Dr. Ali Yurasek Receives NIH K23 Career Development Award

Allison Yurasek
UF CARE Member Dr. Ali Yurasek

UF CARE Member Ali Yurasek, Ph.D. has received a K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award from the NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse titled “A Behavioral Economic Intervention to Reduce Marijuana Use in Truant Youth.” This 5-year award supports research and training on patient-oriented research that will improve the efficacy, accessibility and cost-effectiveness of marijuana use interventions within the juvenile justice system.

Specific aims are to adapt a brief behavioral economic intervention for parents and adolescents, test the feasibility of the intervention, conduct a randomized pilot trial, and conduct a cost-benefit analysis of outcomes to ensure the protocol addresses the needs of the larger juvenile justice and court systems.

Dr. Yurasek will work with an experienced and knowledgeable team of mentors (UF CARE member Dr. Linda Cottler, UF; Dr. Carla Fisher, UF; and Dr. Marina Tolou-Shams, UCSF) and collaborator/contributors (Drs. Haesuk Park, UF; Jim Murphy, University of Memphis; and Anthony Spirito, Brown University) to master relevant content areas, including: (1) Substance use treatment research in juvenile-justice settings; (2) community-based intervention development and adaptation for substance-using adolescents; (3) qualitative data collection and analyses; and (4) developing basic competencies in economic evaluation of legal, social and mental health outcomes.