Crystal F. Lewis, PhD

As the  Laurie M. Tisch Scholar for Mental Health Equity, I have dedicated my research career to community-engaged research centered on identifying and dismantling disparities, particularly among those heavily burdened with illicit substance use and related morbidities (e.g., HIV, HCV, and mental illness).  For over 2 decades, my research has focused on multilevel harm reduction interventions in partnership with independent pharmacies as frontline public health providers to help address individual and structural barriers to prevention and treatment services - PHARM-Link Studies. Gaining expertise in the study of neighborhood-level socioeconomic conditions, social networks, and various forms stigma has been realized through research exploring direct access to biomedical HIV prevention services in community pharmacies (iPEPcare Study), and pharmacy access to web-based harm reduction counseling and services (WebHealth4Us Study) in low-income areas. These efforts led to innovative intervention research that involves linking persons with opioid use disorder to pharmacy-based virtual opioid treatment, overdose prevention, and HIV services (PHARM-Link/VBC+ Study). Currently our team is exploring use of our peer workforce to support access to opioid treatment and social services via harm reduction-tailored ChatGPT text messaging. To further support disparities research and as a health equity leader in mental health and co-occurring substance use, I lead the Department of Psychiatry Disparities Research Collaborative (DRC) to provide a grant development ‘think tank’, support manuscript development, and provide faculty, residents, graduate students, and medical students with applied research opportunities.