Dr. Martha Waller joined PIRE in 2003 and is a Senior Program Evaluator. She received her Ph.D. in Maternal and Child Health from the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005. Dr. Waller was a Fellow in the Maternal and Child Health-Public Health Leadership Institute (MCH-PHLI). This prestigious Fellowship is a year-long leadership development program targeted to upper-level leaders in State Title V programs, family advocacy, and other organizations that work on behalf of and promote healthy families, particularly the maternal and child health populations in the US and its territories.
Dr. Waller served as lead evaluator for the New Mexico Office of Substance Abuse Prevention from 2007 to 2020, evaluating SAMHSA funded prevention programming including the SPF SIG, SPE, PFS II, PFS 2015, SPF Rx, and PDO grants and all block grant substance abuse prevention programming. She has extensive experience working with communities and state agencies to build capacity around each step of the SPF model including needs assessment, building community readiness and coalition capacity, strategic planning, program implementation, evaluation, cultural competency, and sustainability. She is currently part of the PIRE team evaluating North Dakota’s State Opioid Response (SOR) grant, the Emergency Grant to Address Mental and Substance Use Disorders During COVID-19, and the CSAT-funded Disaster Relief Emergency grant and an evaluator on CSAP’s 5-year Prevention Program Evaluation, Effectiveness and Review Services, whose goal is to conduct evaluations of five key CSAP flagship programs.
Dr. Waller also is an NIH funded researcher, having most recently conducted an NIH funded evaluation of paramedic administered buprenorphine to people who use opioids as a bridge to long-term treatment and a secondary data analysis examining the role of alcohol outlet density on drinking behaviors and intimate partner violence.
Her current research focus is on preventing opioid overdose deaths, accessing behavioral health services, and evaluating prevention programming.
Selected Projects
Alcohol Outlet Density, Alcohol Use, and Intimate Partner Violence
HIV in Young Adulthood: Pathways and Prevention
Paramedic-Administered Buprenorphine as a Bridge to Medication-Assisted Treatment