Assistant Professor
Rutgers University School of Social Work

Dr. Qiana L. Brown is an assistant professor at the Rutgers University School of Social Work, where she directs the Substance Use Research, Evaluation, and Maternal and Child Health (SURE MatCH) Group at the School of Social Work’s Center for Prevention Science. Dr. Brown is an epidemiologist, translational scientist and advanced generalist licensed certified social worker. From a health equity lens, her research focuses on system-level change to improve maternal and child health, centering on preventing prenatal substance use and examining the role of the built and social environments and health and social policy in shaping substance use and other health outcomes among women, youth and families. Dr. Brown’s peer-reviewed research has been published in top-tier international public health and medical journals, including JAMA. She is an associate editor for the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research and a member of the editorial boards of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Substance Use and Misuse and the Journal of Substance Use. In 2019, Dr. Brown was named one of the Society for the Study of Addiction’s “Women of Future Influence in Addiction Science.” Additionally, she is a member of the Board of Directors for the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. Before joining Rutgers, Dr. Brown earned her PhD in mental health and drug dependence epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in substance abuse epidemiology at Columbia University. She also founded and directed a non-profit, community-based substance use disorder treatment center, Jane’s House of Inspiration.