Dr. Hannah Knudsen is a Professor in the Department of Behavioral Science and a faculty member within the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research. Trained as a sociologist, Dr. Knudsen’s research focuses on the implementation of evidence-based practices to improve the health of individuals with substance use disorders. Over the past six years, Dr. Knudsen has completed, as Principal Investigator, a NIDA-supported study examining the impact of the Affordable Care Act on the implementation of buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder in the US. During this same period, she has served as a Co-Investigator on 14 federally funded projects, including two implementation science projects, the HEALing Communities Study (HCS) and the Juvenile Justice Translational Research on Interventions for Adolescents in the Legal System (JJ-TRIALS) project. For UK’s $87 million HCS site, she currently leads a team of 10 implementation facilitators, who are using implementation strategies designed by Dr. Knudsen to increase (a) uptake of overdose education and naloxone distribution in a range of organizations (e.g., primary care clinics, treatment programs, syringe service programs, homeless shelters, jails) and (b) the implementation of care navigation and peer recovery support through interorganizational relationships between organizations that deliver medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and organizations that specialize in care navigation and peer recovery support.

Since 2016, she has published 46 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including 24 as first/senior author and 22 as co-author. To support the Department of Behavioral Science’s educational mission during the current self-study period, Dr. Knudsen served as Director of Graduate Studies (2016-2019), as Associate Director of the Ruth L. Kirchstein Institutional Training Grant housed in the Department (2016-2021), as preceptor for a small group of first year medical students in the Introduction to Clinical Medicine I course (MD811, three academic years), and course director for the graduate course, Methods and Technologies in Clinical and Translational Science (BSC731, 2 semesters). She also served during this period on five doctoral committees and as outside examiner for two doctoral students. In terms of service, highlights include serving as an ad-hoc member of 13 NIH grant review panels, as a planning committee member for the Addiction Health Services Research Conference (four years), and as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment for a three-year term.