Course

Benjamin Eckhardt, MD received his MD degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at NYU. After completing residency, he worked in Rwanda for Partners In Health/Inshuti Mu Buzima with a clinical appointment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He returned to New York to complete his fellowship training in Infectious Diseases at Weill Cornell Medical College while concurrently receiving a MS in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research. He joined the faculty at NYU/Bellevue in 2016 with a clinical focus in HIV and hepatitis management.

Benjamin’s research interest focus is on studying models of care to improve health outcomes of people who inject drugs. His current work includes, evaluating low-threshold HCV treatment models specifically geared toward marginalized people who inject drugs, and understanding the injection risk behaviors associated with severe bacterial infections and improving their long-term clinical (infection and substance use disorder) and injection behavior outcomes.

Colleen Flanigan, RN, MS currently serves as the Director of the Bureau of Hepatitis Health Care and Epidemiology at the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute. Ms. Flanigan has been involved in hepatitis C-related work for two decades. She directs the hepatitis C programmatic and policy work and the hepatitis B and C surveillance activities for New York State. Ms. Flanigan is also responsible for the implementation and monitoring of the NYS Hepatitis C Elimination Plan. Ms. Flanigan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Master’s degree in Nursing.

Maia Szalavitz is the author, most recently, of Undoing Drugs: The Untold Story of Harm Reduction and the Future of Addiction, which is the first history of the movement aimed at focusing policy on minimizing harms, not highs.

Her New York Times bestseller, Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction wove together neuroscience and social science with her personal experience of addiction. It won the 2018 media award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

She writes regularly for the New York Times and has written for numerous publications including TIME, Wired, the Nation, Vice and Scientific American.

Her 2006 book, Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids, was the first to expose the damage caused by “tough love” youth treatment and helped spur Congressional hearings.

She has also authored or co-authored five other books, including the classic on child trauma, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, with Dr. Bruce D. Perry. With Dr. Perry, she has also written Born for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential— And Endangered, which laid out why empathy is essential for social trust and how inequality can erode it. With Dr. Joseph Volpicelli, she wrote Recovery Options: The Complete Guide, the first evidence-based guide to addiction treatment. She lives with her husband and two squeaky cats in New York City.

Tatyana Kushner, MD, MSCE is Associate Professor in the Division of Liver Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai here in New York, with a joint appointment in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Kushner’s clinical and research interests focus on clinical predictors, epidemiological trends and outcomes in viral hepatitis and in liver disease during pregnancy. Her clinical practice encompasses the full spectrum of liver disease from non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) to cirrhosis and decompensated liver disease. She is a member of the AASLD/IDSA HCV Guidance committee, advisor to the CDC Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination Tip-HepC Registry and advisor to the Hepatitis C Mentor and Support Group.

Matthew Fallico, MSW is a Health Program Manager with the New York State Department of Health, Office of Drug User Health. Within the Office of Drug User Health, he oversees the implementation and management of the Drug User Health Drug Checking program. His additional duties include overseeing the fiscal, operational and planning aspects of the NY MATTERS program. Mr. Fallico received his Master’s in Social Work at Arizona State University with a concentration in program planning and community practice.

Emily Payne, MSPH is an epidemiologist and program evaluator at the New York State Department of Health, AIDS Institute, Office of Program Evaluation and Research. Her work focuses on programs serving people who use drugs including drug checking, naloxone distribution and administration, and referrals to opioid treatment programs. Prior to joining the NYSDOH in 2021, Emily worked as an epidemiologist at the state and local levels in Colorado.

Emma Fabian, MSW is the Associate Vice President of Harm Reduction at Evergreen Health in Western New York. Evergreen Health (formerly AIDS Community Services) was founded over 40 years ago during the height of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and now provides a range of medical, behavioral, and supportive services to individuals and families in the region. In her position at Evergreen Health, Emma oversees harm reduction and drug user health services, including syringe exchange, low-threshold buprenorphine, drop-in services, wound care, and more. She participates in several local and statewide workgroups that are addressing issues that impact people who use drugs.

Emma holds a Bachelor of Arts from Canisius University and Master of Social Work degree from SUNY University at Buffalo where she also currently serves as a part-time instructor. She enjoys talking to all types of audiences about harm reduction, drug use, and related topics.

Sharon Stancliff, MD is Associate Medical Director for Harm Reduction in Health Care at the AIDS Institute, New York State Department of Health and she is a staff physician at Project Renewal where she prescribes buprenorphine an FQHC in a men’s shelter.. She has been the Medical Director of a Community Health Center, an Opioid Treatment Program and the Harm Reduction Coalition. Her current focus is on opioid overdose prevention through expanding access to buprenorphine in primary care and in less traditional settings such as syringe access programs as well as expanding access to naloxone. She has spoken and provided technical assistance these topics nationally and internationally as well as publishing in books and peer reviewed journal. She maintains board certification in Family Medicine, and in Addiction Medicine. 

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.

Anthony Martinez, MD, AAHIVS, FAASLD is an associate professor of medicine at the University at Buffalo and medical director of hepatology at Erie County Medical Center. His clinic, “La Bodega,” has been recognized nationally and internationally as a novel co-localized model for managing viral hepatitis and addiction disorders. Dr. Martinez has lectured worldwide on Hepatitis C management among people with substance use disorders, and his team’s work has been presented at the annual liver meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver, the annual conference of the International Network On Viral Hepatitis in Substance Users and at the International Liver Congress. He has been a primary and co-investigator on numerous clinical trials related to hepatitis C and fatty liver disease. He is board-certified by the ABIM and the American Academy of HIV Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease, ambassador and co-chair of the Chronic Liver Disease Foundation HCV Committee, and an inductee in the Gold Humanism Honor Society.

Scott R. Springer, PA-C is a certified physician assistant at Erie County Medical Center's Center for Hepatology Care, also known as “La Bodega”. He cares for patients with liver disease and substance use disorders. Scott has presented on the treatment of Hepatitis C (HCV) at the local, state, and national levels and educates medical providers from throughout New York State on the clinical management of HCV. Scott is a founding member of ECMC’s Harm Reduction Coalition and has been named an 2024 Emerging Liver APP by the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease.

Felecia Pullen, PhD specializes in program and policy development for the fields of substance use disorders, teen misuse prevention, non-medical models of harm reduction, and recovery support. Much of her focus is on the design and implementation of community-based initiatives. Through multi-tiered approaches, she believes we can prevent the onset of use, reduce overdoses resulting from misuse, increase the attainment of recovery capital, and promote healthier communities. Dr. P. founded and is the President & CEO of Let’s Talk SAFETY, Inc., a not-for-profit which includes: SAFE in Harlem, a SAMHSA-funded teen-led substance misuse prevention coalition; The PILLARS, Manhattan’s first OASAS-funded Recovery Community & Outreach Center; and The SAFETY Net, a teen-designed Clubhouse in Harlem. Each division offers holistic, complementary and alternative approaches to recovery, for individuals and family members who are loving someone in active use.

Dr. P.’s advocacy and activism has been recognized nationally and throughout New York CIty & State. She has delivered numerous workshops in Culturally Responsive Recovery at SAMHSA’s National Leadership Forum; has twice been appointed by former NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio to the City’s Municipal Drug Strategy Council; currently sits on the FOR-NY Recovery Community Steering Committee, and has produced several substance misuse awareness campaigns for the State.

Through the strength of her partnerships with NYPD, The NYC Dept of Health & Mental Hygiene, Colleges and Universities, Public and private healthcare systems, and political figures she has delivered programs and services...free of charge…to over 20,000 individuals.

Her work is inspired by the vision of a drug-misuse-free world...one child, one family, and one community at a time!

As a Senior Staff Attorney at the Legal Action Center (LAC), Rebekah Joab advocates for individuals who experience discrimination because of their drug use, arrest or conviction records, and HIV or AIDS status. Rebekah works on LAC's impact litigation and direct legal services across these areas, with a focus on LAC’s strategies to increase access to medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and enforce anti-discrimination rights for people who use drugs. During her time at LAC, Rebekah has worked on cases to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act and recently filed Landau v. Good Samaritan Hospital et al., which challenges a hospital’s denial of certain services to a patient because his history of opioid use disorder. Rebekah earned her BA in psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and her JD from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Joshua Lynch, DO, EMT-P, FACEP, FAAEM a native of Buffalo, NY, Dr. Joshua Lynch (DO, FACEP, FAAEM, FAMPA) is a leader and expert in the areas of emergency medicine and treatment of opioid use disorder. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University at Buffalo, graduating with a BS in psychology. Dr. Lynch then attended the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine as part of the inaugural class at the Bradenton, Florida campus. At LECOM, he played a key role in establishing the brand-new medical school within the community. He completed an emergency medicine residency at the University at Buffalo, where he served as chief resident his final year. Dr. Lynch serves as a Trustee on the Board of Education for Clarence Central Schools and a Board Member of United Way of Buffalo and Erie County.

Alexandra is LAC's Staff Attorney for the Community Health Access to Addiction and Mental Healthcare Project in NYS (CHAMP). In this role, she directs and executes LAC’s work on CHAMP by shaping the vision and direction of LAC’s role on the project. Alexandra provides legal counsel and technical assistance to stakeholders on SUD-related issues, develops multimedia educational materials, and conducts trainings on the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act and other SUD-related issues. Additionally, she represents select clients by drafting insurance appeals and complaints regarding parity violations and emergency department care denials.

Prior to joining LAC, Alexandra was an Equal Justice Works fellow at Health Law Advocates co-sponsored by Merck & Co. and Baker McKenzie. Her fellowship expanded healthcare access for low-income immigrant communities in Massachusetts. Alexandra used direct representation, policy advocacy, and community outreach to ensure that immigrant community members obtained accurate enrollment in public health insurance, assistance with medical debt, and equal access to healthcare.

Alexandra received her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law. Her internship experience includes assistance on a class action lawsuit for the medical rights of people incarcerated at Louisiana State Penitentiary, direct representation for unhoused LGBTQ+ youth in New York City, and assistance on a Massachusetts Drug Court reform project. She received a B.A. in Anthropology from American University.

Aarathi Nagaraja, MD is the Quality Medical Director of HIV and Hepatitis Programs at Sun River Health, a large FQHC that covers Hudson Valley, Long Island and NYC. She is an Infectious Disease physician who provides HIV, Hepatitis B/C care, and Medication Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder within an integrated primary care model at Sun River Health. She works closely with her care teams to oversee the quality of the HIV and Hepatitis programs at Sun River Health. She is also the co-chair for NYS Congenital Syphilis Elimination Strategic Planning group.

Tiffany Lu, MD, MS is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York. She joined New York City Health & Hospitals/Jacobi in 2024 as Associate Director of Addiction Services, where she is currently focused on developing a hospital-based opioid treatment program and integrating harm reduction practices in caring for people with substance use disorders.

Prior to joining Jacobi, Dr Lu was the Medical Director of Montefiore Medical Center’s Buprenorphine Treatment Network, where she led the implementation of primary care-based opioid use disorder treatment across 7 community health centers and founded the Addiction Medicine ‘Bridge’ Clinic to provide coordinated care people with substance use disorders. Dr. Lu was also Principal Investigator of several federal and municipal grants, including the SAMHSA award to expand addiction education for medical students and residents at Einstein and NYC Department of Health contracts to implement addiction nurse care management in primary care clinics at Montefiore.

Dr. Lu graduate from the University of California in San Francisco School of Medicine and the Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. She holds a Masters of Science in Clinical Research Methods from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Addiction Medicine, and is active with the American Society of Addiction Medicine as an elected member of the Quality Improvement Council and Education Committee Chair for the state chapter.

Ashley Magnussen, CRPA is a certified recovery peer advocate who specializes in hepatitis C at Greenwich House Center for Healing. She is born and raised in Broad Channel, Queens. She is a mother of two girls. She is most passionate about the community she serves and will do anything possible to make sure their voices are heard.

Sara Lorenz Taki, MD serves as the Chief Medical Officer for Greenwich House. She provides medical direction for all healthcare services, including mental health treatment, treatment for substance use disorders, psychiatric services, hepatitis C treatment, overdose prevention, harm reduction, and older adult services.

Dr. Taki obtained her medical degree from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and completed residency training at Montefiore. She is board-certified in addiction medicine and internal medicine. She currently serves on the Clinical Advisory Panel for OASAS and the Substance Use Guidelines Committee for the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute. Dr. Taki trains healthcare providers and students from multiple medical institutions on the treatment of substance use disorders and hepatitis C.

Kristine E. Torres-Lockhart, MD, FASAM, is Director of the Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program at Montefiore Einstein, founding director of the Addiction Consult Service at Weiler Hospital, and Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Torres-Lockhart is a general internist, primary care provider and addiction medicine specialist. She focuses on caring for people who use substances and people with substance use disorders, providing care in hospital settings and in outpatient clinics.

After obtaining her Bachelor of Arts in neuroscience from Dartmouth College in 2010, Dr. Torres-Lockhart earned her Doctor of Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in 2016. She completed an internship and residency in internal medicine and primary care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2019. Following this, Dr. Torres-Lockhart completed a fellowship in addiction medicine at Montefiore Einstein in 2020.

Dr. Torres-Lockhart's research focuses on evidence-based and harm-reduction-oriented strategies for addressing substance use disorder care in acute care settings, integration of addiction medicine into medical education, and optimizing transitions of care for people who use drugs. She has been principal investigator and co-investigator on funded research projects and her work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed publications. Dr.Torres-Lockhart has also shared her work through numerous invited presentations, abstracts and poster presentations. She is a reviewer for scientific journals, including Addiction Science and Clinical Practice, the Journal of Addiction Medicine, the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment and the Journal of Hospital Medicine.

Dr. Torres-Lockhart is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Preventive Medicine with certification in Addiction Medicine. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and a board member of the New York Society of Addiction Medicine and member the Association for Multidisciplinary Education and Research in Substance Use and Addiction. In 2022, Dr. Torres-Lockhart received the President’s Award at the New York Society of Addiction Medicine’s Annual Conference. In 2023, she received the Quality Improvement Champion honor at the United Hospital Fund's Tribute to Excellence in Health Care and was a Rising Star Nominee for the Department of Medicine’s Physician Recognition Awards at Montefiore Einstein.

Kelly S. Ramsey, MD, MPH, MA, FACP, FASAM is a board certified internal medicine and addiction medicine physician who has treated substance use disorder since 2004. She worked as Medical Director of an academic center-based opioid treatment program (OTP) in the South Bronx before working for nearly a decade for a large federally qualified health center (FQHC) in the Hudson Valley where she created and grew a medication for addiction treatment (MAT) program for opioid use disorder (OUD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) to 10 sites and 1500 patients. More recently, Dr. Ramsey worked as the Chief of Medical Services at the NYS Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS), in a policy, regulatory, and clinical role.

Dr. Ramsey currently works as an Addiction Medicine and Harm Reduction Consultant as well as providing low threshold clinical care and clinical supervision in addiction medicine in two drug user health hubs in New York. She has provided expert advice to the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) AIDS Institute and their Office of Drug User Health (ODUH), serving on numerous committees for about 15 years, providing expertise in addiction medicine, harm reduction, HIV care, and hepatitis C (HCV) care. Dr. Ramsey has provided clinical teaching, technical assistance, and led learning collaboratives and ECHO programs in addiction medicine, harm reduction, pain management, HCV, and HIV.

Dr. Ramsey was the recipient of the New York State Commissioner’s Special Recognition Award for contributions to drug user health in NYS in December 2018. Dr. Ramsey was the Distinguished Contributions to Behavioral Medicine Award Recipient, awarded by the American College of Physicians (ACP) in April 2023. Dr. Ramsey was awarded the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Special Medical Alumni Board Award in October 2023.

Dr. Ramsey is the Immediate Past President for the New York Chapter of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (NYSAM) Board of Directors. In addition, she currently serves as Region I Director, representing NYS, on the national American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) Board of Directors.