Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder for Pregnant Patients

Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine; The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Senior Advisor to UNC  

Horizons, joint appointments – Professor, Department of Psychology UNC-CH and Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. Executive/Division Director of UNC  

Horizons 2013-2023; Chair, Women & Substance Use Disorders Special Interest Group, American Society of Addiction Medicine and Chair, Global Women’s Treatment and Recovery Network

Dr. Jones is a licensed psychologist and an internationally recognized expert in the development and examination of both behavioral and pharmacologic treatments for pregnant women and their children in risky life situations. She was the Division Director of UNC Horizons for a decade and in May of 2023 stepped into a Senior Advisor role for Horizons in order to take on several new national policy and international policy projects. Expertscape ranks Dr. Jones as a top world expert in neonatal abstinence syndrome and opioid-related disorders. She has received continuous National Institutes of Health funding since 1994 and has written more than 250 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Jones has also authored two books, one on treating patients for substance use disorders and the other on comprehensive care for women who are pregnant and have substance use disorders. She also has written multiple textbook chapters on the topic of pregnancy and addiction as well as 17 courses for adult learners on topics of substance use disorder treatment (WISE, CHILD, PEERS, ALLIES etc). Dr. Jones has co-authored multiple national and international guidelines on the topic of caring for pregnant and post-pregnant people with substance use disorders and their children including those published by the WHO, SAMHSA and ASAM. She also co-authored both the women’s and children’s section of the UN International Standards for the Treatment of Drug Use Disorders and the UN guidelines on prevention and treatment for girls and women. In 2020 Dr. Jones won the ASAM R. Brinkley Smithers and Distinguished Scientist Award. In 2024 she won the MED Brady-Schuster Division 28 American Psychological Association award for lifetime achievement for contribution to addiction science. She consults for the UN and the WHO and is a member of the NIH’s HEAL multidisciplinary working group and the Advisory Committee on Research on Women's Health. Dr. Jones has been involved in over 43 projects around the world focused on improving the lives of children, women, and families.

Jennifer Bello Kottenstette, MD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at St. Louis University School of Medicine. She is board certified in Addiction Medicine and core faculty in St. Louis University's Addiction Medicine Fellowship. Her research interests include understanding and addressing the sexual and reproductive health needs of women and men with substance use disorders.

Larry Leeman, MD, MPH is a Professor of Family and Community Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. He is a family physician with a focus on the care of pregnant women and newborns including perinatal substance abuse issues. He is Medical Director of the Milagro Program that provides prenatal care and maternity care services to women with substance use disorder. He directs the Family Medicine Maternal and Child Health service and fellowship and co-medical director of the UNM Hospital Mother-Baby Unit and Intermediate Care Nursery units. Dr. Leeman is Board Certified in Addiction Medicine by the ABPM. Dr. Leeman received his medical degree from University of California, San Francisco and MPH from University of California Berkeley in 1988. He completed residency training in Family Medicine at UNM and obstetrics fellowship at the University of Rochester and is the Medical Editor of the AAFP Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics patient safety program. His areas of research include perinatal substance abuse, neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome and rural maternity care.  

Yngvild K. Olsen, MD, MPH, DFASAM graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1997, from the residency training program in internal medicine at Boston Medical Center in 2000, and from the Fellowship in General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 2001. Dr. Olsen also serves as the Medical Director of the Institutes for Behavior Resources Inc/REACH Health Services in Baltimore City. Dr. Olsen currently serves as Vice President of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and is a member of the Public Policy Committee. She is the Immediate Past President of the Maryland Society of Addiction Medicine, Immediate Past President of the Maryland Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence, and a Board member of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence-MD (NCADD-MD). 

Dr. Vania P. Rudolf is a family and addiction medicine physician who is providing care to pregnant and parenting women with substance use disorder. She has a background in family medicine with OB and has completed Fellowships in Integrative Medicine, Addiction Medicine and High Risk Obstetrics at Swedish Medical Center. She has earned public health training at the UW. Dr. Rudolf continues to be a compassionate advocate for improving kind non-judgmental services and removing barriers to care. Providing compassionate trauma-responsive care to vulnerable birthing people, babies and families is the primary focus of her practice in addition to clinical research related to provider education, clinical outcomes for substance use disorder, transition to MOUD and prescribing policies to optimize safe and adequate postpartum analgesia management.

She is part of the Addiction Recovery Services at Swedish Medical Center, an assistant professor at University of Washington, Seattle, WA and the Chair for the National Womens' Addiction Group related to the American Society of Addiction Medicine. She serves on the maternal mortality review board for the state of Washington and has many years as a practicing clinician.

Dr. Edwin A. Salsitz has been an attending physician in the Mount Sinai Beth Israel , Division of Chemical Dependency, New York City, since 1983, and is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He is the principal investigator of the Methadone Medical Maintenance (office-based methadone maintenance) research project. Dr. Salsitz is certified in Addiction Medicine by the American Board of Preventive Medicine, as well as by the Board of Internal Medicine and Pulmonary Disease. He has published and lectures frequently on addiction medicine topics.

Dr. Salsitz is a course director for ASAM sponsored Buprenorphine and REMS Opioid trainings, and is a lead mentor in the PCSS-MAT mentoring program. He has co-chaired the ASAM Review Course, the ASAM Common Threads Course, the ASAM State of the Art course and is a reviewer for the Journal of Addiction Medicine and Drug and Alcohol Dependence. He is the chair of the ASAM REMS course on safe and effective prescribing of opioids. Dr. Salsitz was the Co-chair of the ASAM CME committee and Chair of the New York Society of Addiction Medicine CME and Education committee.

Dr. Salsitz is a member of the medical advisory panel, for the New York State Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services.
Dr. Salsitz is the recipient of the 2014 ASAM Annual Award, and the 2018 ASAM Annual Educator of the Year Award.

Mishka Terplan, MD, MPH, FACOG, FASAM is board certified in both obstetrics and gynecology and in addiction medicine. His clinical, research and advocacy interests lie along the intersection of reproductive and behavioral health. He attended medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, Residency at the University of Southern California, and completed a research fellowship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He was previously a Professor in both Obstetrics and Gynecology and Psychiatry and the Associate Director of Addiction Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is currently the Associate Medical Director of Friends Research Institute and he is a clinician for the National Clinician Consultation Center Substance Use Warmline. He additionally serves as Deputy Chief Clinical Officer for the Department of Behavioral Health, Washington DC. He is the Addiction Medicine Consultant for DMAS (Department of Medicaid Services, VA) and a consultant for the National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare. Dr. Terplan has active grant funding and has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles with recent emphasis on health disparities, stigma, and women’s access to treatment. He has spoken before the United States Congress and has participated in expert panels at CDC, SAMHSA, ONDCP and NIH primarily on issues related to gender and addiction.

Matt Tierney, APRN is a Nurse Practitioner and a Clinical Professor at the UCSF School of Nursing. He also serves as Clinical Director of Substance Use Treatment and Education for the Office of Population Health at UCSF Health. The focus of his career has been on improving essential addiction treatment delivery locally, regionally, and nationally. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, where he serves on the Expert Panel on Psychiatric-Mental Health and Substance Use. Matt is also President-Elect of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association and represents APNA as a sponsoring member of the National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine's Forum of Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders. He is an ASAM member who has been teaching waiver training courses since 2008. He has treated over 1,600 patients with buprenorphine and has worked in licensed Opiate Treatment programs providing all three FDA-approved medications for OUD treatment.