Miya Whitaker, Psy.D., M.A.

DEIA/DEIJ; Health care systems; Health equity; SBIRT; SDOH research; Service integration; Treatment services research, including availability, utilization, and quality; Women’s health

Dr. Miya Whitaker is a Health Scientist Administrator in the Treatment, Health Services & Recovery Branch (THSRB). THSRB is in the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s Division of Treatment and Recovery. Dr. Whitaker will support THSRB’s funded interdisciplinary research spanning behavioral health services and services integration with a special emphasis consideration of SDOH-, intersectional and multidimensional influences on alcohol use disorder risk, trajectory, and the co-occurrence with psychiatric diagnoses. Other areas of interest include trauma informed treatment approaches, integrated cognitive behavioral and enactment methods applied to recovery services and using innovative technology to support care coordination. Dr. Whitaker is passionate about the advancement of health equity solutions that incorporate community-engaged approaches and action on structural and social drivers of health disparities in underserved communities. Dr. Whitaker has a doctorate and master’s degree in clinical psychology and completed postdoctoral research training in drug dependence epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and within the Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics Research Branch at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Prior to coming to NIAAA, she led the U3 administrative supplement program for the Office of Research on Women’s Health; the program funded rigorous interdisciplinary research focused on health and healthcare inequities among populations of women understudied, underrepresented, and underreported in biomedical research.

Brown, A.G.M, Winchester, D., Bynum, S.A., Amolegbe, S.M., Ferguson, Y.O., Flournoy Floyd, M., Lawhorn, C., Le, J.T., Lloyd J., Oh, A.Y., Tyus, N., Whitaker, D.E., & Boyce, C.A. (2024). Listening Sessions to Shape the Innovative NIH ComPASS Common Fund Program to Advance Health Equity. American Journal of Public Health 0, e1_e5, https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307656

Barr, E., Whitaker, D.E. & Stratton, P.S. 2022. Pregnancy and SARS-CoV-2: An opportunity to systematically study the complexity of maternal health. Lancet Digit Health. 2022 Feb; 4(2): e76–e77. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(21)00277-6

Whitaker, D.E., Snyder, F.R., San Miguel-Majors, S.L., Bailey, L.O., & Springfield, S.A. (2020). Screen to Save: Results from NCI's Colorectal Cancer Outreach and Screening Initiative to Promote Awareness and Knowledge of Colorectal Cancer in Racial/Ethnic and Rural Populations. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 29(5):910-917.

Willner-Reid, J., Whitaker, D., Epstein, D.H., Phillips, K.A., Pulaski, A.R., Preston, K.L., & Willner, P. (2015). Cognitive-behavioural therapy for heroin and cocaine use: ecological momentary assessment of homework simplification and compliance. Psychol Psychother; 89(3):276-93.