Leadership and Staff

Kenneth E. Leonard, PhD, is the director of the UB Clinical and Research Institute on Addictions (CRIA). Leonard is a fellow and past president of the American Psychological Association’s Society of Addiction Psychology (SoAP) and a fellow of APA’s Division of Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse. In 2015, he received SoAP’s Distinguished Scientific Contributions award in recognition for his theoretical or empirical contributions to research in the addictions field. His research contributions have focused on alcohol and drug use in the context of marital and family relations.

Nancy Nielsen, MD, is senior associate dean for health policy in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Science. She is a past president of the American Medical Association and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and is one of the nation’s leading experts on health care policy and health care reform.

Joshua Lynch, DO, EMT-P, FACEP, is a physician with UBMD and a clinical assistant professor of emergency medicine in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. A member of the Erie County Opiate Epidemic Task Force, he helped develop an innovative, cost-effective program for hospitals in Western New York to provide medication-assisted treatment to opioid use disorder patients in emergency departments and rapidly transition them into long-term treatment at community clinics.

Dr. Clemency has been involved in prehospital care for over 20 years, beginning his career as a firefighter and emergency medical technician. Dr. Clemency completed both medical school and an MBA in health care administration in 4 years, before coming to Buffalo to continue his medical education. He is double boarded in Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medical Services. Dr. Clemency has quickly become a local, regional and national leader in prehospital care, education and research. His research focuses on all aspects of prehospital care, with a special interest in confirming or refuting existing paradigms.

David Dietz, PhD, is chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He has developed a nationally and internationally recognized, innovative research program focused on understanding how molecular and behavioral plasticity in the brain mediates how susceptible individuals are to drug abuse and relapse. The work is geared toward developing novel pharmacotherapeutic approaches for treating substance abuse and addiction.

David Herzberg, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of History in the College of Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on the history of prescription drug abuse in America. Herzberg is author of “Happy Pills in America: From Miltown to Prozac,” a book that examines a variety of psychiatric medications and the social changes they provoked.