Since 2002, Brenda A. Miller, Ph.D., has been conducting research as a Senior Research Scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation at the Prevention Research Center (PRC) in California. She is currently funded by National Institute of Drug Abuse and National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, at the National Institutes of Health, as the Principal Investigator to conduct the following research studies:
- Prevention of Young Adult Drug Use in Club Settings (R01DA018770)—which focuses on the development, implementation, and testing of environmental strategies to reduce drug use and increase safety in night clubs that attract young adults;
- Web-based Family Prevention of Alcohol and Risky Sex for Older Teens (R01AA020977)— which is an interactive family based approach for engaging older teens and their parents to improve communication and to develop safety strategies around these types of high risk behaviors.
She has engaged in research studies in Thailand, India, and Brazil that focus on family-based strategies to reduce adolescent use of alcohol and drugs, and risky sex. She is also serving as the Chair of the Society for Prevention Research’s (SPR), International Task Force. This task force organizes the yearly International Networking Forum at the SPR Annual Meetings, collaborates with external organizations to improve networking and communication among international colleagues interested in prevention science, and actively identifies opportunities for supporting the research to practice to policy nexus with scientifically based findings and research. She actively participates as a mentor in the PRC post-doctoral program. She has published extensively in these areas of research.
Prior work has also included studies on violence and victimization, drinking and driving, and crime/social justice, environmental strategies and group-based prevention efforts Prior to 2002, She was the Janet B. Wattles Endowed Professor and Director of the Center for Research on Urban Social Work Practice at the University at Buffalo (1998-2002). From 1996-1998, she served in as Director at the Research Institute on Addictions in Buffalo, New York, where she was also was also Deputy Director (1988-1998) and Senior Scientist (1981-1998). She is a member of the American Society of Criminology, the Prevention Research Society, and the Research Society on Alcoholism. She received her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the University of Albany.
Dr. Miller’s publications are listed on NIH’s National Library of Medicine site and on our publications page as well.
Selected Projects
Group-based Intervention for Alcohol, Drugs and Aggression among Club Patrons
Selected Publications
Byrnes, H., Miller, B.A., Grube, J., Bourdeau, B, Buller, D.B., Wang-Schweig, M., Woodall, W.G. (2019). Prevention of alcohol use in older teens: A randomized trial of an online family prevention program. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 33 (1) 1-14. DOI: 10.1037/adb0000442 PMCID: PMC6367039
Wang-Schweig, M., Miller, B. (2018). Examining the interdependence of parent-adolescent acculturation gaps on acculturation-based conflict: Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model. Journal of Youth and Adolescence DOI: 10.1007/s10964-018-0948-9
Bourdeau, Beth, Miller, Brenda A., Voas, Robert B., Johnson, Mark B., Byrnes, Hilary F. (2017). Social drinking groups and risk experience in nightclubs: Latent class analysis. Health, Risk & Society, 19 316-335. DOI: 10.1080/13698575.2017.1393048
Byrnes, Hilary F., Miller, Brenda A., Bourdeau, Beth, Johnson, Mark B., Voas, Robert B. (2016). Drinking group characteristics related to willingness to engage in protective behaviors with the group at nightclubs. Psychology Of Addictive Behaviors: Journal Of The Society Of Psychologists In Addictive Behaviors, 30 (2) 168-174. DOI: 10.1037/adb0000142 PMCID: PMC4804357
