Cynthia L. Arfken, PhD

Cynthia L. Arfken, PhD, Vice-Chair

Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. She received her PhD in chronic disease epidemiology from Yale University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in alcohol research from the University of California in Berkeley. Before moving to Wayne State University, she was on the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis, in the division of Biostatistics and then in the Center for Health Behavior Research (Internal Medicine).

Her research expertise is on alcohol and drug abuse epidemiology and health services research. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and been the Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on multiple NIH and foundation grants. As an epidemiologist, she was selected to monitor trends in drug use for the Detroit metropolitan area as part of a national sentinel system (Community Epidemiology Work Group) on the emergence of new drugs, new methods of administration, and new use by demographic groups. Locally, she has been active in the Detroit Wayne County Drug Surveillance Group since its formation.