This activity is supported by an educational grant from the National Institute of Mental Health Advanced Laboratories for Accelerating the Reach and Impact of Treatments for Youth and Adults with Mental Illness (ALACRITY) Research Centers (P50).

About the faculty:

Arlene Dalcin, MS, RD
Study Team Investigator
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Ms. Dalcin is a Registered Dietician, health educator, and master Motivational Interviewing trainer with over 25 years of experience in clinical research. As a faculty member at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine her focus is on designing interventions and developing trainings for the prevention and treatment of obesity, hypertension and other chronic health conditions. Ms. Dalcin has developed the educational, avatar, and training materials and is the voice behind some of the online training modules featured in this program.

Gail Daumit, MD, MHS
Center Director, Principal Investigator
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Daumit is a practicing general internist whose research is dedicated to improving the physical health of individuals with serious mental illness and decreasing health disparities in this population. Dr. Daumit is a Samsung Professor of Medicine with joint appointments in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the School of Medicine. She is the ALACRITY Center Director and has been the principal investigator on many randomized trials implementing programs to improve physical health of individuals with serious mental illness.

Faith Dickerson, PhD, MPH
Co-Principal Investigator
Sheppard Pratt Health System

Dr. Dickerson is a clinical psychologist with public health research training. She has been involved in many studies that address interventions to reduce cardiovascular risk and improve the somatic health of persons with mental illness. She has co-directed trials of psychosocial interventions to promote smoking cessation for persons with serious mental illness. Dr. Dickerson directs the Stanley Research Program at Sheppard Pratt Health System.

Joseph Gennusa, PhD, RD, LDN
Community Engagement Core Co-Director
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Gennusa is a Registered Dietician with a doctorate in Health Administration and has directed community nutrition programs in state government. He has extensive experience in high quality data collection in community health settings in a wide array of measures. As Project Director, Dr. Gennusa will work closely with Drs. Daumit and Dickerson on study operations.

Stacy Goldsholl, MA
Intervention Director
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Ms. Goldsholl is a kinesiologist and works closely with Ms. Dalcin. She has experience designing, developing content for, and managing lifestyle interventions for persons with serious mental illness including weight loss and smoking cessation. Ms. Goldsholl is extensively trained in Motivational Interviewing and supports interventionists to use a patient-centered approach.

Eden Evins, MD, MPH
William Cox Family Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School
Director, Center for Addiction Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital

 Dr. Evins is a psychiatrist whose research focuses on the efficacy of pharmacotherapeutic cessation aids in smokers with and without serious mental illness. Dr. Evins’ studies have led to changes in clinical practice guidelines for smoking cessation for those with serious mental illness. She has extensive experience in directing studies on smoking cessation conducted in community mental health centers. Dr. Evins is the Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Addiction Medicine.

Cori Cather, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychology
Harvard Medical School
Director, Center of Excellence for Psychosocial and Systemic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Cather is a clinical psychologist whose research focuses on psychosocial interventions to promote physical health among individuals with early psychosis and also those with persistent mental health challenges. She has also developed evidence-based psychosocial smoking cessation interventions. Dr. Cather is the Director of the Center of Excellence for Psychosocial and Systemic Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital Schizophrenia Program in Boston.

Disclosure Statements

Sheppard Pratt holds the standard that its continuing medical education programs should be free of commercial bias and conflict of interest. In accord with Sheppard Pratt's Disclosure Policy, as well as standards of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and the American Medical Association (AMA), all planners, reviewers, speakers and persons in control of content have been asked to disclose any relationship he /she has with any entity producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients, during the past 24 months. All planners, reviewers and speakers have also been asked to disclose any payments accepted for this lecture from any entity besides Sheppard Pratt, and if there will be discussion of any products, services or off-label uses of product(s) during this presentation.

Faculty and Content Planners Disclosures: The following faculty and content planners are reported as having no financial interest, arrangement or affiliation with any entity producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients, during the past 24 months: Arlene Dalcin, MS, RD, Gail Daumit, MD, MHS, Faith Dickerson, PhD, MPH, Joseph Gennusa, PhD, RD, LDN, Stacy Goldsholl, MA, Eden Evins, MD, MPH, Cori Cather, PhD, Liz Mace, MHS, MA  and Jen Schulman, BS.

This activity will discuss commercial products including, the use of varenicline, bupropion, and nicotine replacement therapy.

Event Planners/Reviewers Disclosures: The following event planners and/or reviewers are reported as having no financial interest, arrangement or affiliation with any entity producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients, during the past 24 months: Todd Peters, MD, Briana Riemer, MD, Sunil Khushalani, MD, Carrie Etheridge, LCSW-C, Tom Flis, LCPC, BCBA and Jennifer Tornabene.