Dr. Rachel Gicquelais will speak about Harm Reduction Tools for US Overdose Crisis.
Bio: Dr. Rachel Gicquelais is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. She is a substance use epidemiologist and faculty member in the Department of Population Health Sciences and in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease. She has a PhD and MPH in epidemiology from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in HIV epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Dr. Gicquelais’ research is situated in the context of the US overdose crisis and her work aims to develop and disseminate interventions to prevent drug overdose and improve the health and well-being of people who use drugs. She is particularly interested in harm reduction approaches and tools (such as naloxone), which seek to reduce risk of drug overdose, infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis C, and other health conditions during periods of active drug use by “meeting people where they are at” using person-centered and nonjudgmental approaches. This focus on harm reduction has led Dr. Gicquelais’ conducts her research in partnership with people who use drugs and harm reduction organizations that serve them, including syringe services programs, using community-engaged approaches.
