Kim Bloomfield, Dr.P.H. is Professor at the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research at Aarhus University in Denmark. She is currently president of the Kettil Bruun Society for Social and Epidemiological Research on Alcohol and Associate Editor of Contemporary Drug Problems. Professor Bloomfield’s research focuses on the social epidemiology of alcohol consumption and problems, with special emphasis on gender differences and social inequalities in use and misuse. She is also interested in international differences as well as geographic variations in alcohol consumption.  

Mats Ramstedt is the head of STAD (Stockholm prevents alcohol- and drug problems), a research unit connected to the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. The focus of STADs work is to develop and test different methods for the prevention of alcohol- and drug problems and to conduct epidemiological research on use and harm. Mats Ramstedt is an associate professor in sociology and has a background as a researcher at Stockholm University. His research interests include epidemiological studies of substance use and related harm in society and studies assessing the impact of policy and prevention interventions.

SPEAKERS

Conference brings together interesting and motivating group of speakers from the field of research, advocacy and governmental institutions. We have asked them to introduce themselves. Here they are!

Harold Holder, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Scientist and the former Director of the Prevention Research Center (PRC) of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. Dr. Holder works with the Department of Health Education in the School of Public Health, the University of California, Berkeley. He has explored two major alcohol research areas: the prevention of substance abuse, and the cost and benefits of alcoholism and drug abuse treatment. His first book, Control Issues in Alcohol Abuse Prevention: Strategies for States and Communities reviewed the scientific literature on alcohol policy. Dr. Holder is a leader in a systems perspective to prevention. He has written a book on this subject entitled, Alcohol and the Community: A Systems Approach to Prevention, Cambridge University Press (1997). Dr. Holder is leading a team of scientists in the development of a computer-based model of the “Community System of Alcohol Use and Abuse” for use by state and local prevention planners.

Dr. Jürgen Rehm is Director of the Social and Epidemiological Research (SER) Department at CAMH. He is also Scientist and Head of the Population Health Research Group within SER. Dr. Rehm is a Professor and Chair of Addiction Policy in the Dalla Lana School Public Health at the University of Toronto. He is also Head of the Epidemiological Research Unit, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, at the Dresden University of Technology, in Dresden, Germany. Dr. Rehm is a leader in generating and analyzing the scientific data needed to inform policy makers of strategies to reduce alcohol- and tobacco-related harm. He and his team evaluate the economic costs of substance use and abuse.

Riina Raudne is a health advocate, whose current work focuses on social norms and stigma surrounding mental health and substance use issues. She recently completed her doctoral studies at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, concentrating on health health communication and the cultural position of alcohol in Estonia. She holds a masters degree in comparative social policy from University of Oxford, and a BA in sociology from the University of Durham, UK. She is the founder of Health Estonia Foundation- a social enterprise with a mission to include the private sector employers in the conversation about stigmatised health topics in Estonia. Riina currently also coordinates the Estonian governmental commission on drugs at the Ministry of the Interior in Estonia.