Join these two distinguished speakers for a discussion on strategies for combatting the opioid crisis.

Fred Wells Brason II

Fred Wells Brason II is the Founder/President/CEO of Project Lazarus, a community based opioid overdose prevention model which began in North Carolina and has now reached many parts of the United States including the U.S. Military and Tribal Groups. Since its inception in 2007, there has been a 26% reduction in emergency department visits related to substance use/abuse within North Carolina counties that have implemented and embedded this model. Project Lazarus has been highlighted in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Strategies. Mr. Brason is also project director for Community Care of North Carolina’s Medicaid Management System Statewide Chronic Pain Initiative. He has served as an innovator, founder, and leader of multiple organizations and has served on the FDA scientific workshop committees for the role of Naloxone in Opioid Overdose Fatality Prevention and the Assessment of Analgesic Treatment of Chronic Pain. Mr. Brason Co-Chaired the Expert Committee for the formulation of the SAMHSA Overdose Toolkit and participated on the Roundtable workgroups for the National Governors Association Opioid Roadmap and the ASTHO Prescription Drug Misuse and Abuse Strategic Map. Mr. Brason received the 2012 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leader Award.

Gary A. Zarkin, Ph.D.

Gary A. Zarkin, Ph.D. is a distinguished fellow in the Behavioral Health and Criminal Justice Research Division. He has led or participated in many projects involving the economic analysis of drug treatment, prevention, and studies of workplace substance abuse. Dr. Zarkin has published extensively on the cost, cost-effectiveness, and the benefit-cost of substance abuse interventions. He currently leads the Analytical Support Contract for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and is estimating the cost and cost-effectiveness of interventions on several projects funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. He previously led the development of a method to estimate the cost of services (the Substance Abuse Services Cost Analysis Program [SASCAP]) for methadone treatment, a therapy for opioid dependence. Before joining RTI, Dr. Zarkin was an assistant professor of economics at Duke University and a research associate professor at Duke University’s Institute of Statistics and Decision Sciences. He has published extensively on economics, substance abuse, and health service topics in a wide range of professional journals.

Meet the Speakers

In addition to the evening event at Dickinson Avenue Public House, the speakers are available to meet with faculty in small groups earlier in the afternoon, from 2:30- 4 pm. Please use the registration link below.