Debra Newman, PA-C, MPAS, MPH

Debra Newman serves as a treatment provider for the First Judicial District Court, Adult Drug Court, for Santa Fe and Rio Arriba Counties, New Mexico. Since 2015, she has worked in residential treatment, outpatient psychiatry, and chemical dependency in New Mexico and Colorado. Clinical settings have included a residential treatment center in Santa Fe, N.M.; a rural multi-specialty clinic in Lake County, Calif.; outpatient psychiatry/chemical dependency and treatment services at Kaiser Permanente in Denver, Colo.; and a detox/residential/extended residential facility in New Mexico. She currently serves as a consultant for the Santa Fe Recovery Center.

Debbie received her Master of Physician Assistant Science degree from the University of St. Francis in Albuquerque, N.M. She is a member of the ASAM Opioid Use Disorder Course Program Planning Committee, ASAM Criminal Justice Subgroup, and ASAM Fundamentals of Addiction Medicine Faculty, as well as the Santa Fe Prevention Alliance/Alliance Council, Santa Fe Opiate Safe (SOS), Cannabis Workgroup, and Criminal Justice Workgroup. She is currently working on a training and technical assistance video as part of the Targeted Opioid Response Grant for the State of New Mexico. She is a 2017 recipient of the PA Foundation’s NIDA Mentored Outreach Award in Substance Use Disorders Treatment Dissemination.

James Anderson, PA-C, MPAS, DFAAPA

James Anderson has been a PA since 2000. He works in Seattle at Evergreen Treatment Services, a federally approved Opioid Treatment Program. He is the current president of the Society of PAs in Addiction Medicine and is a commissioner on the Washington State Medical Commission. A graduate of the University of Washington MEDEX PA program, he holds a clinical faculty appointment with the University of Washington Department of Family Medicine. He has given presentations about addiction locally, regionally, and nationally, and has written extensively about addiction. He currently writes monthly blog posts for the Clinical Advisor publication.

Richard Bottner, PA-C

Richard Bottner is a PA in the Division of Hospital Medicine at Dell Seton Medical Center and also leads several quality- and process-improvement projects. Richard leads the B-team, a full-service consultation team that provides patients with opioid use disorder medication-assisted treatments while hospitalized and links them with appropriate outpatient care. He is an avid proponent of interprofessional collaboration and education. Richard represents Dell Medical School as a Cohort Leader in the University of Texas’ Foundations of Interprofessional Collaborative Practice course and is also representing the medical school in a national collaboration to strengthen interprofessional healthcare in oncology. He is a clinical preceptor for PA students across Texas. His primary clinical and research interests are palliative care, addiction medicine and value-based healthcare.

Michelle Gaffaney, PA-C

Michelle Gaffaney is a PA on the addiction consult/liaison service at Denver Health Medical Center. She sees patients who are hospitalized for medical conditions with co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders, and provides medication for SUD, withdrawal management, psychiatric stabilization, and referrals to treatment. She also serves as the associate director of the Behavioral Health Physician Assistant Fellowship at Denver Health Medical Center and an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Colorado. Michelle is a graduate of the University of Colorado CHA/PA program at Anschutz Medical Campus. She is originally from Minneapolis, Minn.

Joshua D. Lee, MD, MSc

Joshua D. Lee is an Associate Professor of Population Health and Medicine/General Internal Medicine and Clinical Innovation at the NYU School of Medicine and Director of the NYU Fellowship in Addiction Medicine. He is a clinician researcher focused on addiction pharmacotherapies in primary care and criminal justice populations. He has conducted multiple NIH clinical trials examining the use of naltrexone and buprenorphine opioid and alcohol treatments in community criminal justice involved adults, at release from jail, and within community primary care settings.

Matthew Probst, PA-C

Matthew Probst dedicates his life to cultivating health in his native northern New Mexico. A 2003 graduate of the University of New Mexico PA program, he serves as medical director/chief quality officer at El Centro Family Health, a rural FQHC with 27 clinics across 23,900 square miles. Matt is founding director of Semillas De Salud, a future health professional program which has provided more than 400 clinical rotations for health career students and is growing a healthier tomorrow using an expansive peer health education workforce in rural schools. He serves on the New Mexico Academy of PAs board and on the NM Health Care Workforce Committee. He volunteers as a sports medicine provider and coach for local youth. More than accolades, his greatest pride is his family. They enjoy rural living and value most faith, nature, and community.