Course

Justine Waldman, MD s Board Certified in Addiction Medicine, Emergency Medicine, and a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and is the CEO and CMO of Reach (Respectful, Equitable Access to Compassionate Health) Medical in Ithaca, NY which opened in 2018. REACH houses a medical practice offering integrated primary care and low threshold harm reduction services for people who tend to face stigma in the current medical system. Reach Medical offers primary care, MAT, viral screening, vaccination and treatment and on demand behavioral health care. Since the Spring of 2020, REACH has been growing a robust outreach program staffed by individuals with lived experience who offer viral screening, vaccination and treatment, acute primary care and MAT visits via telehealth. In addition, REACH is the administrative home for case management for the Ithaca Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program (LEAD). REACH has an established Peer Advisory Board in which peers are provided stipends through a local foundation grant to advise REACH on various aspects of our organization, e.g., service delivery, and research.

Judy Griffin, MD is board-certified in internal medicine and works as a primary care physician and buprenorphine provider at REACH in Ithaca, NY. She serves as the Director of Research at REACH Medical and is the Director of the Rural Health Equity Training Collaborative (RHETC). Dr. Griffin also holds an appointment as a Clinical Instructor in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and is a member of the Criminal Justice-Alternatives to Incarceration Advisory Board for Tompkins County.