Dr. Smith joined the Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy as a Research Associate in September of 2013. Dr. Smith has extensive research and clinical expertise in the area of physical and behavioral health. For over 15 years her work has focused on serving vulnerable populations with an emphasis on substance misuse disorders. Dr. Smith earned a BA degree in Criminology with a minor in Social Welfare Policy from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 2000. Upon completion of her undergraduate studies, she worked at the Institute for Social Research (ISR), Center for Applied Research and Analysis at UNM were she worked on a variety of projects aimed at evaluating substance abuse and criminal justice programs including the National Institute of Justice Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Project, a statewide evaluation of juvenile drug courts, and an evaluation of New Mexico drunk driving initiatives. In 2002, she left ISR to pursue her graduate education at the University of Pittsburgh were she received a Masters (2004) and Doctorate (2009) in Social Work with a specialization in Gerontology. As a result of her work on substance use disorders among geriatric populations, Dr. Smith was awarded the John A. Hartford Foundation Doctoral Fellowship (2007 – 2009) administered by the Gerontological Society of America. Dr. Smith’s doctoral thesis examined the effects of the concurrent use of alcohol and medications on the physical and mental health of community-dwelling older adults. After receiving her Doctorate, Dr. Smith was an Advanced Fellow in Mental Health Research at the Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC), VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, where she focused on research with older Veterans with comorbid substance abuse disorders. She received additional post-doctoral training in health services research as a Fellow at the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP), VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. Dr. Smith is passionate about health, research and evaluation and continues to pursue her research agenda in her current position at the Cutler Institute.

Dr. Nichols received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University at Buffalo and completed a post-graduate residency at Maine Medical Center. She is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS) and Psychiatric Pharmacist (BCPP) and a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (FCCP). She is currently enrolled in the Masters of Public Health program at UNE with a target graduation in 2022.

Dr. Nichols has 15 years of experience providing direct patient care and interprofessional teaching, and has served as a preceptor for more than 100 student and resident learners, including pharmacists and physicians.

At UNE, Dr. Nichols coordinates and teaches in the following courses: Drugs and Disease VIII: Immunomodulation and Pain; Drugs and Disease XI: Neurology (includes Alcohol Use Disorder); Abilities Lab III; Independent Research; and Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences in Acute Care and Psychiatry/Substance Use Disorders.

Dr. Nichols is passionate about reducing stigma around mental illness and addiction. She has presented to interprofessional audiences throughout the state, New England region, and across the country. In 2016 she was awarded the Cardinal Health Generations RX Champions Award for community education around nonmedical use of prescription drugs.

She has co-authored over 20 research papers, including works found in the following journals: Current Psychiatry, J of Psychopharmacology, J of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, Pain, Pharmacotherapy, and Psychosomatics.

Nationally, Dr. Nichols holds the following appointments: ICER: New England Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council and CPNP BCPP Editorial Review Board – Senior Editor.  She also serves as expert faculty for the Opioid Response Network, providing education to interprofessional audiences throughout the Northeast and funded via SAMHSA.

Outside of work, she enjoys spending time in her woods and yard with her husband, Eric, and their dogs, Sage and Basil. She also enjoys reading, gardening, watercolor painting, and visiting/learning about lighthouses.

Shawn is a graduate of the University of Maine with a BA in Sociology/Social Welfare and Husson University with an MBA. He spent 17 years at Maine DHS as a child protective worker, supervisor and regional manager before leaving to work for a private adoption agency. Since 1986, Shawn has done extensive training in various aspects of child welfare and has taught in the School of Social Work at the University of Maine. He has also delivered training across New England and travelled internationally delivering training in foster care and adoption in four cities in Russia.

He has served as the executive director of a community coalition focused on building developmental assets known to build resiliency in people, particularly young people. He is the past director of the city of Bangor’s Health and Community Services, overseeing the region’s Healthy Maine Partnership focused on primary prevention and population health initiatives.

He serves on and has played leadership roles on numerous statewide boards, including Maine Public Health Association, Maine Center for Public Health, Statewide Coordinating Council for Public Health, Maine Chidren’s Alliance, and NAMI-Maine, to name a few. As a person in long term recovery, he is a founding member of the Bangor Area Recovery Network and has spoken publicly about his own recovery as part of a strategy to put a public face on the recovery community.

He and his wife Rita are the proud parents of 7 children ages 15-32.

Dawn Williamson is an Advanced Practice Nurse for Addictions Consultation in the Emergency Department at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Ms. Williamson responds to the treatment needs of both individuals and families with addiction and mental health issues in the emergency setting. As part of her responsibilities, she provides training and supervision of the clinical staff, develops and implements policies relating to patient care, and provides assistance with establishing treatment plans.

She received a Doctorate in Nursing Practice from Regis College with a concentration in nursing leadership. She obtained a Masters in Science in Adult Mental Health Nursing from Northeastern University and a BSN from the University of Massachusetts. Dawn is Board Certified as a Clinical Specialist in Adult Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. She is also a Certified Advanced Practice Addictions Registered Nurse. With thirty years of nursing experience she has practiced in both outpatient and hospital settings prior to coming to The Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dawn has served as a preceptor to nurse practitioner students from the Institute of Health Professions, Vanderbilt University and Regis College of Nursing. She is one of two Advanced Practice Nurses appointed by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to a medical review group informing the policy and development of the State Prescription Monitoring Program.

Dr. Williamson is a member of the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) and helped author position statements for the association on Medical Evaluation of Psychiatric Patients and on Substance Use and the Emergency Care Setting. She is also an active member of the International Nurses Society on Addictions. She has given numerous presentations on addiction and mental health treatment. She authored the chapter on alcohol intoxication and withdrawal states for Sheehy’s Manual of Emergency Care, as well as, the module on substance use disorders for Mosby’s eLearning course, Handling Psychiatric Emergencies.

Dr. Albert Abena serves as the Assistant Dean for Community Partnerships at the University of New England College of Dental Medicine. Abena previously directed a community dental clinic for the Marquette University School of Dentistry for almost twenty years, and practiced general dentistry for 14 years in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the San Francisco Bay Area prior to his employment at Marquette.

Abena earned his law degree from Marquette University Law School in 2008, with a focus on healthcare law and alternative dispute resolution. Abena was a co-recipient of a Social Justice Award presented to Marquette University in 2017 by City on a Hill, a Milwaukee social service organization, for “tremendous work in engaging faculty and students in solutions to poverty and injustice.”

Leonard Brennan, DMD has practiced general dentistry in Portland, Maine for more than thirty years. He is the co-director of the Harvard University’s Dental Geriatric Fellowship Program and a clinical instructor in their Department of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology.

Through teaching and research on the relationships of oral disease to systemic disease, he strives to improve the oral health of Maine seniors. Finding reasonable solutions for health problems fuels his enthusiasm. He passionately believes that education through an interdisciplinary health care model is key to improving oral health care for all older adults.

Dr. Brennan attended Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and completed a Harvard University Geriatric Dental Research and Teaching Fellowship Program. He was recognized for his postdoctoral work at Harvard as the recipient of the Dr. James Dunning Award for excellence in biomedical research and teaching. He completed a second post-doctoral fellowship in Medicine and Palliative Care at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York and is a graduate of the American Society on Aging Leadership Institute in San Diego, California.

Dr. Brennan is guest editor for Dental Clinics of North America’s Dental Geriatric Edition and the author of the chapter “Cognitive Impairment in Older Adults.” Nationally, Dr. Brennan was a presenter on “Oral Health and Systemic Disease” at the American Society on Aging Conferences in Washington and San Diego. In 2009, he traveled to northern Haiti to begin a geriatric assessment of the population of Cap Haitien.

Since 1982, he has taught oral health for the Medical Geriatric Fellowship Program at Maine Medical Center. He has had the opportunity to teach at Harvard University Medical and Dental Geriatric Fellowship Programs, Harvard University School of Dental Medicine, the University of New England Medical School, Northern Haiti Dental Society, and at the 2013 Maine Geriatric Conference. Locally, he has been involved in many community dental and medical organizations and as a volunteer in the Dental Lifeline Network for which he was nationally recognized by CNN Money magazine with the 2014 “Hero Award” for his work with the elderly and other fragile individuals.

Nancy Foster is currently a full-time professor of dental health at the University of Maine at Augusta- Bangor campus. She teaches Community Dentistry, Periodontology as well as Oral Health for Target and Special Needs Populations courses. She also practices clinical dental hygiene part-time in Bangor at a practice limited to periodontics. Nancy has a passion for everything that promotes and advocates for oral disease prevention.

In 2014, Governor Paul LePage, appointed Nancy to the Maine Board of Dental Examiners. She enjoys serving the citizens of Maine in this capacity. She was recently nominated to the position of Treasurer/Secretary of the Maine Board of Dental Examiners. Nancy is also an active member of the Commission on Dental Competency Assessments and examines dental hygiene candidates throughout the country.

Prior to moving to Maine in 2002, Nancy worked in the non-surgical periodontal practice at The Forsyth Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Nancy also held a position as a clinical research co-investigator at Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine in Boston. She worked with both industry and governmental entities on a variety of research projects for over five years. During that time she co-authored a multitude of research articles that appeared in the Journal of Periodontology, Journal of Dental Research, Journal of Clinical Periodontology, and the Journal of Dental Hygiene. On a personal note, Nancy resides in Hampden, Maine with her husband, son, and Jack Russell Terrier.

Matthew R. Trombley MBA.HCM, MLA, NREMT, LSSBB, FACHCA is the Senior Executive Director at Island Nursing Home and Care Center in Deer Isle, Maine. Trombley has dedicated his time and energy into increasing the quality of care provided to residents within the long term care industry and is a leader in his state as the President of the Maine Chapter of the American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA). Being one of only 400 fellows of the ACHCA nationally, Trombley has received the highest designation in long term care.

Tromley has a history of being on the forefront of industry trends, becoming one of the first music and memory certified facilities in the state of Maine a practice that helps to enlighten those with Alzheimer’s and Dementia as they once were through music. Additionally, Trombley has received the Eli Pick Leadership Award multiple times, a designation only 8% of leaders receive nationally for their dedication to excellence in quality measures and operations. Trombley has experiences in various healthcare settings such as pharmacy, hospital, rehabilitative therapy, skilled nursing, residential care and long-term care. Trombley in his free time volunteers locally as a state registered firefighter and as a nationally registered emergency medical technician.

Trombley holds a master’s degree in Business Administration with a specialization in Health Care Management from Southern New Hampshire University, a dual bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine – Orono in Business Administration Management and Management Information Systems. Trombley also hold certifications as nutritional therapy practitioner, food safety, mental health first aid and lean management six sigma black belt. Trombley, a Maine native, resides in central Maine with his wife and three children.

Lenard W. Kaye is professor of social work at the University of Maine School of Social Work and director of the University of Maine Center on Aging in the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture. During the 2000-2001 academic year, he was the visiting Libra Professor in UMaine’s College of Business, Public Policy & Health. Previously, he was professor of social work and social research, and director of the Ph.D. program at the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and associate director of the Brookdale Institute on Aging & Adult Human Development at Columbia University.

Research interests
Kaye has been the principal investigator for numerous assessments of innovative community services for older adults, including projects funded by the Maine Department of Public Safety, the Maine Office of Substance Abuse, and the Maine Office of Elder Services, as well as the AARP Andrus Foundation, Pew Foundation, Families USA Foundation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Administration on Aging, John Hartford Foundation, the Brookdale Foundation, Maine Community Foundation, Maine Health Access Foundation, Philadelphia Corporation on Aging, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Office on Aging. He has published 13 books and approximately 150 journal articles and book chapters on specialized topics in aging, health care, and social work practice.

Kaye sits on the national advisory boards of the Rural Assistance Center of the Center for Rural Health, University of North Dakota and the National Advisory Panel (NAP) of the Social Work Leadership Institute (SWLI) and is a founding board member of the International Institute for Pharmaceutical Safety. He is the past president of both the New York and Maine Gerontological Societies and the past chair of the National Association of Social Worker’s Section on Aging. He received the Career Achievement Award of the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work (AGESW) in 2010 and has served as a National Research Mentor for the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Scholars Program. He sits on the editorial board of the Geriatric Care Management Journal and is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.

Education
D.S.W./Ph.D. in Social Welfare from Columbia University.

Timothy Oh is a general dentist who primarily practices in Hancock County, Maine. He is Director of the Caring Hands of Maine Dental Center in Ellsworth, a non-profit health organization he and his wife, Audree Park, DDS, founded in 2010 to promote oral health in rural Eastern Maine. The Dental Center predominantly serves MaineCare/Medicaid recipients and operates the largest extern and portable dental programs in the state. The organization hosts dental externs from the Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health [ASDOH], Tufts University School of Dental Medicine [TUSDM], University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine, and NYU College of Dentistry. Dr. Oh is faculty at TUSDM and ASDOH, and prior faculty at the University of Maine. He has lectured regularly at the University College of Bangor Dental Programs on Pediatric Dentistry, Community Health, and for their EFDA program. Dr. Oh is also a partner in M.D.I. Dental Arts, P.C., which operates dental offices in Bar Harbor and Southwest Harbor on Mt. Desert Island.

Dr. Oh currently is the 149th President of the Maine Dental Association, previously serving as Vice-President, Chairman of the Executive Board, and Chair of the Council on Government Relations. He is on an advisory committee to the ADA Board of Trustees, the Governing Council of the Maine Oral Health Coalition, and is a professional consultant to the MaineCare Dental program, and is immediate past-chair of the ASDOH Alumni Board. He holds fellowships with the American College of Dentists, the Pierre Fauchard Academy, and the International College of Dentists, and in 2012 was presented with the Maine Oral Health Hero award. Dr. Oh graduated from ASDOH in 2008, and holds a certificate in Public Health from UNC-Chapel Hill. During dental school, he served as Chair and Vice-chair of the national ADEA Council of Students, Residents, & Fellows. In his community, he has participated on the boards of Child & Family Opportunities (regional Headstart grantee), and the regional Healthy Maine Partnership, Healthy Acadia.

Graduated from University of Maine Orono, Bachelors in Biology and minor in leadership ethics Third year dental student at UNE college of dental medicine

President of Special Care Dentistry Association UNE chapter

“I am excited to have the opportunity to work with the Lunder – Dineen MOTIVATE team to spread awareness and educate health professionals on how to successfully and safely treat those who require special accommodations in their dental care. I aim to incorporate new techniques and methods to promote the importance of oral health care and a way for not only patients, but parents and caretakers to ensure dental health needs are being met.”