Zili Sloboda, ScD. was trained in medical sociology at New York University and in mental health and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.  Her research has focused on substance use epidemiology, services research, and the evaluation of treatment and prevention programs. Her current focus is on workforce development in the area of prevention and the relationship between training and the implementation of evidence-based prevention interventions and policies.She has served on the faculties of Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, the University of Illinois School of Public Health, and until 2009, The University of Akron. Prior to this last position, Dr. Sloboda worked for twelve years at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in several capacities, finally as the Director of the Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research. This Division’s focus was on the development and support of national research programs in HIV/AIDS epidemiology and prevention and drug abuse epidemiology and prevention and at the time had the responsibility for several large national epidemiological and treatment data systems. While at NIDA she and her staff organized the International Epidemiology Work Group and the International HIV Prevention Network. She was a founder of the U.S. and E.U. Societies for Prevention Research and is well-published in the area of drug abuse epidemiology and substance use prevention.  Her most recent contribution to the prevention science literature is from the Springer Publishers Series, Advancing the Science of Prevention. Currently in this Series are:

 

Sloboda, Z. & Petras, H. (Eds.). (2014). Defining Prevention Science.

Bosworth, L.K. (Ed.) (2015). Prevention Science in School Setting

Teasdale, B. & Bradley, M. (2017). Preventing Crime and Violence.

Sloboda, Z., Petras, H., Robertson, E.B., & Hingson, R. (Eds.) (2019). Prevention of Substance Use.

 

She has a long standing commitment to the dissemination of evidence-based programming and the advancement of Translation I and II research through work with the Society for Prevention Research (SPR), with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to develop international standards for drug use prevention based on research evidence, with the International Narcotics Control Board in developing Chapter 1 of the Board’s 2019 Report, Improving Substance Use Prevention and Treatment Services for Young People, and as an advisor to the U.S. Prevention Technology Transfer Centers.