UNM announces search for director of substance use disorders research

The University of New Mexico is wasting no time planning for an office for substance use disorder initiatives and a director to oversee it, despite not having the millions in state funding needed to start.

A position description for the director is being drafted as UNM waits to see if it receives $4.2 million to start the office, according to UNM President Garnett Stokes, who spoke to the UNM Board of Regents Committee of the Whole on Feb. 5.

“We know that to really have an impact, we’ve just got to continue moving forward,” Stokes said.

A search for a director will begin “in the coming months,” she said in her annual State of the University address on Feb. 21.

The gear-up for the search comes as New Mexico continues to deal with its historical trend of having the highest alcohol-related deaths in the nation, Stokes said in her address. The state also ranked eighth in the nation in 2022 for the rate of drug overdose deaths, according to Stokes and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If UNM receives its requested funding, the Office for Substance Use Disorder Initiatives would hire two new faculty members and ask 10 existing faculty members to support training of additional medical personnel in substance use disorders, according to a President’s Report Stokes delivered to the UNM Board of Regents last year. The office would also be responsible for overseeing existing university entities responsible for substance use disorder research and come up with new ways to further the initiative, including applying for $8.5 million in federal grants, the report said.

During the Feb. 5 committee meeting, Stokes said the university has “worked in silos,” and an office dedicated to substance use disorders can help break that. Entities dedicated to substance use disorders research include the Substance Use Research & Education Center; The Center on Alcohol, Substance Use, And Addictions, or CASAA; the UNM Addiction and Substance Abuse Program; and the Interdisciplinary Substance Use and Brain Injury Center.

“Everyone wants to underestimate the value of coordination, but the truth is, we need the coordination,” Stokes told the committee.

Work on substance use disorders is something that UNM has folded into its strategic plan, known as UNM 2040, she said, and it was one of the university’s original three “Grand Challenges,” research initiatives.

During the Feb. 5 committee meeting, Stokes said Katie Witkiewitz leads the “Grand Challenge” involving substance use disorders. Witkiewitz is a researcher, a distinguished professor of psychology and the director for CASAA.

She said in an interview on Friday that a new office and a director overseeing substance use disorders would benefit patients in New Mexico. It would also free up her time working multiple jobs at UNM.

“Wouldn’t it be great if I could speak to students in the School of Nursing and help them learn how to talk to patients with substance use disorder? I’d love to do that, but I’ve got these other three jobs I’m busy with,” Witkiewitz said. “So, I think this office is a really great idea to have someone with their job — their sole job — to help bring us together and support collaboration.”

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that in 2022, New Mexico ranked eighth in the nation for the rate of drug overdose deaths, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.