Dr. Roach has more than 30 years of experience in the field of addiction treatment.  She currently serves as a medical project officer for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism where, among other responsibilities, she manages research portfolios addressing the treatment of HIV/AIDS and harmful drinking, AUD and co-occurring mental health and medical disorders, harmful drinking among women, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.  She also serves on the Interagency Coordinating Committee on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (ICCFASD), the NIH Coordinating Committee for Research on Women’s Health, and the NIH Inclusion Governance Committee.  Dr. Roach chairs the Women Drinking, and Pregnancy Work Group of the ICCFASD.  

 

Dr. Roach began her career in internal medicine as Medical Director for the 125^th St. Health Center, one of a network of community-based treatment centers within the Addiction Research and Treatment Corporation in New York City.  There she provided primary care and specialty addiction treatment services to opiate and other substance dependent patients.  While in New York Dr. Roach also served as Assistant Attending Physician for the Harlem Hospital Center Primary Care Network, providing primary care in a community-based health center, and as Medical Director of the WRAP Alcoholism Treatment Center in Mount Vernon, N.Y.  She later joined the Department of Health, Addiction Prevention and Recovery Administration in Washington, D.C., first as the Chief of the Central Intake Division, and later as Medical Director, a position in which she served for 11 years.  As Medical Director she was responsible for the direction and technical supervision of all medical services for more than 20 programs comprising the city’s public addiction treatment system, and for establishing treatment guidelines for use in all Agency programs.   Dr. Roach went on to serve as Acting Administrator for the D.C. Addiction Prevention and Recovery Administration until she was appointed Administrator in 1999.  During her tenure as Administrator, the Agency completed its first community needs assessment in 10 years, expanded city-wide treatment capacity by 1,000 slots, established primary care programs at several central addiction treatment centers, and successfully implemented an employment program for adult patients.