijuana Treatment Project in the Department of Psychiatry and Community Medicine. She is also a graduate student in the Masters in Public Health Program at the University. Donna earned her bachelor's degree in Psychology from Wesleyan University. (Curriculum Vitae | Home Page)

John Higgins-Biddle, Ph.D.

Dr. Higgins-Biddle is a retired Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Medicine and Health Care of the University of Connecticut Health Center's School of Medicine. After many years as a historian at Yale University, Dr. Higgins-Biddle developed one of the nation's first community mobilization substance abuse projects in Bridgeport, CT. He has also served as Executive Director of the Connecticut Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission (CADAC), Connecticut's state agency responsible for substance abuse prevention and treatment. At UConn he managed health services research primarily on the transfer of clinical research to practical settings, including alcohol screening and brief intervention. (Curriculum Vitae | Home Page)

Bonnie McRee, MPH

Bonnie is an Instructor and Senior Research Associate in the department. Ms. McRee has been at the UConn Health Center since 1987. Ms. McRee is currently involved in a number of initiatives designed to evaluate the translation of screening and brief intervention (SBI) research into practice. Ms. McRee is UCHC's Evaluation Director for a large-scale multi-state alcohol and drug SBI translational initiative funded by CSAT, and is the Co-investigator on an NIH-funded implementation study to evaluate alcohol SBI activities in primary care settings in three developing countries. She is the Principal Investigator of a Robert Wood Johnson-funded program to evaluate the implementation of SBI models for smokers and at-risk drinkers in high-volume primary care practices. Ms. McRee is also the Principal Investigator of the Connecticut SBI Initiative to implement SBI services for tobacco, alcohol and drug use in primary care and emergency department settings in New Haven, CT. In addition to her translational research activities, Ms. McRee is an Investigator on two NIH-funded randomized clinical trials that are examining the efficacy of brief interventions and brief treatment for marijuana and other drug use. She also co-instructs a two-semester core Master of Public Health course, “Introduction to Epidemiology and Biostatistics.” (Curriculum Vitae | Home Page)

Deborah Osborne

Debbie Osborne is an Administrative Assistant for various of Dr. Babor and Dr. Ungemack's research projects. (Curriculum Vitae | Home Page)

Melissa Sienna, M.S.

Missy is a Research Associate who works on the Connecticut Youth Team (CYT)/PETS-A,  REFER and Data Integration projects. She is also pursuing her masters degree in School Psychology at Southern Connecticut State University. Ms. Sienna earned her bachelors degree in Psychology and Neuroscience from Wesleyan University and a Master of Science in School Psychology at Southern Connecticut State University. (Curriculum Vitae | Home Page)

Jennifer Sussman, M.F.A.

Jennifer is a Research Associate on the SIG and COSAP projects. She has worked at the Health Center for the past 9 years and her specialties include clinical interviewing and data analysis. In her free time, she enjoys writing poetry and taking care of her two children. (Curriculum Vitae | Home Page)

Jane Ungemack, Dr.P.H.

Dr. Ungemack is an Assistant Professor of Community Medicine and principal investigator on the COSAP, SIG, and TOPPS II studies. She received her training in the sociomedical sciences at Columbia University. (Curriculum Vitae | Home Page)

Janice Vendetti, MPH

Janice Vendetti is a Research Assistant working as part of the Coordiniating Center for the Marijuana Treatment Project (MTP). She has also worked on Project MATCH and serves as the MATCH site's web mistress. She earned her MPH from the University of Connecticut. (Curriculum Vitae | Home Page).