The UAMS Addiction Research Training Program is overseen by Melissa Zielinski, PhD, William Fantegrossi, PhD, and the program’s steering committee and governance committee. The mentoring faculty represents four distinct academic homes and government biomedical research sites.
Melissa Zielinski, Ph.D.
Melissa Zielinski, Ph.D., is a tenured Associate Professor in the UAMS Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and a clinical psychologist by training. She directs UAMS’ Health and the Legal System (HEALS) Laboratory, a diverse group of scholars and clinical trainees focused on the intersections among addiction, traumatic stress, and criminal legal system involvement and the implementation and effectiveness of interventions to address associated needs. She has been PI or Co-I on 7 grants that focus on incarcerated or justice-involved people including federally funded grants from 4 NIH institutes (NIDA, NICHD, NIMHD, NCATS), PCORI, and a private foundation.
Dr. Zielinski is proud to have had the unique experience of serving in all T32 program roles. She participated first as a postdoctoral trainee (2016-18), then as a member of the training faculty network (2018-present), and now as a member of program leadership. She was named a co-associate director for the training program in 2023 and transitioned to her current role as co-director of the program in 2024.
Dr. Zielinski directly attributes her academic successes to the robust research and career mentoring that she has received, and training the next generation of impactful addiction scientists is a career passion. Notably, Zielinski was the inaugural recipient of UAMS’ Women Faculty Mentoring Excellence Award in 2022. In 2020, she was a UAMS Phenomenal Women award nominee based on a mentee’s letter of recommendation.
Originally from New Jersey, Dr. Zielinski completed her undergraduate education at The College of New Jersey, during which time she also served as an Emergency Medical Technician for several years. She moved to Arkansas to complete her doctoral training in Clinical Psychology at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, in 2011.
In her free time, Dr. Zielinski enjoys spending time with her husband, son, and two rescue dogs. She also tries to take advantage of the natural beauty of Arkansas’ outdoors and of the many local coffee shops and restaurants that Little Rock has to offer.
William Fantegrossi, Ph.D.
William (Bill) Fantegrossi, PhD, is a tenured Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. Fantegrossi’s initial faculty appointment was at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory University. He has always been a strong advocate for education and mentoring of young scientists in the field of drug abuse and addiction.
Fantegrossi received his doctoral training in Biopsychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, and received postdoctoral training in Pharmacology at the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI. Research in Dr. Fantegrossi’s laboratory concerns behavioral and neuropharmacological mechanisms mediating the abuse liability and potential therapeutic utility of emerging drugs of abuse, typically referred to as New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), including cannabinoids, opioids, psychedelics, psychostimulants, and PCP-like arylcyclohexylamines. Data from Dr. Fantegrossi’s laboratory have paradoxically been used both to schedule new pharmacological entities under the Controlled Substances Act and to argue for rescheduling previously restricted drugs due to their potential clinical utility.
Fantegrossi has been extremely involved with the T32 program at UAMS since its inception, and has mentored numerous trainees that have completed the program. He was also a longtime Director of the Summer Medical Student Internship Program. He was appointed as co-assistant director of the program in 2017 and as of 2024, serves as the program’s co-director.
Steering Committee
- Teresa Hudson, Pharm.D., Ph.D., Department of Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine
- Stephanie Gardner, Pharm.D., Ed.D., Provost, Chief Academic Officer, and Chief Strategy Officer, UAMS
- Geoff Curran, Ph.D., Department of Pharmacy Practice,College of Pharmacy
- Lisa Brents, Ph.D., Department of Pharmacy and Toxicology, Department of Medicine
The steering committee serves the important functions of program oversight related to trainee selection, administration, evaluation, external partnerships and program content.
Governance Committee
The UAMS Addiction Research Training Program’s governance committee oversees the day-to-day management functions of the program (trainee orientation, advertisement, trainee notifications, gathering of progress report material, evaluation of trainees and mentors and the organization of meetings with visiting research speakers. The group is also responsible for assisting the trainees in coordinating and evaluating the community outreach program of the program. Melissa Zielinski, Ph.D., and William Fantegrossi, Ph.D., co-chair the committee, which includes Jan Hollenberg, Debbie Hodges, Tim Taylor and Allen Huddleston of the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute.