Dr. Paul J. Gruenewald has worked as a Senior Research Scientist at Prevention Research Center (PRC), Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE), since 1987. His research interests focus upon studies of the social, economic and physical availability of alcohol, alcohol use and alcohol-related problems, evaluation methodologies appropriate to community-based preventive interventions, and geospatial analysis.
Dr. Gruenewald is the Scientific Director of PRC, a research division of PIRE that focuses upon the development of sound scientific bases for the prevention of alcohol and drug problems. He also directs the Spatial Systems Group, a coordinating center for PIRE-wide work using Geographic Information Systems, Spatial Statistical Systems, and Spatial Dynamic Models. He has been a Principal or Co-Investigator on 24 funded research projects; he is currently Principal Investigator on the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Research Center Grant ‘Environmental Approaches to Prevention’ and Co-Principal Investigator on a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to study the impacts of medical marijuana dispensaries on marijuana use, crime and related problems. He has received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) MERIT award in honor of his research achievements in studies of alcohol and violence. He recently served as a National Advisory Council member for NIAAA.
A partial list of his publications are listed on NIH’s National Library of Medicine site and a complete list on our publications page.
Selected Projects
Environmental Approaches to Prevention
Framework for Behavioral Risk Models of Alcohol Problems
Social Ecological Contexts of Heavy Drinking and Alcohol Use Disorders
Selected Publications
Gruenewald, P., LaScala, E., Ponicki, W.R. (2018). Identifying the population sources of alcohol impaired driving: An assessment of context specific drinking risks. Journal of Studies on Alcohol & Drugs, 79 (5) 702-709. DOI: 10.15288/jsad.2018.79.702
Lipton, R., Ponicki, W.R., Gruenewald, P., Gaidus, A. (2018). Space-time analysis of alcohol outlets and related motor vehicle crashes: Associations at city and census block-group levels. Alcoholism, Clinical And Experimental Research, 42 (6) 1113-1121. DOI: 10.1111/acer.13758 PMCID: PMC5984166
Ponicki, W., Henderson, J.A., Tilsen, N., Davids, S., Gaidus, A.J., Gruenewald, P., Moore, R. S., Lee, J.P. (2018). Spatial epidemiology of alcohol and drug-related health problems among Northern Plains American Indians: Nebraska and South Dakota, 2007-2012. Alcoholism - Clinical and Experimental Research, 42 (3) 578-588. DOI: 10.1111/acer.13580 PMCID: PMC5832572
Freisthler, B., Gaidus, A., Tam, C., Ponicki, W.R., Gruenewald, P.J. (2017). From medical to recreational marijuana sales: Marijuana outlets and crime in an era of changing marijuana legislation. Journal of Primary Prevention, 38 (3) 249-263. DOI: 10.1007/s10935-017-0472-9
Miller, T.R., Nygaard, P., Gaidus, A., Grube, J.W., Ponicki, W., Lawrence, B.A., Gruenewald, P.J. (2017). Heterogenous costs of alcohol and drug problems across cities and counties in California. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 41 (4) DOI: 10.111/acer.13337 PMCID: PMC4437634
