Paul Warren,
LMSW

Training and
TA Coordinator



Paul Warren is the Deputy Executive Director of NDRI-USA and Co-Director of the Northeast & Caribbean Addiction Technology Transfer Center (NeC-ATTC). During his 26-year career in public health education he has written and facilitated curricula on a wide range of topics and evidence-based practices, as well as developed training and technical assistance programs to support implementation of these practices. Mr. Warren has developed face-to-face and web-based educational interventions on Motivational Interviewing (MI) and is a member of the Pittsburgh MI Collaborative. He has advanced training and technical assistance that is focused on MI practice sustainability, which includes building MI supervisory capacity and MI congruent supervision. He is an adjunct professor at Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. Prior he was the Clinical Coordinator of Group Services for people living with HIV/AIDS. He obtained his MSW specializing in group work from Hunter College School of Social Work.

Edgar Vargas,
MPH, MSW

Program
Manager



Edgar Vargas, is a Program Manager at NDRI-USA, where he works to establish partnerships with community based organizations, develop and adapt training to improve adoption of evidence-based practices including Motivational Interviewing (MI) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), provide technical assistance to help improve implementation of these evidence-based practices, and conduct evaluation activities. Edgar’s work has broadly focused on improving health outcomes for marginalized communities. For a number of years, Edgar has facilitated training on a range of topics, including harm reduction practices and LGBTQ inclusivity in the healthcare setting. He has experience providing direct clinical care to people with substance use disorders using evidence-based interventions such as MI and CBT. Additionally, he has managed a number of client-facing programs, including HIV and HCV testing programs and public health research studies. Edgar holds both an MPH and MSW from Columbia University.

Shelley Scheffler
PhD, LCSW-R

Program
Manager



Shelley Scheffler is a Program Manager at NDRI-USA. Shelley has dedicated her career to promoting innovative practices that advocate wellness and recovery from substance use and mental health disorders. In her varying roles as administrator, supervisor, clinician, and teacher/trainer, she has worked to incorporate best and promising practices into organizational settings, program design, staff development, and clinical practice. Her history includes directing Social Services in the first NYC residential treatment program established for substance users with HIV/AIDS, implementing a grant funded program at the NYU School of Social Work to treat women with co-occurring mental health and substance use problems in a homeless shelter, and administering multiple treatment programs for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) including a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant to serve individuals with substance use disorders in the county jail.

Recently, Shelley worked as the Vice President of Practice Innovations at the Services for the UnderServed where she: 1) initiated and guided participation in the SAMHSA learning collaborative to integrate primary care into substance use treatment, 2) led the system wide Trauma Informed Care Project, which included a Zero Suicide Initiative; and 3) participated in the OASAS Residential Redesign Committee. A dynamic trainer, Shelley has designed curriculum and conducted training workshops for Trauma-Informed Care, Motivational Interviewing, Co-Occurring Disorders, DSM-5, Professional Ethics, and SBIRT. She has taught at the NYU Silver School of Social Work, the Simmons School of Social Work and the Fordham University CASAC Program. She has her Masters from the Silverman School of Social Work, and her Doctorate from the NYU School of Social Work. She is also a practicing licensed clinical social worker in New York and New Jersey.

Kim-Monique Johnson
MSW

Program
Manager



Kim-Monique Johnson is a Program Manager at NDRI-USA. With over twenty-five years of healthcare and non-profit experience, Kim-Monique uses her training, group facilitation, and organizational development expertise to help organizations manage change and foster professional development for program staff. As a certified human resources professional, Kim-Monique guides organizations with coaching and performance feedback best practices to support staff and leadership growth. She has delivered training and written curricula for community-based organizations, drug treatment programs, health care corporations, criminal justice institutions, hospitals, and government agencies. She was instrumental in developing the flagship curriculum and served as the lead trainer for the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance, Cultural Proficiency in Drug Court Practice.

Kim-Monique specializes in providing training and technical assistance on Motivational Interviewing (MI) using a cultural competence framework. She created an African-Centered MI training and culturally relevant MI materials for enhanced PreP HIV prevention training for communities of color. Kim-Monique earned a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from The Johns Hopkins University and a master of social work degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook where she completed the following thesis: "Addressing the Black Identity Issues of African-American Women in Drug Treatment: A Model of Cultural Competence for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment." When partnering with Kim-Monique, staff are supported in using evidenced-based interventions for achieving positive client outcomes.

Jennifer Rogers
BA

Administrative Assistant/
Research Assistant



Jennifer Rogers is an Administrative Assistant/Research Assistant for the Training and Practice Implementation Institute(TPII) at NDRI-USA. She received her B.A. in Anthropology from Montclair State University. During her time as an undergrad she was involved in several projects, covering a variety of topics including pregnancy prevention and how disability affects food accessibility. Through these projects, she has gained experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection, coding, and analysis.

Lloyd Goldsamt
PhD

Lead
Evaluator



Lloyd A. Goldsamt is a Senior Research Scientist at the New York University College of Nursing and an Adjunct Professor in NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. Lloyd is also the Lead Evaluator for NDRI-USA’s Training and Practice Implementation Institute (TPII). He has conducted NIH-funded research and community-based evaluations for the past 20 years. His primary research area is HIV and STI prevention among high-risk youth populations, including men who have sex with men, male sex workers and injection drug users.

He is currently the Principal Investigator on a NIDA/PEPFAR-funded study developing and implementing a sexual health promotion intervention for young male sex workers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Dr. Goldsamt has conducted training and program evaluations locally and nationally, focusing on drug courts and community-based organizations to prevent HIV and drug abuse. He is currently the Evaluator for the Brooklyn Treatment Court and an evaluator on an Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention project developing nationwide Juvenile Drug Court Learning Collaboratives. Lloyd is also on the faculty of the Fordham University HIV and Drug Abuse Prevention Research Ethics Training Institute and a licensed clinical psychologist in New York State.