Mark Wolfson is Professor in the Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy at Wake Forest School of Medicine. He has many years of experience in conducting research on substance abuse among youth and young adults, with a particular interest in the role of community-based environmental strategies in prevention. His current research projects include a 7-state, 24 community study of community-driven strategies to prevent underage drinking parties (funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism); an evaluation of North Carolina’s substance abuse prevention system (funded by the NC Department of Health and Human Services); a collaborative study with the University of Kentucky seeking to improve messages promoting organized disposal of prescription drugs (funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences); and the North Carolina Behavioral Health Disparities Initiative (funded by the NC Department of Health and Human Services). He also collaborates on a longitudinal study of tobacco use among young adults and on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – Wake Forest School of Medicine Center for Regulatory Research on Tobacco Communication (both funded by the National Cancer Institute).
Dr. Wolfson and Dr. Michael Nader (Professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology) co-direct the recently established Center for Research on Substance Use and Addiction at Wake Forest School of Medicine.
Dr. Wolfson has authored or coauthored over 100 articles in the peer-reviewed literature, as well as numerous reports, editorials, and book chapters, and one book (The Fight Against Big Tobacco: The Movement, the State, and the Public’s Health). Recognition and awards include the Mid-Career Investigator in Clinical Sciences Award from Wake Forest School of Medicine, Recognition Award from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Award for Excellence from the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and National Rural Institute on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. Dr. Wolfson received his Ph.D. in sociology from the Catholic University of America and completed post-doctoral training at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley.