MSW, PhD, Social Work, University of Kentucky
Michele Staton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Behavioral Science in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and a faculty associate of the UK Center on Drug and Alcohol Research (CDAR). Her primary research interest is in the delivery of screening and interventions for substance use in non-traditional venues. Staton is the Principal Investigator for an ongoing study funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse to study drug abuse, risky sexual behavior, and HIV/HCV among rural women in Eastern Kentucky. She also serves as the PI for two new NIDA R34 projects focused on the delivery of HIV prevention and OUD treatment interventions for rural women as they transition from jail to the community. Additionally, she is PI for a contract with the Kentucky Department of Corrections to evaluate corrections-based substance abuse treatment.
Staton will co-lead criminal justice studies within the project focused on expanding opportunities for screening, assessment, and treatment linkages from jails to the community, and overdose prevention protocols in community corrections. She will work closely with the Kentucky Justice & Public Safety Cabinet and Kentucky Department of Corrections partners to implement protocols in both institutional and community corrections settings in the target counties.