People

Dr. Fiellin is Professor of Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, and Public Health (Health Policy and Management) at the Yale Schools of Medicine and Public Health, in New Haven, CT. He is the inaugural Director of the Yale Program in Addiction Medicine. Dr. Fiellin has focused his scholarly work on the interface between primary care, general healthcare settings and addiction. He conducts research on the transfer of treatments for opioid use disorder and alcohol use disorder from specialized settings to office-based, primary care, Emergency Department and HIV specialty settings. He has served as Principal Investigator on multiple NIH-funded research clinical trials, observational studies and implementation science. He has received awards from the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, AMERSA and the Hazelden-Betty Ford Foundation. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Addiction Medicine, sits on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment and Substance Abuse, and is Co-Editor of Alcohol, Other Drugs & Health: Current Evidence and the Principles of Addiction Medicine, 4th, 5th and 6th Editions. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Addiction Medicine. He has served on the Board of Directors of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence and as Co-Chair of the Substance Abuse Task Force for the Society of General Internal Medicine.

Ms. Biegacki is a public health professional experienced in program and grants management, evaluation, and strategic planning. She is invested in improving wellbeing for people who use drugs and those with substance use disorder through community-led policy-and-practice reform. Biegacki has served as Program Manager of the Yale Program in Addiction Medicine since 2019, where she oversees day-to-day operations, communications, and organizational strategy spanning clinical practice, education, research, policy, and community engagement initiatives. In addition to serving as Project Director for the National Methadone Access and Quality Commission (NMAQC), she coordinates the Collaborative Behavioral Health and Addiction Medicine in Primary Care (CHAMP) and Substance Use Skills Training to Advance INtegrated Care (SUSTAIN) programs. She is co-author of the Connecticut Opioid Response (CORE) Initiative 2024 Report advising the Connecticut Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee on evidence-based spending of opioid settlement funds and has contributed to research published by JAMA Network Open, Journal of Addiction Medicine, Substance Use and Addiction, BMC Public Health, Harm Reduction, among other journals. Ms. Biegacki supports a wide array of other projects in collaboration with Yale Schools of Medicine and Public Health colleagues as well as local, state, and national partners.

Dr. Howell is Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, and faculty in the Yale Program in Addiction Medicine and the SEICHE Center for Health and Justice. Dr. He is board-certified in internal medicine and addiction medicine. Howell is interested in addressing social and structural determinants of health to improve the health outcomes of individuals, families, and communities impacted by mass incarceration and increase access to evidence-based treatments for addiction. His opioid policy research has included assessments of the impact of exposure to correctional systems on MOUD treatment access and opioid overdose outcomes, the impact of Medicaid policy on substance use treatment access, and the use of state-wide, linked data systems to describe barriers to opioid treatment and overdose outcomes. To date he has received funding research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, and the Commonwealth Fund. Along with Dr. Fiellin and Ms. Biegacki, he was a co-author of the Connecticut Opioid Response (CORE) Initiative 2024 Report advising the Connecticut Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee on evidence-based spending of opioid settlement funds. He has been appointed to the Connecticut Correction Advisory Committee and the Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the Connecticut Commission on Racial Equity in Public Health.

Dr. Cheng is a board-certified family medicine and addiction medicine physician pursuing post-doctoral research after completing the Yale Addiction Medicine Fellowship in 2025. She completed her residency in family medicine at Community Hospital East and attended medical school at Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. As Research Associate for the National Methadone Access and Quality Commission, Dr. Cheng supports research, review, and scholarly activities of commission subcommittees and their respective members. Her research interests include harm reduction, substance use disorders in perinatal populations, integrative medicine, and improving access to addiction care.