Dr. Smith is Director of Substance Use Research & Evaluation (SURE) and a Senior Research Associate at the University of Southern Maine Catherine E. Cutler Institute, where she is responsible for designing and implementing health services research and evaluation projects related to addressing substance use disorder. Most of her research and evaluation work has focused on macro-level issues and has been designed to help systems reduce illness burden as well as healthcare utilization and costs.  She has extensive research and clinical expertise in the area of substance use and behavioral health disorders which has been the primary focus of her research agenda for over two decades.

Dr. Smith specializes in mixed-methods research, the use of quantitative data from surveys, clinical information and administrative data in combination with qualitative data from focus groups, interviews and document review. She has experience designing and implementing evaluation, research, as well as technical assistance projects at the local, state, and federal levels and has worked on projects funded by the National Institute of Health,  National Institute of Mental Health, Veterans Administration, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Human Resources & Services Administration, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the National Institute of Justice. 

Dr. Smith holds a Masters (2004) and Doctorate (2009) in Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh. She also received additional clinical experience and health research training during her Post-Doctoral Fellowships at the VA Pittsburgh Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC) and the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP).

Dr. Nichols received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University at Buffalo and completed a post-graduate residency at Maine Medical Center. She is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS) and Psychiatric Pharmacist (BCPP) and a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (FCCP). She is currently enrolled in the Masters of Public Health program at UNE with a target graduation in 2022.

Dr. Nichols has 15 years of experience providing direct patient care and interprofessional teaching, and has served as a preceptor for more than 100 student and resident learners, including pharmacists and physicians.

At UNE, Dr. Nichols coordinates and teaches in the following courses: Drugs and Disease VIII: Immunomodulation and Pain; Drugs and Disease XI: Neurology (includes Alcohol Use Disorder); Abilities Lab III; Independent Research; and Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences in Acute Care and Psychiatry/Substance Use Disorders.

Dr. Nichols is passionate about reducing stigma around mental illness and addiction. She has presented to interprofessional audiences throughout the state, New England region, and across the country. In 2016 she was awarded the Cardinal Health Generations RX Champions Award for community education around nonmedical use of prescription drugs.

She has co-authored over 20 research papers, including works found in the following journals: Current Psychiatry, J of Psychopharmacology, J of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, Pain, Pharmacotherapy, and Psychosomatics.

Nationally, Dr. Nichols holds the following appointments: ICER: New England Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council and CPNP BCPP Editorial Review Board – Senior Editor.  She also serves as expert faculty for the Opioid Response Network, providing education to interprofessional audiences throughout the Northeast and funded via SAMHSA.

Outside of work, she enjoys spending time in her woods and yard with her husband, Eric, and their dogs, Sage and Basil. She also enjoys reading, gardening, watercolor painting, and visiting/learning about lighthouses.

Shawn is a graduate of the University of Maine with a BA in Sociology/Social Welfare and Husson University with an MBA. He spent 17 years at Maine DHS as a child protective worker, supervisor and regional manager before leaving to work for a private adoption agency. Since 1986, Shawn has done extensive training in various aspects of child welfare and has taught in the School of Social Work at the University of Maine. He has also delivered training across New England and travelled internationally delivering training in foster care and adoption in four cities in Russia.

He has served as the executive director of a community coalition focused on building developmental assets known to build resiliency in people, particularly young people. He is the past director of the city of Bangor’s Health and Community Services, overseeing the region’s Healthy Maine Partnership focused on primary prevention and population health initiatives.

He serves on and has played leadership roles on numerous statewide boards, including Maine Public Health Association, Maine Center for Public Health, Statewide Coordinating Council for Public Health, Maine Chidren’s Alliance, and NAMI-Maine, to name a few. As a person in long term recovery, he is a founding member of the Bangor Area Recovery Network and has spoken publicly about his own recovery as part of a strategy to put a public face on the recovery community.

He and his wife Rita are the proud parents of 7 children ages 15-32.

Dawn Williamson is an Advanced Practice Nurse for Addictions Consultation in the Emergency Department at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Ms. Williamson responds to the treatment needs of both individuals and families with addiction and mental health issues in the emergency setting. As part of her responsibilities, she provides training and supervision of the clinical staff, develops and implements policies relating to patient care, and provides assistance with establishing treatment plans.

She received a Doctorate in Nursing Practice from Regis College with a concentration in nursing leadership. She obtained a Masters in Science in Adult Mental Health Nursing from Northeastern University and a BSN from the University of Massachusetts. Dawn is Board Certified as a Clinical Specialist in Adult Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. She is also a Certified Advanced Practice Addictions Registered Nurse. With thirty years of nursing experience she has practiced in both outpatient and hospital settings prior to coming to The Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dawn has served as a preceptor to nurse practitioner students from the Institute of Health Professions, Vanderbilt University and Regis College of Nursing. She is one of two Advanced Practice Nurses appointed by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to a medical review group informing the policy and development of the State Prescription Monitoring Program.

Dr. Williamson is a member of the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) and helped author position statements for the association on Medical Evaluation of Psychiatric Patients and on Substance Use and the Emergency Care Setting. She is also an active member of the International Nurses Society on Addictions. She has given numerous presentations on addiction and mental health treatment. She authored the chapter on alcohol intoxication and withdrawal states for Sheehy’s Manual of Emergency Care, as well as, the module on substance use disorders for Mosby’s eLearning course, Handling Psychiatric Emergencies.

Dr. Albert Abena serves as the Assistant Dean for Community Partnerships at the University of New England College of Dental Medicine. Abena previously directed a community dental clinic for the Marquette University School of Dentistry for almost twenty years, and practiced general dentistry for 14 years in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the San Francisco Bay Area prior to his employment at Marquette.

Abena earned his law degree from Marquette University Law School in 2008, with a focus on healthcare law and alternative dispute resolution. Abena was a co-recipient of a Social Justice Award presented to Marquette University in 2017 by City on a Hill, a Milwaukee social service organization, for “tremendous work in engaging faculty and students in solutions to poverty and injustice.”

Dr. Leonard Brennan, DMD, is Co-Director of Harvard School of Dental Medicine’s Geriatric Fellowship Program, a part-time clinical instructor in their Department of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology and collaborates with Harvard’s Departments of Integrative Medicine and Global Health. He is also the Geriatric Adviser and Lead for Harvard’s “National Center for Equitable Care for Elders,” Mentor and Geriatric Specialist and Lead for Harvard’s “Nurse Practioner- Dental Interprofessional Model,” Mentor, Instructor, and  a Geriatric Specialist for Harvard’s “Oral Health Workforce for Rural and Vulnerable Populations”, and Geriatric Lead and Instructor for “Predoctoral Oral Health Education and Training for an Aging America.”

Since its beginning, Dr. Brennan has participated in developing, organizing, and teaching within the MOTIVATE program. He passionately believes that education is powerful medicine. Additionally, he practiced general dentistry in Portland, Maine, for almost forty years.

Dr. Brennan completed a Harvard University Geriatric Dental Research and Teaching Fellowship Program and was recognized for his postdoctoral work at Harvard as the recipient of the Dr. James Dunning Award for excellence in biomedical research and teaching. He completed a second postdoctoral fellowship in Medicine and Palliative Care at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York and is a graduate of the American Society on Aging Leadership Institute. Nationally, Dr. Brennan has presented many lectures on older adult oral health for many organizations, including the American Society on Aging, the Federal Qualified Health Centers, the American Dental Association,  the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, and presenter at the 2022 Health and Aging Policy Fellowship in Washington DC.

CNN Money magazine recognized Dr. Brennan with the 2014 “Hero Award” for his work with the elderly and other fragile individuals.

Nancy Foster is currently a full-time professor of dental health at the University of Maine at Augusta- Bangor campus. She teaches Community Dentistry, Periodontology as well as Oral Health for Target and Special Needs Populations courses. She also practices clinical dental hygiene part-time in Bangor at a practice limited to periodontics. Nancy has a passion for everything that promotes and advocates for oral disease prevention.

In 2014, Governor Paul LePage, appointed Nancy to the Maine Board of Dental Examiners. She enjoys serving the citizens of Maine in this capacity. She was recently nominated to the position of Treasurer/Secretary of the Maine Board of Dental Examiners. Nancy is also an active member of the Commission on Dental Competency Assessments and examines dental hygiene candidates throughout the country.

Prior to moving to Maine in 2002, Nancy worked in the non-surgical periodontal practice at The Forsyth Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Nancy also held a position as a clinical research co-investigator at Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine in Boston. She worked with both industry and governmental entities on a variety of research projects for over five years. During that time she co-authored a multitude of research articles that appeared in the Journal of Periodontology, Journal of Dental Research, Journal of Clinical Periodontology, and the Journal of Dental Hygiene. On a personal note, Nancy resides in Hampden, Maine with her husband, son, and Jack Russell Terrier.

Joe Melcher OTR/L, is an occupational therapist, care coordinator, and household coordinator at The Cedars in Portland, Maine. In this role, Joe leads a multidisciplinary team with a focus evidence-based, high-quality care, which has assisted The Cedars in obtaining a designation as an Age Friendly Health System by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Joe has a passion for serving Maine’s aging population through holistic, person-centered care.   

Joe has over a decade of experience as an occupational therapist working in multiple settings, including both acute and skilled rehabilitation. In addition, Joe has multiple years of experience working as an adjunct teacher at the University of Southern Maine as a member of their graduate occupational therapy program.   

Joe earned his occupational therapy degree from Husson University in 2010.

Matthew R. Trombley MBA, MLNHA, LSSBB, FACHCA, FACHE is the Chief Executive Officer at Care Continuum Solutions in Deer Isle, Maine. Trombley has dedicated his time and energy into increasing the quality of care provided to residents within the long term care industry and is a leader in his state as the President of the Maine Chapter of the American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA). Being one of only 400 fellows of the ACHCA nationally, Trombley has received the highest designation in long term care.

Tromley has a history of being on the forefront of industry trends, becoming one of the first music and memory certified facilities in the state of Maine a practice that helps to enlighten those with Alzheimer’s and Dementia as they once were through music. Additionally, Trombley has received the Eli Pick Leadership Award multiple times, a designation only 8% of leaders receive nationally for their dedication to excellence in quality measures and operations. Trombley has experiences in various healthcare settings such as pharmacy, hospital, rehabilitative therapy, skilled nursing, residential care and long-term care. Trombley in his free time volunteers locally as a state registered firefighter and as a nationally registered emergency medical technician.

Trombley holds a master’s degree in Business Administration with a specialization in Health Care Management from Southern New Hampshire University, a dual bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine – Orono in Business Administration Management and Management Information Systems. Trombley also hold certifications as nutritional therapy practitioner, food safety, mental health first aid and lean management six sigma black belt. Trombley, a Maine native, resides in central Maine with his wife and three children.

Lenard W. Kaye is professor of social work at the University of Maine School of Social Work and director of the University of Maine Center on Aging in the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture. During the 2000-2001 academic year, he was the visiting Libra Professor in UMaine’s College of Business, Public Policy & Health. Previously, he was professor of social work and social research, and director of the Ph.D. program at the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and associate director of the Brookdale Institute on Aging & Adult Human Development at Columbia University.

Research interests
Kaye has been the principal investigator for numerous assessments of innovative community services for older adults, including projects funded by the Maine Department of Public Safety, the Maine Office of Substance Abuse, and the Maine Office of Elder Services, as well as the AARP Andrus Foundation, Pew Foundation, Families USA Foundation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Administration on Aging, John Hartford Foundation, the Brookdale Foundation, Maine Community Foundation, Maine Health Access Foundation, Philadelphia Corporation on Aging, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Office on Aging. He has published 13 books and approximately 150 journal articles and book chapters on specialized topics in aging, health care, and social work practice.

Kaye sits on the national advisory boards of the Rural Assistance Center of the Center for Rural Health, University of North Dakota and the National Advisory Panel (NAP) of the Social Work Leadership Institute (SWLI) and is a founding board member of the International Institute for Pharmaceutical Safety. He is the past president of both the New York and Maine Gerontological Societies and the past chair of the National Association of Social Worker’s Section on Aging. He received the Career Achievement Award of the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work (AGESW) in 2010 and has served as a National Research Mentor for the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Scholars Program. He sits on the editorial board of the Geriatric Care Management Journal and is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.

Education
D.S.W./Ph.D. in Social Welfare from Columbia University.

Timothy Oh is a general dentist who primarily practices in Hancock County, Maine. He is Director of the Caring Hands of Maine Dental Center in Ellsworth, a non-profit health organization he and his wife, Audree Park, DDS, founded in 2010 to promote oral health in rural Eastern Maine. The Dental Center predominantly serves MaineCare/Medicaid recipients and operates the largest extern and portable dental programs in the state. The organization hosts dental externs from the Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health [ASDOH], Tufts University School of Dental Medicine [TUSDM], University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine, and NYU College of Dentistry. Dr. Oh is faculty at TUSDM and ASDOH, and prior faculty at the University of Maine. He has lectured regularly at the University College of Bangor Dental Programs on Pediatric Dentistry, Community Health, and for their EFDA program. Dr. Oh is also a partner in M.D.I. Dental Arts, P.C., which operates dental offices in Bar Harbor and Southwest Harbor on Mt. Desert Island.

Dr. Oh currently is the 149th President of the Maine Dental Association, previously serving as Vice-President, Chairman of the Executive Board, and Chair of the Council on Government Relations. He is on an advisory committee to the ADA Board of Trustees, the Governing Council of the Maine Oral Health Coalition, and is a professional consultant to the MaineCare Dental program, and is immediate past-chair of the ASDOH Alumni Board. He holds fellowships with the American College of Dentists, the Pierre Fauchard Academy, and the International College of Dentists, and in 2012 was presented with the Maine Oral Health Hero award. Dr. Oh graduated from ASDOH in 2008, and holds a certificate in Public Health from UNC-Chapel Hill. During dental school, he served as Chair and Vice-chair of the national ADEA Council of Students, Residents, & Fellows. In his community, he has participated on the boards of Child & Family Opportunities (regional Headstart grantee), and the regional Healthy Maine Partnership, Healthy Acadia.